G'day folks, I hope y'all are doing well! :) I would consider myself widely travelled, with being to over 53 countries whilst only 26 y/o. I mostly low budgetly backpacked those countries by heart, couchsurfed in 43 of them, hitchhiked over x kilometers in x vehicles in 38 of them, lived in 5, and studied in 4 of them. ☺️🙌🏻

Despite that, I am also a finance guy. I worked in corporate finance, development finance, and the chief financial office of Germans largest bank, and will be obtaining a master's degree in international finance from one of the most highly ranked business schools in the world, higher ranked than the ones from Oxford and Cambridge. But enough with the stats and bragging now, ㅎㅎ. 😅🎓💸

I feel like heaps of people have stereotypes about that sector and its people. Some of it may be true, a lot of it definitely not, though. It's just a very different world and I enjoy living in both of them. I aim to leverage the experiences in one world to positively influence the other, and vice versa. 🤙🏻

🌿 I'm a 95% plant-based bloke due to environmental, health, and animal cruelty reasons. 🌿

🍀 Trying to become a person of value. 🍀

🌍 I consider myself a global citizen. 🌏

"Anyone can rise above themselves and achieve something great if they do it with dedication and passion." ~ Nelson Mandela

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am a person who would like to get to know as much as possible about the country, city, it's peoples and their culture. I think the best way to gain these experiences is to meet locals, preferable with good food, beer, wine, or some piece of herbal vaping/smoking device (as long as it's no tobacco, though - but rather some tea and cannabis). ;) Also, being off the beaten track is just so valuable, as travelling is not only about taking pics of churches and temples, but rather about making memories with the people (especially locals) you meet along the way. Couchsurfing is just one bloody god damn good way of doing exactly this, especially when those journeys are combined with some nice hitchhiking adventures. ☺️👍🏻

Interests

• traveling
• investing
• darts
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• skiing
• languages
• psychology
• hitchhiking
• cultures
• universe
• couchsurfing
• diving
• mindfulness
• meeting new people
• finance
• self-development
• cannabis
• plant-based
• development finance
• career-building
• beer and wine tasting

Music, Movies, and Books

techno, progressive house, oldies, country, lofi, classic (as I used to play piano for several years), mostly everything, though ~
I do like the actors Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio and movies such as • Catch Me If You Can and those finance movies like The Wolf of Wallstreet and The Big Short • Best movies of all time, though: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition (LotR ED) •

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

• Travelled overland all the way from Bali, Indonesia to Germany by hitchhiking, local bus, train, ferry, and hiking ~ without using an aeroplane. 🌏🌍🧭

• Hitchhiked from the Netherlands through the Balkans to Turkey while crossing 17 countries overland. 🇳🇱🔜🇹🇷

• Hitchhiked from Mexico through all of Central America to Panama. 🇲🇽🔜🇵🇦

• I jumped 134 meters deep. It's called the Nevis Bungy, located in Queenstown, New Zealand. A bloody terrific experience. 💯

• Did my diving certification in Bali. I'm allowed to dive to a depth of 30 meters now. 🐟

• Saw a shark in the wild, literally two metres in front of me. 🦈

• Touched dolphins in the wild. 🐬

• Climbed the Chinese Wall and ended up at the police station. 😂🇨🇳

• Took the six days Trans-Siberian Railway. 🚞

• Found the love of my life in New Zealand. 🇳🇿❤

• Bought an empty van, built it up with a cozy bed and a kitchen; and was living in it for a year. 🚐

• Bought another car and built it up with a less comfortable bed as well as a kitchen. However, that car overheated after two weeks and was too munted to continue to being used. 🥲🥹🚗

• Volunteered as an English teacher in Mongolia and Laos, and as a German teacher in Hungary. 👨🏼‍🏫

• Skied the steepest piste in Austria heaps of times. 🎿

• Went to the DMZ and saw the North Korean flag and its propaganda village. 🇰🇵

• Hiked a Great Walk for several days with a tent on my back around Oban, Stewart Island, south of New Zealands South Island. 🏕🇳🇿

• Saw the midnight sun on the Lofoten during a road trip through Norway and Sweden. 🇳🇴🇸🇪☀️

• Hiked from Switzerland through the whole of Liechtenstein to Austria - a total of 111 kilometres. 🇱🇮🏕

• Studied in Seoul, South Korea - and hitchhiked through the country. 🎓🇰🇷

• Hence, I can read Hangul, the Korean alphabet, but do barely know any grammar or vocabs, ㅋㅋㅠㅠ. 🥲🇰🇷

• Was an au-pair in a kiwi family in New Zealand for 2.5 months. 🥝🇳🇿

• Well, there's way too much to count, bugger me...

But anyway, you should try to give every second in your life the chance to be the most amazing one. Live now, since every moment has the potential to be amazing! ☺️🙌🏼

Teach, Learn, Share

• Anyone can rise above themselves and achieve something great if they do it with dedication and passion. • 🙌🏻
• The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. • 📈
• Love the life you live. Live the life you love. • 🗺
• A traveller has no fixed plan nor the intent on arriving. • 🧭
• The travel is often better than the destination. • 🌏
• A traveller sees what he sees. A tourist sees what he came to see. • 🌌

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can tell you heaps of stories about me, my journeys, and our universe (as far as my senses go, haha, I won't be able to explain it to you). 🌌 I might be able to offer you some good food, beer, wine, or cannabis. Well, and of course, my expertise regarding finance topics, such as investments, portfolio management, risk hedging, derivatives, development finance, so on and so forth. :) 💸

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea