I first ‘couch-surfed’ in 2015 as a 21-year-old journalism scholar. And I don’t imply I crashed on a good friend's couch for an evening. I spent a month solo travelling round central Europe and staying with then-strangers.
As I turned 28 final summer time, I grappled with whether or not I used to be ‘too previous’ to do it once more. Deciding in opposition to this, I deliberate an impromptu month-long solo journey round Sweden.
Sweden had turn out to be a latest fascination of mine for its lakes, alpine forests and cardamom buns, but I used to be conscious it wasn’t precisely low cost.
As I needed to see the nation extensively, couch-surfing made sense. But it surely wasn’t solely logistics that drew me again to this pocket-friendly type of journey. I knew my relationships with locations could be completely completely different if I stayed with locals, and I might achieve new insights from seeing how others dwell.
How CouchSurfing.com works
CouchSurfing.com is an easy product with a easy premise. The platform, utilized by 12 million individuals all over the world, connects travellers with hosts who're keen to supply a spot to sleep freed from cost.
My account with CouchSurfing.com was nonetheless energetic, and the platform was virtually frozen in time. The one distinction is that it now requires a small month-to-month payment (€2.26 per 30 days or €13.51 per 12 months).
CouchSurfing is constructed on cultural alternate and the reciprocity of kindness, openness and belief.
Glowing references are the cornerstone to a profitable profile.
I already had a string of references that verified I used to be a enjoyable and respectful visitor with information to share. To maintain my profile present, I up to date my pursuits so hosts might paint a well-rounded image of me.
Utilizing the filter instrument, I looked for individuals who additionally had optimistic character references. I sifted by means of profiles to search out individuals who have been praised for each wanting to hang around with travellers and for honouring the necessity for downtime.
As a solo feminine traveller, I paid shut consideration to references that have been left by different ladies. These have been of equal significance to a verification tick, obtainable to those that provide their photograph quantity, cost particulars or a type of ID.
I allowed my conversations with hosts to information my journey
Radically completely different to how I construction different components of my life, spontaneity guided the best way I travelled in Sweden. I arrived by way of the Øresund Bridge, connecting Sweden with Denmark, having spent the weekend with mates in Copenhagen.
Though I had a tough concept of the route I needed to hint, I used to be and not using a concrete plan. My ‘planning’ had prolonged to deciding I might permit conversations with my hosts to information me.
My first host, who had over 60 references from his world travels, was a Swede my age. He lived in Höör, another neighborhood barely north of Malmö and Lund.
Humoured by my choice to land on this sleepy locality, he welcomed me into his caravan that he shared along with his fiance. As he was there by himself and it was gentle in late August, he pitched up a tent open air whereas I took the mattress.
They dwell semi self-sufficiently on their farm plot, with vines of tomatoes framing their caravan entrance and all method of veggies of their kitchen backyard.
Regardless of having my laptop computer in tow so I might work on the go, I stored it closed throughout my time within the caravan. As a substitute, I spent my days biking and swimming in close by lakes.
Peddling previous quiet farm land - interrupted solely by my incessant need to seize the scenes on digital camera roll - I time-travelled to a child-like state the place I felt completely free.
Although I had shared a location pin drop with my mum as a security precaution - so somebody knew the place I used to be staying - I felt like no one might discover or hassle me.
It’s simpler to safe a CouchSurfing host in rural areas
Because the CouchSurfing platform doesn’t allow the alternate of cash, I replayed my host with meals. A foraged garlic salt he’d concocted meant the dahl I cooked was my finest but - so good that it made its manner into my reference.
Over dinner, he advised me that Dalsland, north of Gothenburg, was the place I wanted to go. Our eyes concurrently widened as he spoke of the lakes and forests within the area. It grew to become my subsequent couch-surfing vacation spot after a couple of nights in Gothenburg, three hours north of Höör by prepare.
I didn’t have any luck securing a number in Gothenburg so I defaulted to Airbnb. The focus of travellers in cities makes the chances of securing a CouchSurfing host slimmer in city areas.
In Dalsland, I arrived in one other sleepy municipality known as Mellerud. This time, I used to be staying in a cabin-in-the-woods - a ‘stuga’ in Swedish. Happily I hadn’t crammed my thoughts with horror motion pictures, so I wasn’t completely terrified on the prospect of being alone within the woods with a stranger.
Any anxieties have been quelled by the 100 references that emphasised how this host embodied the spirit of the CouchSurfing neighborhood. True to the references, we shared our ideas on the world as we chatted into the nights.
On the times my Austrian host headed out to work, I used to be completely alone within the cabin. The closest home was 600 metres in direction of the street. It planted the seed for my dream of a stuga, now a non-negotiable.
Sofa-surfing jogged my memory of the kindness of strangers
Every week in rural Dalarna, a couple of extra hours north, adopted Dalsland. I spent it with a mom and her two teenage youngsters. They have been acquainted with couch-surfers, who had been welcomed by my host, a long-time surfer.
I spent my days working by and swimming within the close by lake, scrolling by means of listings of stugas with my host, and enjoying adopted sister to the not-so-interested teenagers. My fabled dahl made one other look, although it didn’t have something on my garlic-salted masterpiece in Höör.
Earlier than they noticed me off for my 11-hour prepare journey as much as Skellefteå, I spent my Friday night time celebrating my non permanent brother’s twelfth birthday in a circus-themed restaurant.
Subsequent, watching youngsters play ice hockey was on the playing cards within the north of Sweden, the place I stayed with a girl I had met on a piece journey earlier within the 12 months. On my suggestion, she signed as much as CouchSurfing.com with no regrets.
I finished in Umeå with a few guys my age as I made my manner down the coast, earlier than becoming a member of an expat couple in Härnösand, one more sleepy vacation spot. I hiked across the forests and cooked my dahl for the ultimate time.
Equally to Gothenburg, Stockholm didn’t yield a CouchSurfing host. Nonetheless, it provided a few quiet days to replicate on the experiences I’d had with my CouchSurfing hosts. Nearly six months on, I’m nonetheless reflecting on this window of time and dwelling on the kindness of strangers.
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