CURRENT MISSION

Dear prospective future guest/CouchSurfer,

due to an increasing number of, to say the least, rather unsatisfying requests in recent times I would like you to know the following should you consider contacting me:

If you want to stay at my place, can you please make sure that you have a proper profile with a solid number of pictures and enough information about yourself to give me a good idea as to who wants to spend how much time with me and why you prefer to stay exactly with me over other couchsurfers in the area.
And if you travel with friends then please upload one or two pictures of them as well. After all this is my private sanctuary I will let you in.

I don't run a ho(s)tel free of charge, but am someone who, if possible, offers his private space, time and great hospitality to people who really share what I would consider a true CouchSurfing or backpacking spirit and therefore won't host anyone sending me a copy-and-paste message. If you can't bother writing a friendly and clearly personal request then you'll have to rely on the hospitality of less old fashioned people than I apparently am... :-)
On top of that I prefer hosting travellers whose profiles show their own willingness to also host other travellers themselves when they're at home.

Especially if you come to Rosenheim because of a seminar or a spiritual event of some sort, chances will be much higher that I can host you if you contact me well in advance. I sometimes receive requests two, three days before or even on the very same day which clearly shows me that these people only look for free last minute accomodation and not for someone to share an - however short - episode of their life with.

And finally:
In my profile it says that I only answered around 90 % of the requests. That's not true. I've answered 100% over all these years, but, when they changed the CS-website I frequently forgot to hit the respective buttons along with the messages. That's why.

I think it becomes quite clear what kind of host you can expect if you read my profile and references properly so if you like what you read I'm looking forward to spending some memorable times together with you here in Rosenheim!

Cheers,
Florian

ABOUT ME

I was born and bred in the Bavarian Alps just on the border to Austria and - actually only just a bit more than one hour away from the Italian border - spent most of the first two decades of my life there.

My father always stressed the importance of having, as he called it, a "broad horizon" and therefore took me and my three sisters to almost every place of historic and cultural importance on the whole continent as well as providing me with a lot of books (which I wasn't too happy about at the time, as I prefered playing football (soccer) and tennis). The seed was certainly sown...

After school I went to university and started travelling on my own. Now I work in a school close to my hometown (to put a very very long story extremely short). I try to make best use of the six weeks of summer holidays by travelling to places I so far haven't been to.

An incomplete overview of my travels:
So far I've altogether spent around three and a half years abroad, with my most significant backpacking tours/stays abroad being a trip to Southeast Asia (1996), one academic year as a teaching assistant in Scotland (1996/1997), a highly interesting tour through six southern African countries (1997), 6 months of University (Valparaiso/Chile) and travelling in South America (1999/2000), 8 months in Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific (2002/2003), 3 months in Central America (2005/06), where I nearly died of Dengue Fever in Nicaragua and eventually a trip to all the southeastern and eastern countries of Europe I hadn't been to so for (2007) as well as an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the Baltic Sea (2008).
The summer of 2009 I spent in a number of locations in the US such as Seattle, San Diego, Temecula, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco with short stopovers in Mexico (Tijuana) and Canada (Vancouver, Whistler).
August and the first half of September 2010 was dedicated to travelling Japan and South Korea with a day's stopover in Qatar.
On my way to Hong Kong in late July 2011 I stopped over in Dubai before making may way down to Singapore via Macau and southern China, visiting Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia on the way. Summer 2012 was dedicated to visiting friends and my favourite philosopher Ken Wapnick in the US.
August 2013 was dedicated to Myanmar, a few parts of India and Sri Lanka, my last big trip so far.

PHILOSOPHY

I like the idea expressed in many philosophies that we are all connected in our minds, yet seperated in the way we experience ourselves as bodies for the time we are on this planet.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've received a great deal of hospitality over and over again during my travels. In the same fashion my parents have always put up people from all over the world. Both aspects eventually made me join CouchSurfing.
So I host and show around people who want to come to my place and therefore get a bit of travelling-feeling while at home and when I'm on the road I get the opportunity to connect with the locals and therefore learn more about the area than by staying in backpackers places or even hotels.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Overall positive. Just nice people - both the hosts and the visitors!

Interests

Generally: Enjoy, whatever there is to be enjoyed.
More specifically: Sports, travelling, going out, meeting friends, watching ice-hockey matches of my local team or football matches on TV together with my friends, profound discussions, reading and every day at least a few moments of silence.
Apart from that: good food and drink.

• writing
• books
• fashion
• dining
• running
• drinking
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• backpacking
• sports
• soccer
• hockey
• tennis
• philosophy
• hitchhiking
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Unfortunately I hardly have the time to really play music any more. I used to play the trumpet and cello, but these days only occasionally get round to picking up my electric guitar. I enjoy listening to melodic/classic heavy metal (no trash or death metal or anything of that sort), hard rock (AC/DC, Status Quo, etc.) and also all sorts of Classical Music, especially Beethoven, Bruckner, Verdi and Mozart.

Movies: I'm not too much into movies. I like documentaries or movies with a profound and timeless message like "Ghandi" or "Dead Poets Society", though.

Books: As a child I loved the likes of "Robinson Crusoe", "Treasure Island" etc. I like Bill Bryson, used to read Paolo Coelho a lot, but for most of the time I actually read psychological or philosophical literature with my favourite authors being Ken Wapnick and Gary Renard (although I'm sure they would never call themselves philosophers). Dan Millman is also a very good one, not to be forgotten the "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. THE book, for me, is "A Course in Miracles".

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Maybe the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia in terms of seeing and a parachute jump in terms of doing, but there are so many more places and events I could think of. Let's take sleeping on sanddunes in the Sahara, having been abducted in Africa once, having met people somewhere during my travels who have become actual lifetime friends and hitchhiking New Zealand.
A lot of my fellow travellers. I've met so many interesting people and I've heard so many interesting stories!

Teach, Learn, Share

"Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda,
"Peaceful Warrior"/"Socrates" by Dan Millman,
"The Disappearance of the Universe" by Gary Renard
"Never forget to laugh" The biography of Bill Thetford by Carol Howe
And way above all: A Course in Miracles

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Chile, Germany, United Kingdom