Couchsurfing

    

OK, it finally happened. I found it, the thing that everyone has been talking about, the thing that has saved me from a world of fear and uncertainty. Many have tried to convince me of it’s truth, they tried very hard to guide me into it’s shining light, but I had to welcome it into my life on my own to truly build this relationship that I am confident will last a lifetime…

**cue gospel choir**

Couchsurfing.com

Good gracious people this website is amazing! The idea is that you go online, make a profile, search out people in the area where you want to travel, view their profile (read reviews, see pictures, general snoopage) send a request, and, if you’re lucky, crash on their couch for free. Sound a little sketchy? It is! And it’s great! The whole thing is founded on the idea of sharing. Sharing food, sharing space, sharing stories as a way of both economizing and enriching travel. 

I triple dog dare you to try and be Scroogy about that.

My first experience was in Rodez, France, on my way home from Winchester, England. Hugo came and picked me up, backpack, sweat and all, from the airport and took me to his parents place. The whole way I nervously stammered out my life’s story in French, which Hugo pretended to understand.

I feel like no story containing a language barrier is complete without the phrase “turns out”

Turns out Hugo plays drums in a rockabilly band called Superfriends and had a gig that night to which his girlfriend Julie and I went. Far too fun. The next day Julie took me on a car tour around the city before we bought lunch at the open market “downtown” (Rodez is tiny, though it does, according to the locals, apparently sport the tallest cathedral in France). I learned also that people from Rodez eat with super fancy pocketknives. Always.

The second and last experience (thus far) I touched on briefly in the last post. Ludovic, a proud polish Parisian with a proclivity for playing Left For Dead 2, was our host proper. His friend Etienne was like an….adjunct host if you will, and on Sunday night he walked Mallory and I to our rendez-vous point, all the while carrying my big backpack that was filled with ALL of Mallory and I’s worldly possessions (i.e. like 3 T-shirts and a sleeping bag). Gems these guys were.

Of course with great power comes great responsibility, and it’s necessary to be smart when you put yourself at the mercy of strangers and their couches/floor mattresses/ floors. Personally, I’m like a little kid with a new toy, or Batman that one time he discovered an extra pouch in his utility belt, or some weirdo who modifies her couchsurfing profile more neurotically than her facebook……

Couchsurfing. Forevah.