CURRENT MISSION

Exploring and socializing in...

ABOUT ME

A sincere Big Up! to all the 'internauts', travellers, dreamers and open minded people out there, i'm Maarten. Born in the beginning of the dark eighties-decade as the youngest in a warm and loving family of seven, i was since childhood involved in the ever expanding world of music, (sub)culture(s) and social awareness. All of this, and a whole other gamma of - at the time - 'adult & mature-stuff', being passed by my older brothers, sisters and their surroundings gave me the opportunity to develop an independent mind at early stage and a strong love for music, culture, nature, humor, life, love and social networking. Therefore 'couchsurfing' is a bloody magnificent platform to digg deep in these kind of spectra, and that's exactly what i'm here for!

To characterize the rest of me, i would say i'm...:

allways in for a laugh, nocturnal, complicated, warm, confused, colourfull, social, difficult, emphatic, lame & impossible before 10 a.m., respectfull, curious, keen to learn, openminded, moodswingy, enthousiastic, melancholic, helpfull...

PHILOSOPHY

Wanderlust !

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Rob in Sydney, Australia
Oliver in Toronto, Canada
Nicholas in Vancouver, Canada
Claudio in Lima, Peru
Bienvenido in Trujillo, Peru
Various people on the road...

Interests

Hunting down new music, movies & documentaries, having a good laugh & absurd humor, photobooks, history, girls!, meeting new interesting people & social networking, philosophy-attempts, the human subconsciousness & multi-dimensional universe theories, going out intensively, unexplored deepsea, culture, soccer, blue sunny skies & deep dark nights, newspapers & magazines, cinema, space, travelling & discovering, globalisation, exploring abandoned places & industrial wasteland, watching sunrises & sunsets, going on impulsive road & city trips, large dark forests, musea, languages, harbours & ports, internet, (international) politics to a certain extent, hanging out with friends, urban developpement, brown bread & strong cheese & red wine, modern technology, castles & bunkers, nature & environment, spirituality, geography, long walks in the middle of nowhere, actuality, myths & mysteries, subway-systems, architecture, skyscrapers, atlasses, good food & Belgian beer and occasionally doing the good ol' NOTHING AT ALL ...

A big part of the previous actually culminates in enjoying intense night-, social-, work -and citylife in 'ye olde', beautifull and booming Antwerpen, my homebase (next to Retie, my birth-village)

• culture
• architecture
• documentaries
• environment
• dining
• wine
• red wine
• cheese
• beer
• politics
• technology
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• hunting
• rock climbing
• soccer
• track and field
• geography
• history
• languages
• hitchhiking
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

* MOVIES:

Pi, Das Leben der Anderen, Clockwork Orange, C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man bites dog), Children of men, Fight Club, The Big Lebowski, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Touching the void, Heat, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, ...

* DOCUMENTARIES:

4 Elements, Zeitgeist, Loose Change, Manufactured Landscapes, What the bleep do we know; down the rabbit hole, Our Daily Bread, Into Great Silence, The Qatsi-trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoiqatsi), Louis Theroux, National Geographic-docu, ...

* BOOKS

* "Abandoned Places" by Henk Van Rensbergen:

A fascinating photo-exploration of abandoned factories, industrial wastesites, empty castles, etc...all over Belgiums disused industrial and cultural patrimonium, only touched by time and the elements. Shiveringly intriging!

* "Leven na de mens" ("After Man: a zoology of the future") by Dougal Dixon:

A beautifully sketched hypotheses of how life would evolve 50 million years from now. Funny drawings and mesmerizing explanations!

* "Great Beers of Belgium" by Michael Jackson:

THE Belgian beer bible!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Several !: Hitchhiking on Frasier Island's tropical beach (Ozz) and trough Southern Europe, climbing the highest snow-covered mountain of Australia on crappy sneakers, Tramping the Kepler-track in Fjordland National Park, New Zealand, Cruz de los Mares trekking to Cabo Froward, Chile...

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium

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