CURRENT MISSION

I have to choose just one?

ABOUT ME

Hmm. . .always have trouble squeezing myself into these little tiny boxes of text. I blame my large hips.

Nomadic since the summer of 2007, my wandering has thus far brought me to somewhere between 25 and 30 countries, depending on your politics.

I had wanderlust for years but never got around to indulging it until leaving the summer of 2007. I traveled for the two years that followed, mostly working in Ireland (Republic of). During that length of time, my idea of travel and what it was changed drastically. I attempted to move back to Canada September 2009 and found my itchy feet weren't ready for stability. In May, I uprooted again to move to Germany. . . and have continued moving ever since.

Most recently, I was working on a cattle station in Northern Queensland, where my childhood dream of learning to ride a horse 'fast' was finally realised. I have just returned to Melbourne, and am eager to move on to my newest life goal: to step into the cage for a pro MMA fight.

In addition to CS, you can find me on the internets on such fine websites as Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadtoithaca/), Twitter (@IamKrysC) and the Facebooks (Krys C Wanders), as well as on Wordpress, where I keep a travel(ish) blog entitled 'œOn the Road to Ithaca' (http://roadtoithaca.com/).

It has nothing to do with Greece.

PHILOSOPHY

'Desiderata' sums it up better than I ever could.
Or maybe Vonnegut - "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I answer all messages sent my way. When I'm able, I offer my couch to other surfers. When I can afford to, I take strangers from the street out to lunch. Or, when they don't want to follow a random person, buy them smoothies.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've been fortunate beyond measure to have been hosted by/met so many amazing people in a wide variety of countries and cultures. Because I didn't join Couchsurfing until after I'd become nomadic, I've only had a few chances to host people myself, though I put my couch up whenever I have one.
I can't begin to imagine how different my experience with travelling would have been without CS.

Interests

I am interested in many things. That includes, but is not limited to: motorcycling, bicycling, random moments of greatness you didn't see coming, chance encounters, travel, conversation, alternative lifestyles, reading, writing, dancing, music of many different genres, scuba diving, MMA, global consciousness, hiking, rock climbing, scotch, graffiti, sex positivity and gender equality, equality in general, wit, humour, debate, freedom of choice and bunnies.

• writing
• dancing
• education
• walking
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• blogging
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• scuba diving
• boxing
• rock climbing
• teaching
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

This list could get out of control real damn fast. To avoid that, I'll limit it to a few favourites from each list:

Books: 'The Lions of Al-Rassan' (and pretty much anything else) by Guy Gavriel Kay,'œVagabonding' by Rolf Potts, 'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi, 'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller, 'Breakfast of Champions' and 'SlaughterHouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut, 'A Heart-breaking work of staggering genius' by Dave Eggers and the big Dystopian novels: '1984', 'œWe' and 'Brave New World'. Also 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Recently finished 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss and am currently devouring 'The Wise Man's Fear'. They are outstanding books.

Movies: Stranger than Fiction, Casablanca, Fight Club, WALL-E, Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones, Brazil and Rip!: A Remix Manifesto.

Music: The Dandy Warhols, A Perfect Circle, Bright Eyes, Gogol Bordello, Lana Del Ray, Tool, Florence + the Machine, Placebo, A Gaslight Anthem.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Traveling Eastern Europe for 3 months the summer of 2008 was massive for me - My expectations for the place were blown completely out of the water, I learned to Scuba Dive, went hiking in the Fagaras mountains for four days with a fantastic group of Romanians, got ripped off by a Taxi scam in Crimea, learned a lot of obvious things I should already have known and met so many amazing people I will be eternally indebted to.

The next big round of backpacking, in 2009, was big as well - learning to surf off the coast of Africa, witnessing the sand seas of the Sahara, the pyramids, the train from Cairo to Luxor, getting sick on the high speed ferry to Sinai, diving in the red sea, floating in the dead sea, walking around Jerusalem with an awesome chick who answered my endless swarm of questions about Israel. . .

I paired up with a New York CSer to ride Royal Enfield motorbikes in India, from Utterkashi in the North to Darjeeling in the East. We'd planned to move further but dysentery kicked my ass first.

And, most recently, in Queensland, Australia, I received an education in equine riding and cattle mustering. I also stepped into the ring of the last outback boxing tent to go 3 (well, 6 actually) rounds with a pro fighter named Beaver.

Still, the most amazing (and most difficult) thing I ever did was look at myself and my life and decide I was unhappy with both, and then actually go about doing something to change that.

Teach, Learn, Share

If we're sharing with each other, teaching and learning are inevitable.
In a less abstract sense, I can always share with you the best joke I've ever heard.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Portugal

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