CURRENT MISSION

Stay in one place for longer than two months!

ABOUT ME

Tough hitchhiker, devoted bench-sleeper, skilled fly-killer, bestselling-author-to-be, smoked cheese lover, talented Polish-English interpreter - that's Daniel Polansky.

-- Piotr and Agniezka

PHILOSOPHY

All travelers are optimists...travel is a sort of optimism in action. I always went along thinking: I'll be all right, I'll be interested, I'll discover something. I won't break a leg or get robbed, and at the end of the day I'll find a nice old place to sleep. Everything is going to be fine, and even if it isn't, it will be worthy of note--worth leaving home for. -- Paul Theroux

We improve ourselves by victories over our self. There must be contests, and you must win. -- Edward Gibbon

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. -- Earnest Hemingway

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have spent the better part of the last four years bumming around the planet, in large part thanks to the kindness of abject strangers -- which is to say, I think couchsurfing is amazing. Beyond meeting some great people it really forced me to reevaluate my general contempt for humanity. I surf whenever I can, and host during those rare periods when I'm not traveling.

Interests

Hip Hop, Funk and Soul, Tropicália, High Life and Afrobeat, Chess, The 80 Year War, The 30 Year War, Stones Throw Records, Nietzsche Aphorisms, The East Indian Trading Company, David Lynch, The Mughal Empire, Numero Comps, Walter Hill Movies, The Development of British Parliament, Hip Hop, Hip Hop, Hip Hop.

• writing
• books
• cheese
• flying
• movies
• chess
• reading
• traveling
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

J Dilla, Lee Moses, Johnny Cash, MF DOOM, The Velvet Underground, Karen Dalton, RZA, Madlib, Caetano Veloso, Sir Victor Uwaifo
The Third Man, The Warriors, Mulholland Drive,
Raymond Chandler, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Shelby Foote, Jorge Louis Borges, Proust, Gene Wolfe, Saul Bellow

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once talked a mugger out of mugging me. He wasn't much of a mugger, but still.

Reading Black Lamb Grey Falcon in the Balkans.

Sold a book?

Teach, Learn, Share

I like to believe I can string together a sentence.

I flatter myself in thinking I have some small knowledge about Hip Hop and the development of Western civilization.

Practically speaking, I can wash dishes like a master.

I would like to learn about the history of everything -- more specifically, I would like to learn about the history of your country, it's cultural, ethnic, linguistic and artistic development, and the contributions it has made to the great brotherhood of humankind.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Wales, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Germany, Taiwan, United States

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