It´s August 2015 and I haven´t been on CS for over a year now. Things have changed around here. Time for a quick profile update, I guess. I am really bad at burying myself in adjectives. So I´ll just stick with the facts. I have been living in Berlin for two years – with occasional intermezzos to Portugal, Romania and Poland. I study cultural sciences in a small town an hour away, called Frankfurt (Oder). I get by through cataloging books for a small library, preparing traditional pastries at street fairs and doing some translating. When I´m not studying or working, I´m probably on my balcony having a coffee and skimming through the news, taking a walk or meeting up with friends. I like keeping it simple.

Practical info for potential hosts: because of a chronic back illness, I sometimes have problems walking around a lot, sleeping on hard (or extremely soft) surfaces and doing basically anything that an average 60 year-old might have difficulties doing :))

Practical info for potential guests: I go to bed late, I smoke (on my balcony though) and I do not have any useful info on the crazy Berlin nightlife. If you’re looking to go to an exhibition, a concert or a pub though, this might be the right address.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I first surfed in Vienna back in 2009. Since then there have been periods of intense hosting and surfing followed by longer periods of inactivity. I like traveling alone from time to time and couchsurfing seems to be the ideal means. I have not only had great guests and hosts via CS in the past years, but also learned Portuguese and a bit of Polish, made friends and found flat-mates through weekly CS-meetings. So all in all CS opened (and hopefully still will open) a wide spectrum of opportunities for me.

Interests

I’m interested in stories and opinions, in languages and linguistics, in music and a healthy amount of silence, in getting a tiny glimpse of different ways to feel, think and live and last but not least in questions I never would have thought of posing myself. Also: passing through.

• books
• concerts
• cooking
• coffee
• walking
• music
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Director: J. Cassavetes, R. Andersson, Haneke, Ashby, Kieslowski, Wilder, Kim Ki-duk, Bergman
Movie: Jagten, Broken Flowers, Festen, Rope, Paha Maa, O slavnosti a hostech, Synecdoche New York, Shame
TV Show: The Sopranos, Arrested Development, Louie, Six Feet Under
Music: Bon Iver, Radiohead, Tricky, The Stone Roses, Sigur Rós, Do Make Say Think, Kispál és a Borz, Portico Quartet, Bonobo, Chinawoman
Book: I Served the King Of England, Homo faber, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Ulysses, Love in the Time of Cholera

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Random encounters always make my day.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: I gave German lessons for several years, so that’s one thing. I also used to play the guitar. I might even remember a few songs. Learn: languages? Although there might be other things out there which would interest me far more, and I don’t even know about them. Share: I like cooking. That’s a start.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A recipe, a story, some laughs, a film title or whatever else spontaneously comes to mind.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania