hi you! We are Katerina, or Kati, and Sébastien, or Sébi and we successfully graduated from high school in the summer of 2023. Now we are exploring together the beauty of the world by travelling in different regions, currently in Asia. We are curious to learn about new cultures and especially to get in touch with local people.

if you might want to share with us some of your daily experiences at your place to learn about your life and gain some more knowledge about the culture not only on a surface level but in a profound way, we would be really glad. yet we can also understand If you don‘t have much time, we are also fine and independent to explore on our own and after that sit and have a cup of tea with you :)

About Kati:
Since I've been 14 years old, I knew that I want to travel for at least one year after high school due to my longing for freedom and adventure. It started all, when my friend and I traveled in Europe with only a backpack and a tent, then a solo Interrail journey in Europe followed. By using this cs platform for my travels, I was able to meet a lot of open-hearted people and got closer to the vagabond way of life which I want to be keep living with my next adventure in Asia.
Why Asia now you may ask yourself?
In the first place, I am captivated by the richness of the typical cultural lifestyle in which the religion of buddhism is integrated. Not only have I already dealt with the principles of buddhism by reading books but also by practicing meditation as one of my experiences I can count my stay in a Thai buddhist monastery. Hence, the cultural exchange and not only on surface level but in a profound way which is given here is one of the most interesting points for me. My aim to understand and get to know the wideness of the world better by meeting locals and having long conversations can be satisfied by making the upcoming experiences.

About Sébi:
As I grew up in a multicultural family, I encountered intercultural exchange very early on. My childhood was a cocktail of four different languages accompanied by dishes from three diverse countries. Having the luck of going to a very open minded art high school, I could follow my interests such as philosophy, art, history, literature and languages, in general questioning social issues, but I also had the opportunity to do manual work as painting, restoring old bicycles and antic furniture. In my different internships, I worked in a winery, further in a residence for people with disabilities and in an art joinery. In the end of my highschool time, I used to work in two different restaurants.
If I have the opportunity, I try to escape into the beauty of nature by hiking in the woods, swimming or rowing in the lake, or crossing the alps with a friend and nothing else than a backpack and the movement of our legs. In our world full of overwhelming impressions a moment of silence and peace should not be missed, so sometimes I feel the need to get closer to nature by gardening or searching a quite place under a tree to read a book, put my thoughts into writing or meditate in a medieval monastery.
Travelling combines approximately all my passions and I’m waking up every day in the joy of experiencing something new.

when having gone on interrail some years ago on my first backpack trip along the french côté d‘azur with my friend I already used couchsurfing which gave me the taste of the free vagabond lifestyle and has shown me authentic traveling. for this reasons, I decided to use this platform again, so I can repeat the wonderful experience of connecting with local people with whom I can share this experience of traveling.
you can check out the couchsurfer profile which I used with my friend when traveling in france (on https://www.couchsurfing.com/users/2015777044?utm_campaign=profile_share&utm_source=couchsurfing-ios ) there we collected some more references, maybe that builds up some more trust since I do only possess few references on this solo account.
and for more verification our ig profile: @kati.hl & @seb_oes

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

meeting new, interesting people and building connections all over the world - we are all united in this.

Interests

so many that we sometimes don‘t know what to start doing since there is an overwhelming amount of options. Liking to spend our time outside on a bicycle or a hike, we are really active. Kati does yoga in contrast to her boxing classes and in between she goes running. enjoying music and the community, kati likes to participate at festivals while sébi organizes them and builds the contacts. sébi is completely in his element when dancing, skiing and after eating good food and drinking fine wine to complete the day. on the other hand we both find balance again by journaling and meditating in a peaceful place. moreover, we can express our inner feelings with the help of art and photography.

• animals
• photography
• festivals
• vegetarian
• yoga
• meditation
• hiking
• philosophy
• psychology
• art
• nature
• theatre
• buddhism
• bicycle

Music, Movies, and Books

regarding music we love the variety of music. as wide as our palette of emotions is, is our taste in music since we listen nearly to everything so as German Rap, Indie, Techno, Jazz, classical bangers, soul, american rap, rock, lofi, french indie. also sébi has his own techno label that hosts different DJs on various raves he organizes with a friend.

to be honest, we do not watch that often movies but If we do we love watching documentaries about nature and foreign cultures to get the feeling of traveling to another world at home. besides that, we love newer artsy movies such as classical ones.

we read a lot If we have the time to, and similiar to movies we like to stay classy by reading kafka, hesse or camus. everything that takes its focus on philosophy or psychology attracts us.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

there is not a single great experience I could decide on but there are a lot of fantastic experiences I’ve made, especially when talking about traveling. To just name some, friends and I, not knowing that it took place, spontaneously visited the biennale in venice last year with an expert of arts we got to know before on our camping place. further, I cannot stop thinking about the nice people we met on our backpacking trip last year - from a really sweet med student who has cooked with us and shown us the typical students bar to an empathetic longtime couchsurfer that hosted us last minute and talked for hours with us when we‘ve been enjoying a majestic look over the city from his balcony.
as you can see it‘s all about the people that can soothe your experience and give it a personal, familiar touch and depth due to the exchange.

Teach, Learn, Share

As we both tutored children in English as in French, we are able to teach some skills in these two languages as well as in our home country speaking language, German. Since we were both raised bi-/trilingual (Kati: Russian, German/ Sebi: French, Russian, German), it is often easier for us to learn a new language. Yet, asian languages completely differ from our languages, so we accept any help. Due to our tutoring it has become clear that those who are willing to learn a new language can do it as it is the key to intercultural exchange. What could be nicer than speaking to people in their own language?

What I Can Share with Hosts

language skills, philosophical conversations and thoughts, maybe we can even cook together some german or russian dishes :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Switzerland