Top reasons you should try Couchsurfing

Hello again guys, did you miss me? Sorry, but it has been so long since my last post in your favorite blog. I have been busy with my studies, work, futbol and girlfriend (if you know what I mean). But now I am here, so stop missing me and read the following.

My first post in this blog was about the Couchsurfing program, (so if you still do not know what is ‘Couchsurfing’ you can find all the information in my first post), we talked about my personal experience in this program and many other things. So now that we are all familiarized with this program, I want to tell you 5 great reasons, advantages, pros, etc of doing this, in case you are still doubting whether to participate or not , this post will be ideal for you to clarify your mind, so here we go:

1) To break Cultural Barriers: when you receive your first ‘surfer’, all your barriers will be broken, you will interact with people from another part of the world, maybe you will have to talk  in another language or at least to try,  you will learn about new traditions and experiences. You will feel that you have been visiting a lot of countries in just 1 talk, it would be like traveling all over the world but without leaving your sofa.broken, you will interact with people from another part of the world, maybe you will have to talk  in another language or at least to try,  you will learn about new traditions and experiences. You will feel that you have been visiting a lot of countries in just 1 talk, it would be like traveling all over the world but without leaving your sofa.
On our way to Lithuania

2) New friends: after receiving surfers or traveling as a surfer, you can be sure that you will have new friends in all over the world, one advantage of this, is that in your next trip you will already have a local person that can help you with tips about transportation, sightseeing, or even a place to sleep, and how cool is to swank about all the new friends or impossible lovers you found in your way? It’s great! . And of course, there is always a good excuse to go for a beer or some tequila shots with those new friends, and just to check if in other countries they drink as much as you.

3) Language: one of the first things my girlfriend Karolina and I do is to ask ‘What languages do  you speak?’ Maybe they will answer just 1 or 10, it is great to learn something new everyday, for example now I know how to  say ‘thank you’ in 6 languages: thank you (English), gracias, (Spanish), dziękuję (Polish), obrigado (Portuguese), ačiū (Lithuanian), takk (Norwegian). It is not a lot but.. ey! I am learning. I am pretty sure that the surfers or the host will tell you survival words if you do not speak the local language, remember you are in a different city and you have to survive. And maybe, after that time you spend with your surfer you will be totally motivated to start learning a new language.

4) Respect: you will learn how to respect more, I guarantee it. Let’s analyze the 2 points of view: as a surfer you are arriving to an apartment, house, room… that  you have to share with someone, maybe it is really small or really big, either way you have to be bear in mind that you need to keep your place clean, your luggage in the correct place of the room, your underwear not in the middle of the way, if you use a mug… well wash it, and please  remember it is not your place, it is not a hotel so you have to respect it! Because if you do not respect it, the karma (yes I believe in it) might do something similar when you become a host. When you are a host you will expect that the surfers keep their places clean, if they  prepare food they have to wash their dishes, that they treat your house as a palace, so be a good surfer and a good host and everything will be awesome!

5) Experiences: how many times have you watched documentaries about magical places from all over the world? and then you thought wooow I want to travel around the world! Well Couchsurfing helps you to do that, you can find people to host you in all the places in the world, the only thing  you will have to worry about is maybe how to get there, but ey! at least you will not have to worry about sleeping in the parks or in the streets. Then, you can share with your friends and families how the local people in those countries live, what they eat, how they live, how is the life around,  that you slept in the kitchen, in the living room, in the floor or even with the dog, but those memories are forever!
Host’s apartment in Belarus.

In my personal experience in Couchsurfing I have been a host for people from: Mexico, Italy, USA, Germany, France, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Brazil. And I have been a surfer just in: Oslo, Minsk and Vilnius. But this year I will receive a lot of new surfers and I will visit a lot of new places.

Now get up of that sofa, get fully motivated, take a map and make your plan to explore the world!

If you come to Warsaw, find our profile in Couchsurfing, and send us a couch request, maybe we will be your next hosts.

Cheers!