🏠currently based in: Jabiru, NT⬛🟡🟥 AUSTRALIA

[WhatsApp: +6145672229four]

APR-JUL 2023: worked as a housekeeping supervisor in Jabiru, NT, Australia 🪃

AUG 2022 - MAR 2023: I hitchhiked solo from Italy to Australia. I started from Croatia, went through the Balkans, Türkiye, the Caucasus, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines before reaching the land down under.
It was a great adventure!
MAY - DEC 2021:
bike trip 🚴 Italy ➡️ Canary Islands 🇮🇨
(https://www.polarsteps.com/pashaa/3984200-towards-portugal)

AUG - DEC 2020:
bike trip 🚴 N Italy ➡️ S Italy 🇮🇹

MAY 2018 - MAR 2020: an ultra-long Italy ➡️ New Zealand 🇳🇿 trip
(Italy ▶️ Dubai 🚴 // Nepal ▶️ East Timor 👍🏻🚌 // Australia and New Zealand 👍🏻🚗)
(https://www.polarsteps.com/PaoloMilonakis/2788842-a-slow-way-east)

ABOUT ME
Ciao Couchsurfers all around the world!
This is Paolo/Pasha. I'm 35, born and raised in a village in NE Italy's Veneto region. I'm currently living and working in Perth.

I graduated in Translation Studies with English and Russian. During and after my studies I lived between Russia, Poland and Ukraine for research programmes, two internships and a job as an Italian teacher.
In 2016 I moved to China and worked as an English tutor for 2.3 years in a lovely city called Xiamen, in Fujian province.
In 2018 I got back home for two months to spend some time with my family. In May of that year I bought a touring bike, got all the gear ready and left eastward for a long-term world trip, a big dream-come-true sort of thing. My plan was to spend a total of 4 years on the road, travelling slowly towards east. I had got as far as New Zealand when the pandemic hit.
During the two years I was stuck in Europe, I travelled a lot on my bike around Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
In late February 2022 I was getting ready for another big adventure in the Americas when the war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Just after 10 days in Central America, I flew home from Mexico City and headed straight to Przemysl, a small Polish city right on the border with Ukraine. That was where most people fleeing war-torn Ukraine where arriving from. I spent a total of 2.5 months in the area as a volunteer. My duties were to help around two big refugee centers, some schools and a train station, driving food and medical kits into Ukraine and helping people getting out of the country. It was a very good learning experience.

MY INTERESTS AND LIKES
I enjoy some good and genuine chats, a glass of wine, relaxing conversations with curious people, a couple of new books on traveling, incenses and ambient music, trying out new recipes, sharing tips and ideas on (budget) travelling and discuss about life in general with people who have seen the world, discovered its places and talked to its people. I'm really into world knowledge that comes bottom up and this type of knowledge is gained while hitting the road, staying with people, listening to their stories, sharing your time with them.
I like watching historical documentaries, particularly on the history of the USSR.
I can teach you Italian or Russian and give you some tips on how to hitchhike and budget a long-term solo trip. Also, I can show you how to make risotto and pizza or how to prepare my favourite dessert which is tiramisù. I can help you organize your space and stuff, too, as I am a minimalist and I like the concept that living with less helps us enjoy our lives more.

WHAT I DO
I don't have an ordinary job, being a full time traveller. That said, I teach languages from time to time. At the moment, I am teaching my native language (Italian) remotely on a platform called 'Preply', and I'm enjoying it a lot!

F I Y
L'italiano è la mia lingua madre.
Я владею русским.
Hablo español bastante bien.
Ég tala smá íslensku.
Mówię trochę-trochę po polsku.
我会只一点点中文。

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Hosting travellers has always been a bit like travelling for me.
Every time I get to meet some people from this community I get fed with absolutely interesting food for thought.

Interests

budget travels, minimalism, degrowth, organic food, neurolinguistics, translation studies, nature, hiking, India, writing, movies and docus from the USSR, slavic languages, the Caucasus.

• writing
• books
• dining
• recipes
• wine
• white wine
• coffee
• organic food
• off-roading
• movies
• traveling
• minimalism
• music
• hiking
• track and field
• swimming
• communications
• teaching
• freelancing
• languages
• budget travel

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Getting stuck in the quicksands with an off-road vehicle in eastern Iceland.
Being hosted for the night by a local Filipino family during a typhoon on Siquijor island port.
Surviving a motorbike accident in northern Thailand.
Stargazing in utter darkness in central Colombia's Tatacoa desert in the night of my 29th bday.

Teach, Learn, Share

I've been learning how to turn into a non-stop traveller and wander around the world.

What I Can Share with Hosts

a walk, a meal, a coffee, some chats.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, Iceland, Poland, Russian Federation, Ukraine