Leif Carlsen's Photo

Verified Profile

  • Payment verified
  • Phone verified
  • Government ID not verified
  • Address Verified

Maybe Accepting Guests

  • 28% response rate
  • Last login 5 months ago

Join Couchsurfing to see Leif’s full profile.

Overview

  • 13 references 10 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in Danish, English, German; learning French, Spanish, Swedish
  • 71, Male
  • Member since 2009
  • Journalist by trade and education
  • Danish School of Journalism
  • From Aalborg, Denmark
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

To see the world before I die - although that may never happen ...

ABOUT ME

Shakespeare put it this way: Leif/Life is a Tale told by an Idiot...

I still wonder how he came to know me...

PHILOSOPHY

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Being a humble beginner I still have to get my bearings. However, I hope to meet a lot of good people along the Way - and I hope that others will meet me with the same appreciation.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

In the summer of 2009 I stayed with one CS-member in Estonia together with an American friend who actually introduced me to CS. Hedi Tralla who lives outside Tallinn in a big country house received both of us with a warm welcome, even though she three other CS-members in her house at the same time. When I say warm, I mean it literally - as she fired up her sauna and invited everybody to join in ;-)

Interests

Good music, movies, literature, contemporary life, politics and what motivates it. Life itself...Among the activities I enjoy are playing tennis, poker, swimming, barhopping, staying out all night...

  • literature
  • wine
  • beer
  • sauna
  • drinking
  • boating
  • politics
  • movies
  • chess
  • poker
  • music
  • sailing
  • tennis
  • swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Ooooh, there are many books and movies. One of my favourite movies is 'Macbeth' by Roman Polanski - an absolute epic. I love most of Stanley Kubrick's work, such as 'Clockwork Orange', 'A Space Odyssey: 2001' and 'Eyes Wide Shut'. Among the newer stuff I thoroughly enjoyed some of Tarantino's work, especially 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs'. Also the Coen brothers' stuff I enjoy, such as 'Fargo', 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'No Country for Old Men', 'The Big Lebowski', 'Burn After Reading' - really great, George Cloony turns out to be so much more than just a womanizer.

In the lighter category I still enjoy the 007-movies, but ONLY starring Sean Connery, who IS Bond.

There's so much good music out there, without which life would be less interesting. In random order I'd like to mention:

Van Morrison, Donovan, Bert Jansch, Ulf Lundell, U2, Rammstein, Dead Can Dance, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Pentangle, John Mayall (with or without The Bluesbreakers), Incredible Stringband, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Procol Harum, John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Gordon Lightfoot, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull, Neil Young (with or without Crazy Horse), Genesis, Kent, Bob Dylan, Trio, Mew, MLTR, Coldplay, Die Ärzte, Manu Chao, Shakira (Spanish period), Alanys Morrissette, Cornelis Vreeswijk, Povl Dissing, Church, Men At Work, Daryl Braithwaite, Sineád O’Connor, Rory Gallagher, Taste, Big Country, Run Rig, Jefferson Airplane, Horslips, Phoebe Snow, Chris Isaak, Steve Earle, Robert Plant, Morissey, Soundgarden, The Collins, Rod Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Melanie (Safka), Erasure, Gerry Rafferty, Free, James Taylor, Simple Minds, Robin Gibb, Eva Dahlgren, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Pearl Jam…just to mention a few…

Books: 'Kongens fald' by Danish author Johs. V. Jensen (who received the Nobel prize of Literature in 1944). Of more internationally known literature I can mention 'The Magus' by John Fowles, highly intriguing with its deliberately manipulated mix of reality and fantasy. I also loved reading 'No Country for Old Men' by Cormac McCarthy. The movie is fantastic and one of my favourites, but the book is up there as well in its own right, because in a book you get all the reasoning behind the action.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In 1995 I crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a three-masted schooner. After working on the boat for about a month in the Portuguese harbour city Porto, we finally set sails. We were 12 on board of several nationalities. First port of call was the Portuguese island Madeira and after that the Spanish Canary Islands, where we went west from La Gomera, the same island that Columbus sailed out from, and I went to see his house that is still there.

The crossing took us 39 days, so all the crew was happy when we finally saw the coastline of Barbados - not without some drama along the way. After the crossing I teamed up with an Irish guy who lived on a boat and made a living from sailing rental boats from island to island in the Caribbean, so I was crewing for him and got to see around a dozen of the beautiful Caribbean Islands, culminating with joining the carnival in Trinidad.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love playing tennis, riding on bicycles, swimming, playing chess, drinking wine & beer, discussing, having fun - imagination is the only limit.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominica, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British, Åland Islands

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Denmark, France, Greenland, Sweden, Thailand, Viet Nam

Old School Badges

  • 1 Vouch
  • Pioneer Badge

Join Couchsurfing to see Leif’s full profile.

My Groups