Tourist info: http://wikitravel.org/en/San_Francisco
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g60713-Activities-San_Francisco_California.html
(I'll give my own recommendations further down)

TOP TIP: When searching for hosts, click "More Filters" and search by "Keywords", for example 'beer', 'nightlife', 'vegetarian' or anything else you're interested in. This helps narrow it down to hosts most likely to host you :)
(if you got here through a keyword search for nightlife then sorry, I'm a sleepyhead!)

But first! Some rules on getting hosted.

Since we only have a shared living room for hosting, we want to avoid the situation where the surfer comes, says hi, gets the WiFi password and then just sits on the Internet. You may not realise this but it's very weird to have a stranger in your room not talking to you. Therefore we're now only hosting people who want to have a chat, share stories, discuss politics and how to fix the world (yeah it's a huge topic but I'm sure you've got some ideas on it :). Also if you can teach vegan recipes or anything that could be useful in an off-grid community one day :D I get a lot of requests saying "your profile looks interesting" which looks like the person didn't even read it :P. I also want to avoid surfers who arrive late one night and leave early next morning. If you only need a place to sleep, try AirBnB or http://www.sfhostels.org/

Days already booked/unavailable:
all of May, 15 Sept-5 Oct

^Now don't send a request for those days cuz I'll just click No. Also I tend to stick to one surfer a week or less so I might decline if it's too soon after another guest, sorry! For some statistics, between 21st Dec - 19th Jan I received 29 requests (~1 per day), accepted 5, declined 5 with a reply (because they were personalised requests) and 19 without reply (if it was a copy paste request and the profile didn't have much info either). If I don't respond it probably means I'm unsure and depends what other requests I get.

I tend to go to sleep around 11-12 so keep that in mind. If you don't know whether you can arrive before that, please consider a hotel instead. I get very grumpy when woken up so I turn off my phone for the night! Please say in your request around what time you'll get here.

I don't usually make promises more than 2 weeks in advance but might reply 'maybe'.

CURRENT MISSION

Bring about a resource-based steady state economy

PHILOSOPHY

Live, let live and enable to live

My dream is to start a mostly self-sufficient organic vegetarian community in a warm country. Then help others do the same and provide alternatives to living in the current polluted individualistic materialist hierarchical society where 20% of people have depression and the population is generally unhealthy.

STUFF TO DO IN SF

Alcatraz is a must!! You need to book in advance or get waiting list tickets as it's very busy, but totally worth it.
There's many hiking opportunities like Glen Canyon, Corona Heights, Land's End. Great views from all the hills: Twin Peaks, Potrero, Mission Dolores, Bernal Heights.
Chinatown - Grant Avenue is the touristy bit; Stockton St has mostly grocery and kitchenware stores.
Japantown - SF is one of three cities in the US with a Japantown.
Golden Gate Park is a large area of greenery that also hosts the Botanical Gardens, Academy of Sciences, Conservatory of Flowers and a Japanese Tea Garden.
The Presidio is quite nice and has several sights such as Palace of Fine Arts and the Yoda Fountain.
Lombard Street has a funky steep and crooked segment (there's a similar one atop Potrero but you get a better view of the Lombard one)
Embarcadero is a great walk along the waterfront and includes sea lions, Fisherman's Wharf and leads to a small sandy beach (if you can brave the chilly waters!).
You can bike the famous Golden Gate Bridge, get great views from the other side, and take a ferry back from Sausalito. Bike Hut does bike rentals close to me.
A short BART ride away, Lake Merritt is lovely and has a Bonsai garden nearby.

On Tuesdays, join Curry Without Worry to cook for hungry people. Thursdays, Food Not Bombs cooks and shares food in the Mission. Alemany community farm hosts workdays on Mondays and Sat or Sunday.

My favourite restaurants: Shizen (Japanese), Enjoy Vegetarian (Chinese style mock meats), Tadu's Kitchen (Ethiopian), Bagan (Burmese), Indochine, Loving Hut (similar to Enjoy; they're also in Westfield mall)

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

Got spare space and don't mind sharing :D

Also I hate the fact that anyone has to pay to have a roof over their head. So in a small way this community is undermining capitalism :)

At the same time, I've met some very interesting people both as a host and surfer :)

Interessen

Activism, programming, psychology, vegan cooking, gardening, personal development, overusing emoticons ^_^

• photography
• cooking
• baking
• vegan
• gardening
• politics
• board games
• music
• astronomy
• psychology
• personal development
• activism
• public speaking

Musik, Filme und Bücher

Music: post-rock, prog-rock, trance, ambient, Chinese, Celtic, reggae. I have two favourite bands. One is Alcest who make simply the most beautiful otherworldly music (look up Sur L'Ocean Couleur de Fer and Voix Sereines if you don't believe me). The other is Levellers who are awesomely anarchist, green and inspiring (songs like Come On or We Are All Gunmen), yet often really sad (as in Another Man's Cause or When Love Runs Out of Time).

Movies: The Matrix (first one only), The Dictator (Sacha Baron Cohen film), In Time, Groundhog Day, Truman Show, 3 Idiots, PK (Bollywood)

TV: Game of Thrones, South Park, Big Bang Theory, Black Mirror, Black Books, Fullmetal Alchemist, Silicon Valley, Sherlock, Rick and Morty, The Expanse

Books: Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams, Song of Ice and Fire, 1984, Predictably Irrational, Change of Heart (my activism bible), Brave New World, Is It Utopia Yet (book about life in an intentional community), Radical (exposing islamism), Selfish Gene (explains genetics and evolution so well)

Games: Mass Effect trilogy, StarCraft 2, Breath of Fire IV, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolutions

I like art and stories that make me feel a wide range of emotions. Disturbing dystopian stories are so tasty (I'm a bit of a cynic). But I also enjoy a good comedy, especially if spiced with sarcasm :)

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

Given a talk in front of 385 people :) Also jumped out of a plane. Not sure which one was more scary at the time, but I did repeat the former 2 years after, while not really itching to repeat the latter ;)

Lehren, lernen, teilen

Psychology, personal development, vegan cooking, stuff you didn't know about the economy.

Got a few board games we could play: Space Alert, Compatibility and Joking Hazard (like Cards Against Humanity with comic strips, from the creators of Cyanide and Happiness)

Was ich mit Gastgebern teilen kann

Happy to cook something :)

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Bulgaria, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

Estonia, United Kingdom, United States