CURRENT MISSION

Explore every idea (crazy or not) that comes up in my mind as long as it is slightly reasonable at least. Right now that means working in the north where we have cold, long and very dark winters without sun and giving northern lights tours with some small photography courses as a job. Not bad at all!

ABOUT ME

Hi there! I'm a 25-year old outdoor guide working in Tromsø, far north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. I'm an outdoor enthousiast, winter fanatic, and freelance photographer/videographer so the far and cold north is my comfort zone :)

I'd like to go ice skating or snowshoeing in winter (learning for skiing at the moment) and race cycling, hiking, swimming and playing tennis in summer so I keep myself busy year-round.

PHILOSOPHY

"I'd rather regret the things I've done, than the things that I have not" - Lucile Ball

"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float
To gain al while you give
To roam the roads of land remote
To travel is to live." - Hans Christian Andersen

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

The CS community is a wonderful initiative, in which I try to host people when I can. Most of the time I live very small, with roommates or with a landlord that doesnt allow couchsurfers, which is a pity. I hope that in the future I will be able to provide a better accomodation for incoming travellers. When travelling alone or with someone else, I try to surf couches wherever I am, simply because that is the best way to get to know a local culture, habits, and the best places to go, and every single time people appear to be amazing! In the future I'm hoping to move on to a better and bigger place without living with others as well to take into account, so that I will have way more opportunities to host people whenever I want.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed my first couch once in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and it was really great! I was surprised about the kindness and hospitality of people I had never met before :)

In the 2012 winter I couchsurfed a couple of times in northern Finland, also known as Lapland. It was the journey of my life above all because of all the great locals I was lucky enough to meet up there!

Eventually I also surfed a couch in Brussels, Belgium. And once again, it was a very, very good experience!

I hope that one day I will have an apartment big enough to host couchsurfers as well.. :)

Visitors since 20-06-2012:

Interests

Photography/Videography
Neuroscience
Travelling (train or hitchhiking)
Languages (currently learning Norwegian),
Sports (Ice Skating, Race Cycling, Tennis, Running, Hiking)

Check also my photography site!
https://www.facebook.com/LeanderVoetsCreativeMedia

• culture
• photography
• beer
• running
• flying
• traveling
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• skiing
• snowshoeing
• sports
• tennis
• swimming
• freelancing
• languages
• neuroscience
• tourism
• hitchhiking
• tours
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Different moods, different music: Mumford & Sons, Jose Gonzalez and Eddie Vedder, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse and Snow Patrol, Gui Boratto, Paul Kalkbrenner and Slagmalsklubben, Aim, Moby, Live, GG Caravan, Kygo, Peter Fox.

Books: Dan Brown, Rosie Thomas, Kees van Beijnum (dutch) and Emily Barr. Should read more, keep on telling myself that anyway.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A 3-day hitchhike from the Netherlands to northern Sweden in the middle of the coldest winter in Scandinavia in many years with a friend of mine. We slept on a trainstation, we drove through snow storms, we cross-country skied on a frozen sea, and we experienced REAL winter. I will never forget it!

More recently an individual journey to and through Finnish lapland, from Turku to Utsjoki and back, 3000 km, of which I hitchhiked 1000 in the most northern uninhabited regions of Finnish winter Lapland. I've met amazing people through friends and couchsurfers, seen lots and lots of snow, experienced Finnish culture, and seen the most impressive Northern Lights shows I could ever imagine. At first I considered it a bad thing not having a travel companion, but during the trip I realized that it's a different way of travelling when you're alone and sometimes you seem to get so much more of the world and culture you're in!

In januari 2013 I had the trip of a lifetime exploring the frozen north of Finnish lapland. This was part of a crazy idea that was bothering me for some years to make a promotional video about northern Finland in winter. So one day I grabbed my camera and video equipment and went for it. You can find the result of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGWCD0-_yj0

In late-winter 2013 I embarked on a 80km hiking trip in 4 days crossing the Jotunheimen Massif in an abandoned scenery of frozen falls, valleys and lonely mountains. Makes you feel humble!

Teach, Learn, Share

Languages (English, Dutch, German, learning Norwegian Bokmål)
Photography/Videography
Travelled about 75% of Europe

Want to learn: Norwegian Bokmål, Skiing, Videography, Ice Skating

What I Can Share with Hosts

Photography knowledge, many stories from travelling across the continent, enthusiasm about the outdoors, a good quality beer (preferrably belgium), swearwords in Dutch, English, Finnish, German and Norwegian (always the first things to learn)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Finland, Netherlands, Norway