After working for 2 years as a mechanical engineer in big corporations, I decided it wasn't for me, but since I didn't know yet what i would do instead I figured I should take the time to follow some of my dreams. One of them was to go live on a sailboat for a while, and I guess I loved it. in the end I stayed for 6 months on a small 35ft boat before heading off to another dream destination, New Zealand. For some time already I had in mind that I would work a couple of years before leaving everything behind and go to New Zealand on a Working Holiday Visa, so that’s what I did for another 8 months, now I’m back in Belgium trying to figure out what to do with my life. I seem to be switching between living in an eco village or find a more technical job either in Belgium or Sweden.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When I'm traveling I enjoy a lot meeting with locals, interacting with them and getting their view on the place you're at is usually quite interesting, and maybe quite different from the tourist perspective.
I started out as a hitchhiker, meeting lots of people on my way, but each time I got into a city, I would be dragged more into the tourist side of it, which is kind of sad sometimes, and I think that that's where couchsurfing comes in nicely.

Interests

Hitchhiking is on my opinion a great way to get to know the local people. Each time you get in someone’s car you get a little window into their lives, and they can bring you to places you would never have gone otherwise. Without hitchhiking it would never have taken me 11000 miles to cross te USA from Seattle to New-York, but I would have missed out on so many cool places. I guess couchsurfing is in a certain way the same for me, but it gives you a better idea about one place instead of many places.

• cooking
• reading
• traveling
• hiking
• sailing
• rock climbing
• languages
• hitchhiking
• adventures
• outdoors
• tramping

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I jumped on a small sailing boat of someone I didn’t know and not knowing anything about sailing just because I had some idea of trying out the life aboard a sailboat. In the end I stayed for 6 months, logging more than 7500 nautical miles and going from the Caribbean to the Cook Islands. I even wished I could have stayed on for a longer time, sadly the change in crew was already long time planned.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love languages and figuring out connections between them. If I can speak several languages in one day I really get happy.
Cooking is something else I love to do and to learn from and show to others. I think it’s great to try out new dishes and food is usually also something very specific to a culture.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Canada, Colombia, Cook Islands, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, United States