Relaxed. Friendly. Curious about this wonderfull world we live in.

I have some amazing friends who live outside the Netherlands but come to Amsterdam regularly. They often stay at my place with other friends of theirs. Always great fun. That is why I decided to try CS and host interesting people from all over the world.

I know that a lot of people come to Amsterdam to get stoned and drunk. I don't mind that but I don't like really drunk people in my house puking all over the place.

This does not mean that you can not drink or get high at all. That is completely up to yourself. What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam! 😏
But please do it in moderation if you want to stay at my place.

I strongly BELIEVE that as long as we can communicate what we dis/like in terms of sharing a common space we will have a great time together.

I do not have many house rules apart from:
👍 please take of your shoes when you enter my appartment
👍 no smoking allowed inside the house
👍 relax and enjoy your stay

But the most important house rule is:
👍 do NOT consider my home a "free hotel", if you are ONLY looking for a free place to sleep at night look somewhere else 🤔
Remember that I share my own home, my valuable free time and my hospitality with you.
You don't have to pay any money but it is NOT for free. You can pay me back with your company, a happy smile and a good story. 😁

Please look through the profile to be sure we match - and know what to mention in your request :-).

I can not give you the keys . Let me know in advance in your request if you plan to come back late during your stay, as well as the arrival/departure time if available.

I like to enjoy the time together if possible, but of course it is not mandatory. Also the purpose of couchsurfing is to come and explore the beautiful city Amsterdam. The purpose is not that you should hang out the whole day in my appartement. I do have my own things that I only can and need to do in the weekends.

I do understand that sometimes travelers are tired and like to sleep out when they find a comfy bed but I appriate it when you get up between 11 - 12 at the latest.

When I have time I will show you some of the highlights of the city. Or else tell you where to find them if needed.

I don't drink cola, alcohol or coffee (disagrees with my stomach) so if you want these or have orther special wants/needs, there are 2 supermarkets and several shops close by (5 minutes walk) that we can go to and some restaurants.

************************************************
CURRENTLY I CAN ONLY HOST ON FRIDAY, SATURDAY
AND SUNDAY.
************************************************
What happens a lot lately is that some people send in a request for Friday / Saturday / Sunday. After I accept or say 'maybe' they suddenly change their request and ask me to host them on some other days during the week.

This is very annoying and disrespectful. I am very clear in the days that I can host people!

Anybody who does this will have his request denied. If I already accepted your request and you do this then your request will be cancelled.
*********************************************

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meet interesting people. Life is to short to meet them all but I am willing to give it a try.

I borrowed the following rules from a fellow CS. He is a very experienced CS host (cool and wise like Yoda in my humble opinion 🧘‍♂️ ).
I think these rules should be mandatory for all CS requests.

*********SOME SIMPLE COUCHSURFING HOSTING STEPS*************

************PLEASE, READ THIS AND MY PROFILE HOME BEFORE SENDING ME A COUCHSURFING REQUEST due to the fact that I get a lot of requests. I will mostly answer a request when you really think you'd specifically like to stay with me and tell me a little bit about why you think so*******************

👍 A FULL PROFILE is mandatory.

👍 Couch requests from EMPTY PROFILES will probably be replied with a simple NO with no further explanation.

👍 For those kamikazes, last minutes requests I will probably say ''NO'' because I might not have ENOUGH time to meet you.

👍 I usually reply from my laptop or mobile phone in a few hours. Sometimes straight away.

👍 FUNNY messages get extra bonus points, maybe add your own favourite Joke or just positive and cool vibes? Anyhow, thank for taking the time to write to me, really. I really appreciate it my friend!

👍 Please send me your dates in this format (Wed 8th, Feb).

CURRENTLY I CAN ONLY HOST ON FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

👍 I do quite a few things like every one else, so a week/days/day before you are landing please refreshing me with your arriving dates. You know, sometimes we've got loads of things in our head!

