After five years of looking, we now a have been for six years in a place we can call ours. For now, it's a house with a lot of so-called potential, a (slightly crashed) caravan and a rhododendron-covered garden in a midge-infested, rain-sodden, wind beaten and staggeringly beautiful corner of north-western Scotland.

We get a lot of requests and we often have people stay in the caravan from other channels, so apologies if I don't respond quickly. We prefer to host people for more than one night so we can engage a little bit, but if you are desperate and if we have the space free, send us a note anyway.

*****

The six months we spent couch-surfing in Canada and New Zealand and Australia in 2010 have been one of the most amazing in our lives.

We have crossed Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, pretty much Couch Surfing all the way. We have seen the whales in St Lawrence and bears in Yoho. We ate lobster in Halifax and moose in Sioux Lookout.

We met a number of incredibly thoughtful, hospitable, generous people who opened their doors and hearts to us.

Australia and NZ were pretty good too.

After Canada, Australia and NZ, we went for a six-month long drive in Europe, not quite CS-ing.

* * * * * *

We are a family consisting of a Polish woman (47), British man (53) and 2 Brito-Polish children growing up at ridiculous rate. We lived in a tiny village about 10km from Perth for four years, then went travelling. Now we are in the Highlands, 2.5 hours drive from the nearest Sainsbury's.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is the result of a complex sequence of chemical reactions and has no underlying meaning.

Still, the universe in general and the Earth in particular are pretty awe-inspiring.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We have done a bit of hosting and we done some surfing. It's been fabulous.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We hosted a bit and then went travelling and surfing ourselves and it has been brilliant. The generosity and hospitality of all people we have encountered so far has been really amazing and I can't understand why everybody doesn't travel this way!

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Couch Surfing hosting has been a very positive experience which enriched, inspired and provided pleasant company.

Interests

Between us our interests probably cover most areas of human activity; history, language, books, travel, a bit of music, a bit of film, a bit of politics and so on. We don't have a telly and we are fast approaching so called middle age so the current celebrity gossip, soaps and similar would draw a bit of a blank. Katie and Alex play trad music so if you can play, let us know in your request.

• writing
• books
• literature
• photography
• cooking
• politics
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• music
• folk music
• guitar
• history
• languages
• psychology
• performance art
• theatre
• traditions
• the sea
• fiddle
• traditional music
• trad

Music, Movies, and Books

We can discuss that when we meet, eh?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most amazing things are always the ones yet to happen. But our Canada trip was been pretty ... ummm ... awesome.

Teach, Learn, Share

How to couch surf with a family. Best places to see locally. Magda knows about writing, speaking Polish, books, psychology, cooking, travel, translation and interpreting. Alex knows about woodturning, TFEL, playing guitar and mandolin and history. Katie knows about drama, art, music (fiddle) and local art/music scene.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom

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