Hello there, you potential guest / host / friend!

I am a fairly relaxed and friendly individual. Originally from Istanbul, lived in Dublin for about 8 years, then moved to Cologne, and finally, I am in Berlin. Did a PhD in philosophy, but now working as a software engineer (mostly web development).

I used to do a lot of hosting and coaching in my Ireland days. But then I lost touch with the platform. Now, as I remember my experiences rather fondly, I’m thinking, maybe I will come back to it again. I would prefer short-term stays over long-term ones. Ideally, you wouldn't want to request more than 2-3 nights. I might potentially be open to it, depending on the circumstances and how interesting your profile is, but it's rather unlikely.

Here are some of the other corners of the interwebs where a version of me exist, if you wish to get a richer picture:

On Instagram, I am @s_e_l_m_a_n — https://instagram.com/s_e_l_m_a_n

On LinkedIn, you can find me under my name, Selman Nur — https://www.linkedin.com/in/selmannur

On Goodreads, you may peak at how much (or rather, how little) I read — http://goodreads.com/user/show/4317928

You are, of course, welcome to check my references here as well. No shame in admitting, I’m kind of proud of them, even though they are mostly from some good years ago and reflect more on who I was, rather than who I am. But hey, some say people don’t change :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I heard this website from friends none of whom experienced it. They talked about couchsurfing as if it is some sort of urban legend. Yet the idea was perfect and I decided to sign-up and give it a try.

My first CS experience was in 2013 as a solo surfer. I spent five days in Kinsale (Ireland) and I immensely enjoyed it –thanks to the people of Yellow House.

Soon after, I've got a room with an extra bed in it, so I became a host too. And I really enjoyed the experience. My room was graced with the presence of many great souls and I've made cool acquaintances and even a few, very special friends.

But then, about two years later, I had to move out, and ended up having to rent a tiny room thanks to the notorious housing crisis in Dublin (which seems to be getting worse and worse every year since then). Plus my flatmates were not very keen on the idea of having strangers in the house, so I took a long break from CS.

And then I've embarked a relatively epic trip across States and did a bit of surfing in that trip.

Some more years later, here I am, again on the platform, this time from Berlin, as mostly a host :)

Interests

I like climbing, dancing, playing basketball, swimming, cycling, skating, taking long strolls in alien cities and hoping to discover local gems by chance, engaging with the sort of chats that keeps going all night long, being in the company of people who can play an instrument or sing, being in the company of people who are kind and affectionate, being in the company of cute fluffy animals etc. etc.

• literature
• dancing
• cooking
• running
• bouldering
• cycling
• basketball
• swimming
• philosophy
• ukulele
• climbing
• programming
• skating

Music, Movies, and Books

2023 Update:
God knows when was it that I came up with these lists. It feels at least 10 years old 🙈

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I'll deal with this section in a very boring (but somewhat organized) way. So here you go. Some, but by no means all, favourites:

Books (Literature):
Franny and Zooey (Salinger),
The Ski Bum (Romain Gary),
Ask the Dust (John Fante),
Annals of the Western Shore (Ursula K. Le Guin),
Harry Potters (Rowling),
Ports of Call (Amin Maalouf),
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), My Family and Other Animals (Gerald Durrell)...

Books (Philosophy):
On Certainty (Wittgenstein),
Contingency Irony and Solidarity (Richard Rorty),
Killing Time (Paul Feyerabend),
Twilight of the Idols (Nietzsche),
Precarious Life (Judith Butler)...

Movies:
My Blueberry Nights (2007),
Short Term 12 (2013),
The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003),
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006),
Ghost World (2001),
With Honors (1994),
The Road (2009),
Before Sunrise/Sunset (1995/2004),
Never Let Me Go (2010),
The Sunset Limited (2011)...

TV Shows:
Scrubs, Sense8, Game of Thrones, Luther, Firefly, Suits, Lost, Rick and Morty, Battlestar Galactica, Avatar (which, of course, includes "The Legend of Korra"), Outnumbered, Death Note, House, Heroes, True Detective, The IT Crowd, Prison Break, Dark Angel, Extras...

Music:
Tame Impala, The Maccabees, Depeche Mode, Ray Lamontagne, Leonard Cohen, Dire Straits (only "Sultans of Swing", to be honest), Pink Floyd ("Comfortably Numb"), Nina Simone, Lana Del Ray, Moby, Joss Stone, The Staves ("Wisely&Slow"), Phosphorescent, Arthur Russell, God Is An Astronaut, Porcupine Tree, Paddy Dennehy & The Red Herring ("The Dance"), Katie Melua, Woodkid ("I Love You"), Cat Power...

Teach, Learn, Share

I think I am a bit like jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none kinda guy. I do know a lot of things that I'm happy to share, but I'm no expert in any of them.

I learned coding/programming (particularly JavaScript/TypeScript, but also python) with the help of, first, internet and, second, a dear friend. And I really LOVE it. I love writing code, teaching code, talking about code, so if that's of any interest to you I'd be more than happy to teach what I know and learn what you know.

I have a ukulele and I have been playing it super casually, on and off, since years. Because I haven’t really put any structured effort to it, I never get good at it. But I don’t suck it at it either. If you’re up for it, we can try to jam simple tunes together. You’ll probably have to do the singing though or else it will be a terrible tune with my untrained, dull voice :)

I also did a lot of bouldering back in the day. Haven’t done it properly since corona, but if that’s something you might find interesting I would most likely be up for going to a bouldering gym with you.

I am not a terrible cook, and I will almost certainly cook at least a meal for you.

This last paragraph, I seem to have written it a good 10 years ago or so. I am not sure if I still have the same optimism, how much of it got crushed under the weight of years and how much of it has survived,, but I love the fact that I once said/write said stuff like “people are magical” so I don’t wanna delete it:

Above all, I just like meeting with people and having all kinds of interesting chats with them. You never know how an encounter or a conversation will effect your life. People are magical. Not all of them, of course, but a good amount of them. So far I've been mostly lucky to attract the good, magical kind.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook (nothing fancy, but hopefully delicious enough), if I’m your guest I can bring you a small gift, I can take nice pictures of you, I can share what I know, I can keep you good company –if you fancy a company, that is. Because I am also super self-sufficient, as I lived most of my life on my own, thousands of miles apart from family & friends, so I also know how to entertain myself and how not to bother you.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, England, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Slovakia, Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Ireland, Turkey