Hi! I’m Koen (22) Dutch, curious, and friendly. I work in IT and volunteer as a language coach. I’m into classical music & opera, poetry, Muay Thai/boxing, and hiking.

Next year I will study the languages Russian, French and Spanish abroad 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan → 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan → 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan → 🇦🇲 Armenia → 🇹🇷 Turkey → 🇸🇳 Senegal → 🇲🇦 Morocco/Melilla → 🇵🇭 Philippines → 🇪🇸 Spain → 🇦🇷 Argentina → 🇨🇴 Colombia.
(And after that, I also want to dive into Arabic!)

For me, travel is not just about ticking off countries. I want to get to know people, their culture, and the little everyday details that never make it into guidebooks. Some of the most meaningful moments I’ve had abroad were simply talking with strangers while going for a walk.

I like meeting new people and met so many great people from across the world. Who I am still in contact with.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Much of the world is filled with prejudices. I’ve noticed that in many of the countries where the media has the strongest opinions, the reality is very different. Once I arrived, I discovered how little people actually understood about the culture and how incredibly kind and welcoming people are everywhere in the world.

That’s why I travel: to see beyond the headlines, to meet locals, and to learn from the real stories of everyday life. Couchsurfing makes that possible.

Interests

• classical music
• boxing
• thaiboxing
• opera singing
• literature and philosophy

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I’m passionate about opera — especially Wagner’s Rienzi, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. I also love Beethoven’s piano sonatas (especially the Pathétique), Rachmaninoff’s concertos, and Schubert’s lieder. Sometimes I balance that with choral music like Mozart’s Requiem or Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil.

Movies/TV Shows: White nights, Wolf of wallstreet, Catch me if you can and Game of Thrones

Books: Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov), Tolstoy (Anna Karenina), Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), Kafka (Metamorphosis), and the poetry of Pushkin and Yesenin.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Going sleddogging in Norway under the northern lights one of the most breathtaking experiences of my life. And on the complete other side of the spectrum: getting spontaneously invited to a Romanian house party, where I ended up playing beer pong and feeling like part of the family within minutes without them even speaking english except 1 person.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand