Hello! Nice to meet you! :-)

My name is Stefan from Dresden in Germany. I'm excited about meeting interesting people, exploring new places I've never been and learning about cultural differences as well as daily life in different countries.
I'm using Couchsurfing for a while now. I started using it during my last journey in 2022/2023.
A traveller from Pakistan showed this wonderful opportunity to get in touch with local people and travellers all over the world to me. It was for sure one of the best things happened during 1,5 years of travelling.
Without couchsurfing I would have missed out so many things that made my journey unique and unforgettable.

Originally I'm from a town called Chemnitz in the Eastern-Part of Germany.
I used to work as an engineer at the development department of a big company producing textile machines.

I found a new job in Dresden and moved there. I'm setting up my new flat right now. That means I can't host surfers right now, but I'm planning to do so soon.
If you need somebody to show you around or have a cup of coffee or tea, just let me know!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

In the past I did a lot of trips through Europe. A lot of them were bicycle trips together with my two best friends.

I love biking, hiking, staying in the nature at all as well as enjoying culinary differences, learning something about different ways of living, society and culture.

Interests

I'm a very curious and versatile person.

Back home I did a lot of different kinds of sports. I like bicycling in every terrain and bicycle-travels a lot. Additionally, I went for indoor climbing and bouldering multiple times a week, played some Frisbee and did some floorball in the past. I love Trekking, hiking and staying in the nature.

Other than that, I'm interested in doing-myself. I'm dealing with traditional wood-art from my region. I like to get into technical systems (oven, PC, TV...it doesn't matter) and repair technical devices by myself if possible. Most of the time, I also did maintenance and repair at my car by myself to earn some knowledge and save money.

I love coffee☕️, cooking🍝 and baking🎂 a lot as well as eating! 😉 I like to try different, new recipes and increase my skills.

Furthermore, I have a great interest in current affairs and history. I enjoy visiting museums, watching documentaries, visiting historical places...and of course having a chat about these things.

Last but not least...I like travelling to widen my horizon and meet interesting people of different countries!

• diy
• electronics
• bouldering
• hiking
• travelling
• trekking
• biking
• climbing
• mountainbiking
• roadtrip

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm not really into movies...but I love documentaries. (Also very useful for finding new destinations for traveling. ;-))
I started reading books in English language...I'm happy about recommendations for good books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

🇩🇪 ➡️ 🇷🇴 ➡️ 🇧🇬 ➡️ 🇹🇷 ➡️ 🇮🇷 ➡️ 🇵🇰 ➡️ 🇮🇳 ➡️ 🇹🇭 ➡️ 🇱🇦 ➡️ 🇻🇳 ➡️ 🇹🇼 ➡️ 🇻🇳 ➡️ 🇰🇭 ➡️ 🇵🇰 ➡️ 🇹🇷 ➡️ 🇩🇪

In 2022 I took a leave from my job. I needed to get away from monitors, computers and technical stuff... So I decided to start travelling...I took a break of 1 year and extended it up to 1,5 years. It was filled up with explorations, encounters, discoveries and experiences!

I never left Europe before. In April 2022 I left home with my backpack. I was a bit concerned what may wait for me and if it might be a good decision. Finally, I ended up in one of the biggest and most exciting adventures of my life. I'm glad to have made this decision and all these experiences. I'm thankful and happy about every single person I had met on my journey...a lot of them through Couchsurfing. I started my journey in Romania, moved on to Bulgaria and Turkey. My goal was to reach South-East-Asia by land. In Turkey I met a very good friend of mine through couchsurfing-hang-out. I travelled with her all the way through Turkey 🇹🇷 and Iran 🇮🇷 to Pakistan 🇵🇰 (her home-country) by hitchhiking. I started using couchsurfing daily.
The following 2 months I spend in Pakistan and explored nearly every region, met unbelievable friendly and hospitable people, got to know lots of different traditions, religions and cultures.
Finally, I crossed Wagah-Border to India. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to travel further west by land (The border to Myanmar was closed at that time.). This is why I decided to make my way down south at the indian west-coast. My last stop in India used to be Bengaluru. I really enjoyed the adventures, people, nature, cultural diversity and places in India! 🇮🇳

From Bengaluru, I took a plane to Phuket in Thailand to start another adventure! 🇹🇭 Within 1,5 months, I crossed Thailand, ate amazing food, explored stunning landscapes in North and South and had some interesting moments with local people. Before I came to Vietnam, I found myself in Laos...the most laid-back country with one of the saddest history, I've ever been to 🇱🇦.
In Vietnam I realised another dream...a motorcycle-trip through Vietnam and Cambodia! 4 weeks in Vietnam passed by very quickly. To renew my visa I visited Taiwan and was impressed by the modernity of that country.
After coming back to Vietnam I followed the Ho-Chi-Minh-path all the way to Cambodia to visit the world heritage site of Angkor Wat. It is probably the most remarkable historical site I've ever visited. After another short visit to Bangkok my journey was about to end... On the way back, I decided to meet my friend in Pakistan again and I had a another stop in the magical and amazing city of Istanbul before coming back to Berlin.

There're so many stories to share and I'd love to listen to your story!

In the past I did a lot of bike-trips through Europe together with my two best friends, too.
We travelled a lot within our holidays. Usually we did more than 1000km within one month.
Riding a bike means real freedom to me. My next journey will be a bike-trip again!

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm fluent in speaking English but I'm still improving. Some time ago I also started learning Russian but got stuck a little bit. If somebody likes to learn some German...so I'll provide some help.🙂

I can share my knowledge as well as my experiences I collected during travel.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm a kind and helpful person. I like discussions about politics and social life and I'm interested in a lot of other kind of topics. I'm sure there'll be some interesting talks if desirable.

Additionally I'm really good at doing myself...so if there's something need to be fixed...I could try. :-)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany