CURRENT MISSION

Trying to tilt the work-life balance in my favour: spending more time travelling or at least combining work and travel ;-)

ABOUT ME

Vaccinated 5x against Covid-19 but still got it in February 2023...

I started backpacking at age 17 and have been to numerous places ever since. Whenever I have some time off I try to travel, be it city-trips or overland journeys. Several times I had the chance to combine work and travel which always gave me a much better insight into local life and culture.I am a paediatrician (children's doctor) as well as an anaesthetist (who is putting patients to sleep for surgery). At the moment, I have a part-time job (80%) at hospital where I am trying to focus on paediatric anaesthesiology. The remaining 20% I use to do world-wide repatriations of patients by ambulance jets like I did during a 3.5-year-stint in Australia when I did (aero)medical retrievals of children for 2.5 years.Because of the shifts both at hospital and the retrieval service I often have to work on weekends or at short notice which can make hosting difficult!I enjoy getting to know new people, tasting exotic food, testing my language skills, photography, experiencing great scenery but also being lazy at times...To find out more read my references, contact me or meet me in person!

PHILOSOPHY

'You never get a second chance to make a first impression'

'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.'
The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

During the first few months after I registered I wasn't very active on CS. Only recently I started surfing, spruced up my profile, attended CS meetings and joined some groups.
Due to my irregular shift work (including many nights and weekends) it may be difficult to host people at times but I would like to meet up for a coffee, sightseeing, excursion etc. if I have the time.
And I am looking forward to meeting/staying with people next time I am on the road!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Before joining this website I have done 'independent' couch surfing on previous occasions while traveling. Often people were very helpful, invited me to stay with them and provided me with further addresses of friends of theirs (Australia was a particularly great experience in this respect!!!). Likewise, I had other travellers stay with me every now and then.Meanwhile, I have had my first experiences through this website - and they were all positive...
In case some of the following links are not working it's probably because people have changed their usernames recently and I haven't had a chance to update them yet! Sorry about that

(nights in brackets) Emmanuelle, Pierre, Lili & Victor (2) in Mayotte () Sylvain et Valérie Barbot (2) in St. Leu/La Reunion () Klaus, Karin, Julia & Peter Widmann (2) in Oberstdorf () Bettina Zaar (2) in Kangerlussuaq () Kurt Nielsen (2) in Nuuk () Anton Overballe (3) in Uummannaq () Arnaud Jordan with Cécile, Loreleï & Léo (2) in Tahiti () Laurent Bardou (4) in Rangiroa () (nights in brackets) Ellyse (2) in Nürnberg () Roman Steiner (2) in Nürnberg () Kasia, Jacek, Jasio, Zosia & Witus (2) in Nürnberg () Erin Oldman (5) in Nürnberg () Keith O'Sullivan (5) in Nürnberg () Christian Salvisberg (1) in Nürnberg () Jannik Beugger (1) in Nürnberg () DaeJin Kim (2) in Nürnberg () Peter Althaus (1) in Nürnberg () Gregor Malzacher & Florian Müller We spent 12 days together in North Korea and continued to Beijing by train (, ) Carles Gonzalez Leon Survived the same flight from Russia to North Korea (, ) Fedde Jorritsma Day-tripped together from Nukus to Lake Aral () Jens Soelberg We were the only 'Westerners' on a train from Russia through Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan - and shared the same name (, , ) Jakob Rauche We hiked, dived and explored beautiful Dominica together () Mark Donohoe We spent a few days bush-walking and partying in Mission Beach/Australia () Aussiedingo in Fürth () Liga Riekstina in Fürth () Klaus Widmann in Nürnberg & Fürth () Kerstin in Nürnberg () Tobias Pezolt in Nürnberg () Parnuna Egede in Nuuk () Lars-Peter Heilmann in Nuuk () Steffie in Nürnberg & Fürth () Manuel Gelsen in Nürnberg () Simone Fruehhaber in Nürnberg () Jonathan Bechtel in Nürnberg () Melanie in Nürnberg () Iris Merzi in Nürnberg () Sebastian Karg in Nürnberg () Pio Jaworski in Nürnberg & Fürth () Shaun Mahon in Nürnberg & Fürth () Stephan in Fürth ()and several others during local CS meetings...

Interests

Meeting friends, backpacking, photography, badminton, diving, all sorts of air travel but also travelling overland, outdoors, indoors, geocaching, great food, cocktails, reading, music, my job as a doctor...

• culture
• photography
• dining
• cocktails
• coffee
• walking
• partying
• reading
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• backpacking
• surfing
• scuba diving
• badminton
• medicine
• sightseeing
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Too many to mention - but to highlight a few I quite like Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and U2 and I do enjoy travel-related novels, especially historic ones...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Too many to narrow them down to one!
To show you some of the places I have seen I will add more and more links to my photo albums:Tobago Grenada St. Vincent & the Grenadines St. Lucia St. Maarten St. Kitts Antigua Dominica Barbados French Polynesia – Diving in the Tuamotus French Polynesia – Society Islands French Polynesia - Nuku Hiva Outback Australia – random pictures

Teach, Learn, Share

Since I have spent quite a bit of time backpacking I think I can share some travel-related experiences. And some medical advice if needed...I'd love to improve my language skills, especially French and Spanish but would like to learn the basics in other language as well (e.g. Portuguese etc).

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Comoros, Cook Islands, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, North Korea, Northern Ireland, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, Uganda

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