hello my dear friends around the globe,

my name is paul, i was born in graz, a rather small city (approx 300 000 inhabitans – steadily rising) in the central european country of austria. i was raised in graz and spent my whole lifetime there. in june 2017 i finished school and spent the following year mostly procrastinating. since 2011 i have been playing ultimate frisbee with my club team catchup graz and in various national team divisions.

since ancient times it has been a common thing to travel in order to develop not only specific but also very generel skills and knowledge as well as an understanding of the things happening in the world and also in order to look at and get in touch with other ethnicities and their culture and grow by seeing things from different perspectives. in my opinion adolescents nowadays are urged by our western society to immediately start studying after finishing school – studying not in a proper sense but in the sense of learning something so that they fit into our global capitalistic system and contribute to economic growth and development of the developed countries.

that’s the main reason among others as learning different languages and hand crafts, meeting interesting people, exploring the diversity of ecosystems and habitats on earth, learning how to deal with previously unfamiliar situations and tackle problems without being able to rely on anyone else and just enjoying the freedom of being a nomad, why i decided to pack all the stuff i need to survive on my old puch roadbike – baptized with the name concordia – and cycle the world.

i’m trying to travel sustainably and very extensive in terms of financial concerns. when traveling, you are faced with three major categories of expenses: transportation, accommodation and food. transportation and accommodation will be the easiest to tackle without spending money since i’m going by bike and have a tent with me to sleep in and hopefully find people letting me spend a night on their couch when i’m in a bigger city or the weather is just too bad. nutrition is a bit harder as it is not really predictable. dumpster diving is a great way to get to food in bigger cities, but still something you can’t rely on. so thererfore i’m trying to find some ways to earn money from time to time or – what I would prefer even more – to work in exchange for goods or services.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

because of the possibility of finding a place to stay when being in a bigger city and getting to know locals

Interests

• writing
• crafts
• gardening
• dumpster diving
• bouldering
• woodworking
• cycling
• hiking
• swimming
• urban exploration
• slackline
• ultimate frisbee
• beach volleyball
• hammocking
• bikepacking
• alley-cat-races

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria