CURRENT MISSION

Travelling the world before settling down

ABOUT ME

Grew up in a little town famous for its Gazelle bicycle factory, hockey team, steam train and the gateway to one of the largest national parks in the Netherlands. I went to university town Utrecht and worked 4 jobs to save money for a big trip as a reward for getting my degree. First time overseas, I traveled solo, worked in a hostel in Santiago (Chile) and traveled through South America for 6 months. Fell in love with Argentina, but I ran out of money and went home to save more cash to go traveling again. Yes indeed… I had caught the travel bug. A year later I was on the road again, this time I went to South East Asia and Australia. After two working holiday visas I got a job opportunity with sponsorship in Melbourne I couldn't resist! So for the last 5 years of my life I have been living in Melbourne and fell in love with an Aussie guy (Aaron) who has traveled a lot just like me. We decided to go on a mini-retirement before settling down.

PHILOSOPHY

Why wait with travelling till you're retired if you can't even climb a mountain and have to pay off a mortgage and kids education?! Most people we know looked shocked when we said we quit our jobs to do this, but honestly, I think most people are scared of leaving everything behind. I truly am a career junky but also enjoy life, meeting new people experiencing new cultures. Most of our good friends are people we met travelling

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I haven't been active on couch surfing for a long time, but after my first trip I realised how great it is to know locals as they can tell you all the ins and outs of a place. I have hosted a handful of surfers in the Netherlands via couch surfing but in Melbourne we hosted mainly for friends of friends.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My experience as a surfer has been amazing! I surfed 3 times back in 2008 so its been a while and I'm still very new to this. It wasn't until a few people we met at the start of this trip mentioned they were couch surfing nearly everywhere so we thought we would get amongst it. My experience as a host has been mixed, most experiences have been great and people I met have been incredibly nice. I did have one bad surfer who I met in Chile she just sat around in the apartment all day (which is the opposite of what we are like). She didn't even clean her mess nor thanked me for cooking her a welcome meal, no common courtesy at all (which is again the opposite of how I work).

Interests

Travel, food, music, (war) history, horseback riding, doing exciting outdoor things like rafting, zip lining, sand boarding etc.

• education
• dining
• cooking
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• outdoor activities
• equestrian
• backpacking
• surfing
• zip-line
• hockey
• teaching
• history
• languages
• parks

Music, Movies, and Books

How I met your mother, Suits, House of Lies, Breaking Bad (yes TV series junky!! but only during long bus rides or lazy sundays). Foo Fighters, Passenger, Paramore, Green Day, Queens of Stoneage, Dallas Frasca, there are too many bands to mention here. Memories of Geisha, Prisoner of Tehran, Touching Void really most biographies / non-fiction.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Positive - Travelled solo around South America for 6 month / Went Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua and got the women's record of 66km

Negative - Got kidnaped in Bolivia and survived / Got robbed in Peru but still managed to continue my trip and enjoy Peru

Teach, Learn, Share

We love cooking (especially a typical Australian roast lamb). Aaron plays guitar and is travelling with his so called backpacker guitar. I can speak a few languages and happy to teach you some basics (Dutch, English, Spanish).

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Fiji, France, Germany, Guatemala, Indonesia, Laos, Luxembourg, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Chile, Netherlands