CURRENT MISSION

Traveling by motorbike to Leipzig to visit a good friend over there.

ABOUT US

Maartje:
Settled back in Amsterdam due to Covid 19. Have been working as a tour leader in Latin America and a kitesurf instructor in Egypt before. I have been living the happy nomad life but missed the feeling to be involved in a society. However, I guess I am a traveller, flying out over the world but always returning back home. I try to be as open-minded as possible, I am interested in other people and cultures, and love traveling without a fixed plan. Just go wherever the wind takes me and find my way around the world.

However, I graduated my masters at the university in Amsterdam in Migration and Ethnic studies and have been working in homeless and refugee shelters all over Amsterdam. I came back to that as soon as I came home. Now I work for an organisation that dreams of an inclusive society. We support people that live in social poverty. We do this with voluntary buddies , shelters, social work, reintegration and much more. But mainly through time and attention to each other; from person to person.

Don't mention the word Guatemala because I won't shut up the coming hour, I've been there for a while to learn Spanish and get to know the country and I fell in love with it. The same for Istanbul, Turkey, Egypt. I guess this is valid for most places on earth.
I play guitar and I'm totally happy when the sun shines. Always in for new experiences and challenges.

I am sorry if I don't reply to all the requests but Amsterdam is a little to populair to answer to everyone. It would give me a fulltime job..

PHILOSOPHY

Leven is meervoud van lef

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Over the last years I have been surfing and hosting people from all over the world.

My first experience was together with my friend Judith. We traveled by train from Amsterdam to Istanbul, and did couchsurfing along the way! We ended up cooking Dutch food in Budapest and exploring the city with our host Esther, we loved to explore Vienna with our host and his friends and thanks to Ali who we met on the network we found our house to live in.
Furthermore I met amazing people in Jaffa, Northern Jordan and Beirut through couchsurfing so thanks to all the lovely people I met so far :)
With Lotte in Iran couch surfing really came alive: Hospitality gets another dimension there and it is hard to describe it in words here. Exploring Yazd with the three of us on a motorbike, cycling Isfahan and playing guitar under the bridge, spending a night in a men's cave in Kerman and spending the night in the desert, and of course the unforgettable experience of spending time with Maryam and her family in Tabriz, we really felt like part of their lovely family, slept all together in the living room, and I really hope to go back to visit them one day. Last but not least did we spend really good time and amazing dinner in the fairy town with Masule and went to the film premiere of Mokhtar in Tehran.
Arriving in Cairo and couchsurfing at Karim was another great experience, we became friends, had a lot of fun together and made a couple of trips to Dahab and Fayoum where we danced under the stars.
And last year Lotte and I had our first couchsurfing experience in the Netherlands with Merijn which was a lot of fun!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Vienna, Budapest, Istanbul and Sakarya, places I love since I had such a lovely people hosting me, and showing me the 'real city'. Thanks to you all!
Later on Jordan, Beirut, lovely people, amazing conversations, good laughs and of course good food and shisha. It will definitely stay on my mind.
Iran I already mentioned above, it would have been a whole different experience without all the people we met thanks to the network.
Exploring Athens with Samer, becoming friends with Karim in Cairo.

I hosted people from Argentina and Budapest, Germany, Spain, Palestine and later on their friends and family. We definitely had fun exploring Amsterdam together. I also had some people over who just wanted a free place to stay, so if you only want a place to stay cheap and get high, you can book a budget hostel, there are enough around.

Interests

Traveling, kitesurfing, listening and making music, meeting people, go around the city, having dinner in the beautiful parks in Amsterdam,

• writing
• books
• dining
• running
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• parks
• kitesurfing

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I jumped off a moving train since some idiot tried to steal my bag in Tunisia. He grabbed it while the train started moving and jumped out so I had little choice to do the same. Kept on running and screaming till he dropped it haha. He must have thought I was crazy, running bared feet along the trail. But I felt kind off proud though, don't mess with Dutchies.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Palestine, Panama, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Egypt, Guatemala, Netherlands, Turkey