CURRENT MISSION

I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my home land

ABOUT ME

I was born and raised in a small village in the south of Germany near the border to Austria.
With only 17 years I became quite interested in other countries, cultures and languages (I taught myself romanian and russian).

When 18 years old I traveled for the first time alone to Romania and was immediately infected by the "travelling bug". From there on, whenever I had some holidays I used the time to explore some of the many corners and edges of this world.
At one moment, somewhere between Moldova, Ukraine and Russia I then had this idea about keeping travelling and not to return anymore. So, I returned to Germany, put everything in my backpack that I considered necessary for such an adventure, emptied all my bank accounts and then embarked on a plane to Mexico, the idea being travelling all the way from Mexico to Argentine.

After some really extensive travelling and making new experiences I finally arrived to Tierra de fuego - the end of the world! Now I am back to Mexico, where I am currently living and teaching (German and English) in Cuernavaca.

Anyways, feel free to ask me whatever you want about my journey, experiences in certain countries, tips, advises, etc. I`d be more than happy to share :)

I`d describe myself as a nice, friendly, honest and very curious person. I can get along with quite a lot of different types of personalities and - as long as you don`t try to force yourself upon me - don`t care about other people`s religion, eating habits, political views, sexual orientation, their favorite colour, which hand they use to write or whether they prefer the Beatles or the Rolling Stones :)

I consider myself as a traveler and do consider it an insult if people call me "tourist". I am not travelling across the world because I have too much money and time and don`t know what to do with them, but instead I do consider travelling as a way of life and an unique opportunity to get to know the world and its inhabitants

PHILOSOPHY

Enjoy life and always try to make the best out of it.
You only have this one life, so don`t waste even not a single day. Don`t be sad, life is to precious to let sadness get you down.

To travel I was born
To explore the world I have sworn
traveler´s heart, restless feet
Until my destiny I shall meet

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am travelling quite a lot, so sooner or later I`ll want to ask you for a shelter ;)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So far I have only been surfing, met a lot of wonderful and amazing people and - with some few exceptions - made a lot of super positive experiences. I try to be as respectful as possible, therefore if there are any special "house rules" or anything like that, please let me know BEFORE we meet in order to avoid problems :)

One of my weak points is that I write quite crappy couch requests. I am not really very good at it, though I do avoid writing infamous "copy-paste" messages. Please don`t get scared and don`t judge me alone by a couch request you might have received from me, but also take the time to read my profile and references. I hope that`ll convince you of pardoning me my crappy couch request :D ;)

Interests

travelling, languages, music, reading, cycling, swimming, hicking, nature,

for those who don't know yet: I do NOT like beer :P (Update: This has kind a changed a bit, in the way that I discovered that there are actually some dark beers which are quite good. Still, beer is not my favorite beverage)

Instead I prefer a glass of good wine. I am really into wine and am always up to discovering new flavors.
Also, I am not into discos and clubs with loud music. I really do enjoy bars with a nice and calm ambience.

• animals
• concerts
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• walking
• drinking
• motor boating
• boating
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• surfing
• rock climbing
• swimming
• languages
• religion
• parks
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music is like a drug for me - I couldn`t life without it. There are only fiew hours a day where I do not listen to music.
I also play the piano, but since i am travelling it is a bit difficult to practice. So if you are hosting me and happen to have a piano and let me use it, i'll do just anything for you.
I listen to quite all types of music from classical to metal there is everything involved. The only thing I don`t like are Rap, Hip Hop and Corazon Serrano.

As for movies and books I like science, comedy, horror, sci-fi or fantasy

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spending a night in Tatacoa desert, watching the stars and enjoying complete silence!

Travelling from Panama to Colombia by SEA:
I spent two days on one of the several islands inhabitated by the Kuna people in San Blas, Panama, took afterwards a 8 h lasting boat trip (no, not one of those big ferries, but one of those small motor boats ...!) to Puerto Obaldia near the border to Colombia, a small city full of cubans waiting to continue somehow their fateful journey to the US, the walls of the "hostel" where I spent the night, covered in written testimonies of those emigrants who passed by, telling their stories, giving tips to other fellow ones or simply expressing their despair. The next day another 30 minutes lasting boat trip to Capurgana on the colombian side, inmigration process and once more 2 hours by boat to Turbo and afterwards a 10 h lasting bus trip to Medellin, arriving finally there with incredible back pain and the knowledge of having crossed the panamenian-colombian border probably the most adventurous (and cheapest) way possible. (if anybody wants to do the same trip, feel free to ask me for information :))

Hicking, climbing, jumping and crossing rivers for 3 days (alone!) in the jungle in Corcovado National Park in the South of Costa Rica. I had the amazing possibility to see animals, plants and landscapes which you`d usually only see in a documentation. Though afterwards my legs hurt a lot and I had my entire body covered with mosquito bites, it was definitely worth the trouble :)

Travelling from Constanta, Romania, through Moldova, Ukraine and Russia to St. Petersburg. I thus travelled altogether around 10.000km through East Europe, by plaine, train, bus, hitchhicking and walking, met a lot of awsome people (and some idiots as well), I was burnt by the sun, got stung by a bee, became quite ill while being in Samara, lost and refound my luggage, destroyed the DVD drive of my laptop, a bench in Iasi, the shower doors and a plug of the Youth
hostel in Chisinau, lost my umbrella in Dnipropetrovsk (carried away by the wind .... ) , missed my flight from Samara to St. Petersburg and instead had the "pleasure" of a 1 day and 16 h lasting train ride + the cleaning staff of the train station in Samara became quite angry at me after accidentally emptying a bottle of coke not into my mouth but all over the freshly cleaned floor; I impressed nearly the entire Romania with my romanian language skills, and even more people by the fact that I don`t drink beer, managed not to get too lost by confusing and not very logical romanian street naming ( i think it is sufficient if I mention Iasi here), was stared at and asked a lot of surprised questions when crossing moldavian and ukrainian borders (seems like those are not being crossed very often by germans by hitchhicking/bus) and surprised myself by my own russian/ukrainian understanding skills when trying to orientate in Dnipropetrovsk (by the way, is there any short version for that name?!?). I was having quite a lot of fun at Vama Veche at the Black sea, was hicking and cycling in the mountains around Brasov, was hitchhicking through romania and Moldova, enjoyed the countryside around Bacau, sharpened my skills of orientation in Iasi (and tried some very good wine), met Angela Merkel in Chisinau, was being interviewed by moldavian reporters and enjoyed traditional moldavian folk musik at an amazing open air concert, I resisted rain and wind in Dnipropetrovsk (again this looong name!), visited in just one day nearly everything that there is to see in Kiev (my legs hurt quite a lot though) and had some very funny and interesting evenings in St. Petersburg. :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I fulfill quite the stereotype of men not being able to cook, so unforunately I won`t be able to cook german dishes for you :( (I once even managed to set myself on fire when trying to lighten a gas oven ... so maybe better if I wash the dishes jejeje ;)) HOWEVER, I will gladly help cooking if you tell me precisely what and how to do it. If you are very adventurous and love taking risks, we might also search some german recipes in the internet and try together to prepare them. But be warned I won`t take any responsibility for the outcome ....

Since I speak 5 languages I might be able to teach you some words in one or more of them.

Since I have already seen quite a bit of Europe and Latinamerica (as for America, I virtually know the entire continent! From Mexico to Chile/Argentina) I can also surely tell you about my adventures there, if you want to hear them :) It would be nice, if you could also tell me something about your trips and adventures :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Germany, Guatemala, Peru, United States