We’re Laura and Mattia, a couple of students trying to balance a love for travelling and our bachelor's degree :))
These two passions made us meet: coming respectively from Portugal and Italy, we met in the Netherlands, Leeuwarden, studying the same programme! We’re now at our 2nd year of study!
The year before, 2023/2024, we both left home for our gap year, starting to travel and live abroad by ourselves, Laura to Asia and Mattia in Berlin. At the end of our experience we met and already felt there was a shared passion; when we decided to hitchhike together from Leeuwarden to Paris and back (while couch-surfing!) we found each other in all aspects of traveling: adventure, connecting with locals, walking a lot, seeking for the sun, sharing stories, stinking…
After that experience, we started a new journey together <3
Couchsurfing is an important aspect of our shared traveling! We’re looking forward for a life of full of responsible traveling adventures!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We’re on Couchsurfing because we don’t just want to travel around the world without knowing anything about the culture and how people actually live on those places. We like to fully immerse ourselves in the lifestyle and habits of each and every city we set foot at, and we see in Couchsurfing the perfect opportunity to have this cultural immersion, while, at the same time, allowing us to save a bit of money 😅 (broke backpackers style)

Interests

Music is a deeply shared passion.
Laura “learned to play the piano since I was as little as 10 years old, and later, the guitar. I also love to sing, especially in group (I sing in two different choirs and on a band).”
Mattia plays the drums “since I was 8, and recently the guitar (‘cause when you leave home you cannot bring a drum set with you, but you can start playing the guitar!)

Hiking, biking, walking, spending time outdoors, hanging around with friends are also activities that fulfil our hearts of happy memories, which we also hope to get the chance to form with you :)

Our relationship is also very much grounded in our values and desire to create a good impact in the world. 🇵🇸🌱 We are also very into banning English language between us sometimes and try to only speak Spanish, Italian or Portuguese. One day we’ll be fluent in all these hopefully!!
And we are very into making lists… about everything. “Best things ever” and “Quotes” or “our philosophies”, among many more 🤓 we have a shared book full of them ehehe

• photography
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• reading
• music
• jazz
• guitar
• piano
• hiking
• hitchhiking
• mountains
• nature
• adventure
• sustainability
• meeting new people
• sunsets
• decolonization

Music, Movies, and Books

Don’t get us started on music, because we won’t shut up for quite a while😅
Singing the Hotel California guitar solo with our voices kind of brought us together🤪🤭 and Bob Marley is our sunny music ☀️

Laura:
Daily life playlist: Eloise, PJ Morton, Sade, Jacob Collier, Lizzy McAlpine
Energy playlist: Michael Jackson; Nirvana; Metallica
Portuguese playlist: MARO; SlowJ; Tom Jobim; Tim Maia
Classical playlist: Rachmaninoff; Debussy; Chopin
Jazz Playlist: Miles Davis; Lee Ritenour; Snarky Puppy

Mattia’s favourite: System of a Down, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, Radiohead
Italiani: Quercia, De André, Rino Gaetano, Battisti, Lucio Dalla, Vasco Rossi

Movies and books
Mattia: would like to read history, it’s only occasional unfortunately; and Laura criticises me for my scarce cinema knowledge

Laura: Mattia is lying, I get surprised sometimes with his little but targeted cinema knowledge. I like to read fiction and non fiction books at the same time; this can be traveling books with science or philosophy books ;)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Laura:
Travelled only with my backpack for 7 months
Hitchhiked from Italy to Portugal alone
Visited the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China

Mattia:
Bike trips in the Alps, Via Francigena, Sardegna and the Balkans

Both left home at 19 to go live abroad by ourselves

Teach, Learn, Share

Everything we learned and experienced while travelling is an open book :))
We love talking about music, our worldviews and philosophies!

What I Can Share with Hosts

We like to be the best guests possible, understanding how the hosts want to interact with us. In general, we’re always open for conversations of all types, bringing fun stories in the house! We can talk about our own countries and teach a bit of our languages!
If there’s a guitar, keyboard (or drums!!🥹) we can make music with you! We often carry harmonicas with us!
We’re tidy and always clean up after ourselves, so we can offer a “stress-free” couch stay :))
We can also cook if needed, and help with any house chore that is needed, and we’re not picky at all.
We’re also fine with not spending a lot of time together.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Macao, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy, Netherlands, Portugal