The past three days a 37 year old Australian has been sleeping on my couch. Noel, better known as "the couch guy" in our house, has been traveling for seven months, from Singapore to Tromsø. He found me thanks to the greatest tool for travel since AAA: couchsurfing! It is an amazingly simple concept that makes me think of the rules of Greek hospitality I learned in Paideia. Basically, you create a profile on couchsurfing.com. Then, if you travel somewhere you look online to see what couchsurfers live there, and they let you stay for free on their couch, and often take you out, show you a local view of the city, and introduce you to fascinating people...like Noel, who worked in the mines of Australia for two years to get money to travel. Now he is traveling Norway for almost nothing. Plus, thanks to my housemate Jostein, Noel is looking into getting work unloading fishing boats. What a world. So pack up your bags and open up your couch. You never know who you will meet, but if the experience of thousands of people on couchsurfing is any indicator, it will be an adventure!
Labels: couchsurfing, noel
