CURRENT MISSION

Try to do and see as many things we can before we're 25! And then relax a bit...

ABOUT ME

We are two 21-year-olds, Marta and Bjarni, who are very interested in seeing the world. We just graduated from "high-school" in May 2011 after 6 weeks of final exams and 14 years of studying. Now we want to do something else! We are extremely fun people and a bit strange, in a good way. Please meet us and show us around your hometown, or just point us in the direction of the next amazing bar/mountain/bookstore :)Or at least read our profile! And for a short description of our trip, scroll a bit down :)

Bjarni likes to eat a lot and a lot of heavy meat with lots and lots of fat(good old fashioned icelandic food - and of course bacon!). He also likes to sleep and drink tea. When he is not eating or sleeping or enjoying a peaceful cup of tea he likes to spend time with his band(He's the drummer) Snjolugt or just practicing his drumming. But that is not ALL he does, nonono, he also likes beer(and other alcoholic beverages - Mission: Try ALL the alcohol!) and a good party is the place to be!
Bjarni keeps a notebook to remember things. He forgets where he puts it every two weeks or so and has to get a new one!

He spends his days working at a school, the afternoons at a daycare and the evenings at a community center for teenagers - loves to work with the kids in his hometown(Alftanes, small "town" not far away from Reykjavik and also the hometown of Iceland's president)

He has cute little dog that thinks it's a human being and a hysterical parrot.

Marta is a little girl from a part of Reykjavik called Árbær(literally Rivertown). She is fun and she likes music and she remembers everything! She used to be a gymnast and she teaches gymnastics to children. She doesn't like bacon but she does enjoy a bit of hummus from time to time.
When she is not teaching young children how to do a cart wheel(and other DANGEROUS things) she rents cars to innocent travelers, interrogating them about their home countries - So much information, special thanks to the Australian couple who took the time to write down every interesting bar in Melbourne and had a heated argument about which were the best! -
Did I mention her glue brain, I don't remember, but I don't have to worry about it, she'll remember it for me!
She is an excellent planner who is always late but likes to think she is always fashionably late - Sometimes it is just so hard to stop watching uninteresting TV shows!

She likes hiking (which i kind of don't) and she is always trying to drag me on hikes (one being 14 hours long in -25°C with a lot of wind and our water supplies freezing, just to see some stupid volcanic eruption. Stupid Iceland...)

We like to laugh a lot and do silly things both when we are drunk and when we aren't! We like to talk and listen to interesting stories and laugh, yes, again. And we like to read books.

We started our trip in south India were we got help from John, a wonderful guy, in-between his nightshifts at a bank and his charity work. He practically saved us from the south end, when we were sure we'd be stuck there for the rest of our lives. Many things to love in India, many things not to love and the food is the best. After a stop in Goa and Delhi, with a trip to the amazing Taj Mahal, we went to Nepal to relax a little after India. Did some hiking and enjoyed the not so fresh air of Kathmandu and almost froze to death during the nightly power-cuts. Then we met up with some friends in Thailand at the crazy Kao-san road before slowly making our way north to Chiang Mai. There we patted some tigers and met some nice people on a hiking trip. Next stop was Laos were we almost decided to stay forever in Luang Prabang. Hanoi, Vietnam was cloudy and polluted and we were sick but our trip to Halong Bay was beautiful. We then slowly made our way down Vietnam with stops in Hue, Hoi An, Nah Trang(were we got our diving certificate! So happy!) and Saigon. Then it was Cambodia and the amazing temples of Angkor. Our trip there started with two blown tyres on our bus in the middle of nowhere so we just hopped on the next minivan with about 20 other people and had one of the sweatiest rides of our lives. Then we had three days in Kuala Lumpur and stayed in a hostel that reminded us of home so we got a little homesick but it was a lovely place and Bjarni got his camera fixed in a tiny camera repair shop. He was so happy and only took like 50 photos of the Petronas towers...Then we had 6 days of relaxation in Bali but first we had a long layover in Singapore, got out of the best airport in the world and explored the jungle in the middle of the city.
From Bali we went to Australia, starting with a trip out to the Great Barrier reef where Marta did her first dive since getting her certificate, AMAZING, and Bjarni snorkelled. We then drove down the east coast in 20 days, dropping the car off in Sydney and now we are in Melbourne, enjoying our short stay here and heading to New Zealand tonight! There we are going to see Hobbiton, so excited about that!

We have now been to New Zealand and absolutely LOVED it, we went on the most amazing caving trip in Waitomo and overall had a great time there! We then travelled for about 24 hours to reach our next destination, Los Angeles. That was a fun trip...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, just by finding interesting things to do near whichever place we are at. Later, when we get back home, we'll probably try to have an available couch for people in need!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Stayed with some great people in LA and Seattle and had so much fun with them!

Interests

Music Music Music and books! And running around in circles - and drinking beer. Bjarni is really interested in photography and computers and Marta likes to hike and eat chocolate.

• dogs
• books
• photography
• dining
• chocolate
• beer
• running
• partying
• drinking
• shopping
• tv
• cars
• music
• hiking
• spelunking
• scuba diving
• gymnastics

Music, Movies, and Books

Coldplay, Death Cab, Snow Patrol, Agent Fresco, Sigurros, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers...

We both love Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, Bjarni is currently reading George RR Martin's "A Dance with Dragons" and Marta really likes Nick Hornby. Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" Trilogy is a favorite. Marta is now reading Great Expectations but basically we just like to read. A lot.

Movies, to name a few we both like, Lord of the Rings, Juno, Get him to the Greek, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine...but we have a rather different taste in movies. Bjarni likes adventure and sci-fi and Marta just likes anything that's not sci-fi...no not really, but anything that's a bit strange and a little funny.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Marta - Volcanic eruption 300 meters away from my feet!

Bjarni - Stupid volcano, couldn't be nearer to the road...
Falling asleep in the bus in Egypt and waking up driving next to a MILLION tanks(We come from Iceland, we have no army, no tanks and no nothing remotely dangerous - except those stupid volcanos...)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Iceland