Artículo sobre mí (en español): https://mundo.sputniknews.com/rusia/201612311065966730-noruega-spitzbergen-guia-ruso/

Videos about me:
https://vimeo.com/190547552 -- in English
http://programma.vara.nl/floortje/media/349465 -- in Dutch/English

My Facebook: www.facebook.com/Fennoscandian
My Instagram: www.instagram.com/fennoscandian/

I'm Russian! Every day when walking my bear I wear valenki or lapti, drink vodka and play balalaika -- that's what people imagine to themselves when I say I'm Russian. Stereotypes, you know...

In fact, you will be surprised, but I do not drink any alcohol at all. Don't worry, I'm not a hypocrite so I don't mind if people around me do drink.

So. My name is Alexander Romanovskiy, but everybody knows me as Sasha, because Sasha is the brief form of Alexander in Russian speaking countries.

There was a time when I was living in Saint-Petersburg and trying to make a scientific career, but one day I just woke up and I knew that my life needs to be changed completely. So I stopped working on my PhD thesis, quit from the university, packed my bag and left for China. That's how my first big and serious journey started. I had no money to buy a plane ticket, so I hitch-hiked. Still hitch-hiking is my favorite way of travelling. After China there was Middle East, Scandinavia, South America, The Arcitic, Antarctica... and I believe this is far not the end.

The society dictates the rules of how to live. My idea is that not everyone is suitable for following these templates, you know. Geographical science is cool, I love and respect it, but I don't think I would be happy to still be doing it.

"Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years." (c) Nikolay Ostrovskiy

In February 2012 I found myself on Svalbard -- a beautiful and unique archipelago in the Arctic Ocean and got stuck there for five long years working as the keeper of a Soviet ghost town named Pyramiden.

Now I work as a naturalist guide on expedition cruise ships in the Polar regions of the World. It's a freelance seasonal job, so I'm not busy all year round.

I'm a pretty quiet person, so I don't like big parties, but sometimes I gladly participate.

I am Russian Orthodox Christian, but I highly respect people of other religions.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Looks like it's the third time I'm correcting this article, ha-ha!

Long time ago, when this site was not yet couchsurfing.com, but couchsurfing.org, I decided to, let's say, make a number of changes in my life. I stopped working on my PhD thesis, quit from the University and became a traveller, because it was travelling what I've been dreaming of since the early childhood. Don't remember how did I get acquainted with Couchsurfing, but I definitely do remember my first surfing experience, it was in Kyrgyzstan. (Thanks, Pradyuman Rawat!)

I'm a traveller, not a tourist, so the main idea of all my journeys is to get acquainted with an ordinary life of local people, that's why Couchsurfing is the best option for me to do it.

Yes, mostly I surf, because currently I don't have any single square inch of real estate in my private property, but I'd love to host people as well. Hopefully soon the situation will change.

I also like to visit CS meetings in different cities. Once I even joined a friendly company of couchsurfers for the New Year party. (Thanks, Valery Rozo!)

UPDATE: Actually, when living in the ghost town of Pyramiden on Svalbard and working there as the keeper (from 2012 to 2017), I was hosting travellers from time to time, but I was asking them not to write me any references, because I was not allowed to host people by my superiors. Now when I quit and no longer live there there's no reason to conceal this anymore.

Interests

I'm obsessed with an idea of a long term transcontinental bicycle journey, maybe even around the World. I really want to do it and I bet I will!

I'm not a professional photographer, but I do like wildlife and landscape photography. Check out my Instagram: www.instagram.com/fennoscandian/

I like mountains and would like to settle down somewhere in a place like El Chalten or San Carlos de Bariloche.

I admire people who can speak many languages. I'm also trying to learn, but it goes sloooowly.

• education
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• surfing
• teaching
• geography
• religion
• tourism
• hitchhiking
• mountains
• travelling
• trekking
• patagonia
• bicycle
• antarctica
• polar regions
• the arctic
• svalbard

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies with Johnny Depp.

Books - Dostoevskiy, Stogoff, Pushkin.

Music... Well, I really like music and always regret I'm not a musician. I prefer serious and melancholic music of different genres: from doom and death metal to new age and ambient. My favorite bands and musicians are Lacrimosa, Devin Townsend, Queen. I also like Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Melanie Martinez.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In 2011 I stopped smoking after many years of being a smoker. Yeeeeah!!!

I spent five years in a soviet ghost town of Pyramiden -- the second northernmost civilian settlement in the World. There is no Internet, no TV, no radio, no telephone, no cellphone network there. To catch a signal it needs to do climbing up the hill. Well, I was staying there not all year round, but 8 to 9 months a year definitely. Greatest place ever. My best life experience so far.

Once I saw a sleeping Humpback whale in Paradise Bay, Antarctica. He was really sleeping!

A few years ago I hitch-hiked and then just hiked alone to cape Nordkinn (Kinnarodden) - TRUE northernmost point of mainland Europe. Yes, it was rather dangerous and sometimes even frightening, but I did it!

I did the same about cape Froward -- the southernmost mainland point of South American continent.

And many more things...

Teach, Learn, Share

Please don't ask me to teach you Russian obscene words, OK? Ha-ha!

I'd like to learn Spanish.

I can share food and a place in my tent with you if you are cold, hungry and have no place to sleep.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'll gladly share all the knowledge and information about the places I have been.

Countries I’ve Visited

Antarctica, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Estonia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation, Svalbard and Jan Mayen

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