**Please note that, if you send me a request with several weeks in advance, I will never be able to know whether I can host you or not. It's better if you send me a request a few days prior to your arrival.

Hey, this is Joan from Catalonia, Spain!

I grew up in a small village in the Costa Brava called Roses, 170km north-east of Barcelona and, when I was 17 years old, I moved to Barcelona for studying and stayed there for almost 9 years.

After finishing university, I got a corporate job and, after some time, my company sent me to Dubai, where I lived and worked for almost 3 years.

Being one of the most international cities in the world, Dubai was the city that opened my mind and my hunger for traveling to the remotest destinations.

However, at some point, I started to be quite fed up with my job, so one day I decided to fuck everything off and become a full-time traveler!

Since then, I have been traveling non-stop to real destinations off the beaten track, including Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq and Central Asia, among many others.

Nevertheless, now, I decided to settle down in Georgia, to continue working full-time on my business, which is a travel blog called Against the Compass: https://againstthecompass.com/en/

Oh! Other than that I am an extrovert (but reserved) person who loves to have fun and willing to learn and meet people from all over the world.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My first international experience was back in 2010, when I got a scholarship called Erasmus to study in Finland.

I was very lucky to make so many friends there, all of them being from different nationalities. I had so much fun and learnt a lot about them and life in general that, when I came back, I was kind of missing the international atmosphere, so I decided to sign up for the Couchsurfing community, as one friend had told me about it.

Since then, I have been hosting and surfing all over the world, including in countries like Iraq or Pakistan, where I was blessed with the highest level of hospitality.

For me and, like almost everybody else, I am in Couchsurfing to meet people with a similar mindset.

Interests

My biggest hobby would be obviously traveling but I also spend a lot of time doing photography and, of course, writing about my travels.

• culture
• photography
• beer
• drinking
• drones
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Authors:
Bukowski
Kerouac
Hemingway
Kafka

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

From volunteering in a refugee camp in Iraq to hitchhiking the entire Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, being arrested and accused of being an Islamic State spy and sneaking into the forbidden Kazakh-Russian village of Baikonur.

No matter what you do or who you are, in these sort of countries, you can always experience amazing things.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share my traveling experiences with you and also how can you get paid for traveling permanently.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Finland, Georgia, Spain, United Arab Emirates