👍 Crazy travellers, please send them all to me! :)

👍 If you are looking for free accommodation only, you are definitely coming in the wrong way. You know that this beautiful Couchsurfing community is more than that, don't you?

I follow a few STEPS that I now go by if you are interested in sending me a couch surfing request. Reasons for me following these steps were from past experiences that I've had with hosting couchsurfers.

👍 Send me a proper couchsurfing request. What I mean by that is DO NOT SEND ME A PERSONAL MESSAGE WITHOUT A REQUEST (((((PLEASE, DON'T FORGET THE DATE))))) if you are trying to send in a couch request.

CURRENTLY I CAN ONLY HOST ON FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

👍 Tell me why you are interested in surfing at my house. Whether you have the same interests as me or not, or even just something simple like if I have black hair, it doesn't matter what it is. I like to socialise with different people. I like people from all different cultures, backgrounds, nationalities and/or races, etc.

👍 When sending me a request explaining why you want to surf into my home don't simply just say "I need a place to stay". While I do agree that couchsurfing is to stay at someones home I believe there is more to couchsurfing than just that. I like to know a better reason WHY.

👍 If I accept you and you do not end up coming to my house by any reason then please let me know in advance at least a few hours before. There have been some occasions where I accept a person into my house, they don't end up coming over and they have always let me know that they will not make it to my house. No big deal but please do keep me updated. Life goes on. It's all good buddy!

I always do my best to be as much FLEXIBLE as possible because in the end we're all human beings and especially when we're travelling something unexpected may come up ;)

👍 Obviously, I will look at your profile before I ACCEPT OR DENY.

👍 I will look at how much EFFORT you put into your profile. If it doesn't look like you put effort into your profile (example: having only one picture or having only pictures where your face is not visible or you haven't written anything about yourself just seems like a LAZY PERSON). Then, chances are that I will NOT accept.

👍 I also look at your PAST REVIEWS. I don't care about if you have a couple of negative reviews. I just want to know how much experience you have with couch surfing. But if you're NEW to couch surfing then it's okay too.

👍 If you are TRAVELLING with FRIENDS then I would like to know them as well. If they have any couch surfing profiles or even just Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and etc. Then that would be helpful as well if you can attach their link with your request.

👍 Most of all if I accept you into my house.
WELCOME! MI CASA ES TU CASA! ;)

Interests

Traveling with friends.
Reading.
Eating tasty, healthy foods.
Everything concerning health.
Having a great time.

Music, Movies, and Books

Different kinds of music. Pop, Rock, Latin, Jazz, Classic, Salsa. Love going to concerts (although it is getting more expensive every year). Favourite is still Prince (R.I.P.). I have been to more then 20 of his concerts.

Books: SF / Fantasy / Thrillers / Adventures.
Favourite book currently is Shantaram.
I have read 212 ebooks in exactly 3 years with my Kobo eReader! 😁

Movies: SF, fantasy (Lord of the Rings), adventure, Game Of Thrones, many more movies and series. If you like that then you have come to the right place!

Comics, manga's and anime's (all Ghibli studio movies). Love them all.
If you don't know the difference then I will try to explain it to you.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I did the World's Highest Bungy Jump from a bridge in South-Africa (216 meter from Bloukrans Bridge). And I survived!

Petting 3 almost full grown cheetahs inside a zoo in South-Africa. They were so kind not to bite me. I loved it. Beautifull animals.

Teach, Learn, Share

I would like to learn to play some guitar but never seem to find the time for it. 😉

Would like to learn Salsa but my hips are (probably) not flexible enough. But they say 'Practice makes perfect'. 🤔

I love playing backgammon, especially with people who are also really passionate about it.
My best opponent ever was my greek sister Eleni who would raise her eyes to the heavens and start cursing in greek every time I beat her! Can't wait for her next visit here. 😆

What I Can Share with Hosts

Relaxed appartment. A comfy bed or couch.

CURRENTLY I CAN ONLY HOST ON FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

I can teach you some dutch and make a healthy greenshake. 😆

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Laos, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Turkey