CURRENT MISSION

Never stop "running".

ABOUT ME

People tend to describe me as always smiling. They are right as far as it is the human interaction that is a source of energy for me. I very much enjoy meeting people and having long discussions with them. Being a sociologist I can get very curious about different aspects of life.

I have always had an adventurous spirit - I am in love with travelling, hiking and gaining unusual experience. Though I am enjoying the urban places of culture quite a lot, it is hiking in the mountains that gives me the feeling of freedom and accomplishment.

I am a vegetarian and I can get very passionate about food. I love to cook as much as I like to try new dishes cooked by someone else. Eating is a small ritual for me, I believe it is much more than simply adding fuel to the body, there is a complex nutritional, environmental and cultural philosophy to it.

PHILOSOPHY

After reading the book Born to run written by Chris McDougall, who says "you never stop running when you get old, you get old when you stop running", I realized that this quotation is relevant for many aspects of life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I live in a rented shared appartment with 5 other friends, so offering a couch is not always possible, sometimes we are fighting for a bathroom on our own. However, CS has become an integral part of my life since 2009 and I enjoy being involved. For me CS means a community of more or less likeminded people that share the openess towards the world, I love to stay in such a company.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I couchsurfed a lot during roadtrips through the USA in summers 2009, 2011 and 2012. I can honestly say that the greatest experiences I have had during my travels were always somehow connected to other couchsurfers:) Since than I used CS almost everywhere I traveled and also hosted a couple of times.

Interests

What PhD. does to a person is that it bounds him/her to a computer. My story unfortunately does not significantly differ from the general pattern. In order not to get crazy from becoming a homo computerus, in my free time I love to balance my life by travelling, doing sports and socializing.

My travelling ideal is one of leaving no trace (though with ecological trace I am sadly not always successfull). In sociology there is a distinction between a tourist and a traveller, I try to act as the second type. When travelling, I prefer to connect my travels with volunteering, work or study, as hanging around touristy places is not what I am aiming for. I very much prefer immersing myself into the culture to visiting the sights. When I am writng you a couchsurfing request it is usually because of this reason:)

• culture
• humanities
• books
• dining
• cooking
• vegetarian
• yoga
• running
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• hiking
• sports
• sociology
• tourism
• volunteering
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Indie, folk, electro swing, Gypsy music, good jazz or world music... it changes a lot according to the periods of life I am currently going through. My most recent musical hero is Nils Frahm, I got a frisson from the concert of Other lives and would never say no to Ludovico Einaudi.

I love the briliant novels of Milan Kundera, the Czech writer who has made Czechoslovak 20th century history more accessible also for the foreigners. His books will also be my tip if you are interested in the somehow specific and harsh history of Central Europe. I have enjoyed certain books from Murakami, Erland Loe, Khaled Hosseini, Salman Rushdie and was very impressed by recent novels of a young Italian writer Paolo Giordano.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

For me the one amazing thing, which is not a single moment, but happens (un)fortunately very often, is getting lost and trying to find a way out (applies for cities, mountains, as well as life in general:)

Speaking more in terms of a particular experience, in 2013 i spent four months in Nepal where I was teaching English as a volunteer in a rural community. It was a tough, but amazingly strong experience. I grew very fond of Nepal and Nepalese people.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love to cook, besides Central-European classics I've quite decently mastered also Nepali and Italian cuisine. I can guide yoga classes and if you have a garden, I would most definitely like to dig my hands in the mud.

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Czech Republic, Nepal, Slovakia, Turkey, United States

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