CURRENT MISSION

Yipiyayyoooooooo

ABOUT ME

I don't think most people understand the huge urge I have to travel. It's not something that i can put into words so easily, but something i feel very strongly about. Why is it that the things you feel most strongly about are the hardest things to express in words? Somehow the sentence "i really want to travel" just doesn't capture all the emotions, feelings and huge inner need i have to plonk myself in other parts of the world! i guess it's something that you either feel or you don't.

PHILOSOPHY

"There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again." Bill Bryson

“What an odd thing tourism is. You fly off to a strange land, eagerly abandoning all the comforts of home, and then expend vast quantities of time and money in a largely futile attempt to recapture the comforts that you wouldn't have lost if you hadn't left home in the first place.” Bill Bryson ( again )

"Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding." Bill Bryson ( yet again )

The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose. ( Match Point )

Each individual person is very important. Each person has tremendous potential. She or he alone can influence the lives of others within the communities, nations, within and beyond her or his own time.

Culture is useless unless it is constantly challenged by counter culture. People create culture; culture creates people. It is a two-way street. When people hide behind a culture, you know that’s a dead culture. (Prof. Muhammad Yunus)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

For one week I have Couchsurfed in and around Freiburg and have written daily articles about my experiences for a local newspaper. I had a great time full of amazing people and stories. Here are the articles (in German)
1.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/19/der-couch-tourist-auf-der-psychologinnen-couch-in-der-wiehre/
2.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/20/der-couch-tourist-unter-polizeischutz-auf-dem-sofa/
3.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/21/der-couch-tourist-vertrauter-gast-fuer-einen-tag/
4.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/22/der-couch-tourist-von-der-liege-auf-die-couch/
5.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/23/der-couch-tourist-vertraute-couch/
6.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/24/der-couch-tourist-zu-gast-bei-den-schwiegereltern/
7.Nacht: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/25/der-couch-tourist-die-letzte-nacht/
Fazit: http://fudder.de/artikel/2011/07/26/der-couch-tourist-die-bilanz/

Interests

Apart from travelling: Listening to music, concerts, movies, friends, reading, playing handball,cooking, my nieces/nephews...

• culture
• concerts
• cooking
• flying
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• handball
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Radiohead, Angus&Julia Stone, Rise Against, Something for Kate, Death Cab for Cutie, Sophia, Bon Iver, R.E.M,Kettcar, Mumford&Sons, Alexi Murdoch, Oasis, Bush, Laura DiStasi, The Gaslight Anthem, William Fitzsimmons, Tina Dico, Kooks, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, Taking Back Sunday, There Will Be Fireworks, Travis, Dredg, The Shins, John Butler Trio, Smashing Pumpkins, Frightened Rabbit, Nirvana, Alanis, Jonsi, Sublime, But Alive...
Books: John Irving "Owen Meany", Paul Auster "Moon Palace", Erich Maria Remarque "All quiet on the western front", Ishmael Beah "A long way gone", Philip Roth "The human stain", Geoffrey Blainey "A very short history of the world", Norman MacLean "A river runs through it", Salman Rushdie "The satanic verses", John Steinbeck "Grapes of Wrath",Otfried Preußler "Krabat",Augusto Roa Bastos "Yo el supremo", Ronald Reng "Robert Enke: Ein allzu kurzes Leben", Carlos Fuentes "Terra Nostra", George R.R. Martin "A song of ice and fire", Lonely Planet Guidebooks...
Movies: American History X, 25th hour, Lost in translation, Mulholland Drive, Trainspotting, Crash, Leaving Las Vegas, Garden State, Closer, 21 Grams, Blue Valentine, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Visitor, American Beauty, Half Nelson, Mammoth, Kopps, Slum Dog Millionaire...

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Paraguay, Spain, Sweden