Hello- We're Thomas and Rose, two backpackers who love adventure, enjoying craft beer and mingling with good people. We have trouble staying in one place and so we've dedicated our lives to exploring ourselves and the lives of others thru travel. We've been traveling together since 2013 grounding ourselves in both Europe and South America and preparing for a year on the road.

We both caught the travel bug early in our twenties when traveling on our own, Thomas was preparing for his third trip to Europe and I (Rose) had just returned from five months in Ireland when we met. A little pizza, a map of Europe and big dreams brought us together in College. We’ve maintained a steady rotation of backpacking trips in the years since.

We continually encountered friends and family in the years of travel that couldn’t fathom how we could afford to travel. We loved the questions and witnessing so many people around us light up when we talked about travel. We wanted to put our passion to good use so our DIY travel site Scratch My Pack Travel became a way to hook others into travel. We set out to create both a resource and a platform for entertaining stories/pictures on the internet. Our mission is to uncover the possibilities of traveling on a practical budget and contribute to the caring and supportive backpacking community through a mutual sharing philosophy. Mutual sharing to us means being part of the new age in travel, working with a global community to share the best places, best stories and unique ways to travel.

A big part of who we are is wrapped up in our DIY travel website and that’s why it’s a part of our bio. It’s not often that you find a partner in crime that can not only handle every day with you, but they’re able to handle the stresses of travel and being an entrepreneur.

Bill Murray recently said “If you have someone that you think is The One, don’t just sort of think in your ordinary mind, 'Okay, let's make a date. Let's plan this and make a party and get married.' Take that person and travel around the world. Buy a plane ticket for the two of you to travel all around the world, and go to places that are hard to go to and hard to get out of. And if when you come back to JFK, when you land in JFK, and you're still in love with that person, get married at the airport.”

Nailed it! We’ve managed to work together and break the habits of a 9-5 American lifestyle— at least for the moment in order to follow our dreams. Somehow we’re lucky enough to do it together and we’re unbelievably lucky to continually meet amazing people everyday that round out our perspective of the world. We’re constantly surrounded by the beauty of new people and that’s why we turned to Couchsurfing—to meet new homies :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We would be falsifying ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge that the accommodations wasn’t a draw to the site, but as I (Rose) have surfed previously, I know that this site is so much more than that. It really is about meeting the wonderful people and experiencing cultures from a native perspective. We always have the most fun on our travels when run far from the tourist path and find the locals. The stories they have to tell and the knowledge they have about the area means way more than a bundled picture of a place. We’re also really interested in some smaller aspects of the community and cultures we encounter that you can’t find in a guide book. We really want to start a section on our blog about the best bookstores in town. We love to read and finding cool and unique bookstores makes for a great trip. We also want to learn more about the culture of coffee around the world. Not just where it’s grown, but what it means to the community. Is coffee something that brings people together, is it served after dinner, is it part of the family dynamic? All these thoughts and aspirations can’t be achieved without the help of engaging with the locals and the community.

Interests

What first came to mind was the outdoors. We love hiking and camping, enjoying waterfalls and trekking through the jungle. We feel most in touch with ourselves when we can be sharing good company outdoors. Our biggest hobbies also outline what we want to do in the future—Tom is passionate about photography and I’m passionate about writing. We love to read non-fiction, dance like weirdos, drink lots of coffee, listen to podcasts, poorly paint in our free time and to laugh uncontrollably with one another.

• photography
• dancing
• coffee
• reading
• painting
• podcasts
• hiking
• adventure travel
• travel
• food
• nature
• adventure
• outdoors

Music, Movies, and Books

Tom Music: Passenger, Dan Griffen, Fossil Collective, Lamb of God, Andy Shauf

Tom Movies:The Way, Gladiator, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 180 Degrees South

Tom Books: God Grew Tired of Us John Bul Dau
Off the Road by Jack Hitt
On the Edge; My Story by Richard Hammon
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Rose Music: Atmosphere, the hip-hop band is my ultimate favorite. I also love St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Twenty-One Pilots, City and Colour, Passenger, the Civil Wars and I'm sure the list could go on and on.

Rose Movies:The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 180 Degrees South, The Way, The Departed

Rose Books: Dress My Family in Cordoroy by David Sedaris
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Running With Scissors by Augustine Burroughs
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Tom: It may sound like a lame answer to others, but for me being able to break away from the mold of American society that says you go to school, you get a job, have a family etc. has been the most amazing thing I’ve done. I’m following my dreams and not getting scared or deterred by being different and not conforming. Traveling and abiding by my own mold has allowed me to do more and know more than I would have at a 9-5 job. It’s opened me up to amazing possibilities and I’ve learned far more about my own culture being able to see it and experience it through others.

Rose: This is a great question and it’s going to sound obvious when I say travel, but really it takes a lot of guts to go from looking at pictures on Pinterest and actually packing your bags. Especially when learning to travel independently. It’s a scary feeling to be in an unfamiliar place with new challenges and not knowing the first thing about how to get around— for me that was Ireland. When I gathered the courage to get on a plane by myself years ago, weathered the rain and found myself at the edge of Ireland at Giants Causeway I knew that life was bigger than the stresses and pressures of American life.

Teach, Learn, Share

This is such a cool part of the Couchsurfing community—the exchanging of values and information. We hope to teach people how to value laughter and positivity even when things are difficult. We hope to learn how to appreciate the simplicities of life, we hope to learn where the best bookstores and coffeeshops are in town and we’re always willing to learn how to be better explorers. We hope to share our passion for adventure, exchange knowledge about photography and our enthusiasm for storytelling.

What I Can Share with Hosts

From our DIY travel site we have an abundance of resources on how to travel for inexpensive which is something we are able and passionate about sharing. We could talk for days about how to book budget flights, how to save, and backpacks We love storytelling both orally and visually. We love to cook and would be honored to prepare meals with hosts. We can also offer experience in photography and webdesign skills if host wanted to learn more about developing connections online.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Peru, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, United States