Couchsurfing

[K626]

Originally Posted by GregorArturo

Hey everybody, I wanted to share an amazing website with you called couchsurfing.org. Claudia (my wonderful fabulous Guatamalan princess of a lover) and I have been using the website to travel around the United States this year on our epic big little journey.

Couchsurfing.org goes around the hospitality industry and straight to the heart of old school traveling. It allows people to view other people's profiles which is full of references from our travelers, and to send couchsurfing requests to stay with them for a period of time (free of charge of course). So instead of staying in a hotel, you stay with the locals who sometimes provide you with a place to crash be it a couch, guest house, place to camp... Sometimes they're busy and it's just a place to shower and sleep, other times they take you out on a night on the town, or you collaborate with your hosts to make extravagant dinners.

I feel those at Avalon would truly benefit from this experience as you can host travelers, and also travel and stay with other hosts.

When Claudia and I return to Maine, we cannot wait to host couchsurfers as it's wonderful to not only be a guest but a host too.

Couchsurfing has also a nice verification system in which involves a one time $25 donation that involves a three tier step to verify who you are. You can also request a reduced price for verification (ie financial hardship) which CS always accepts (such as paying only $5). As CS is a non-profit, may members continually donate to the organization to keep it going. The website is also full of forums and networking which can be very useful in itself.

Here is my CS profile if you want to check it out, and maybe even be your first reference. Thanks for reading and happy surfing!

http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=ADS2SDP

Not really sure I want to be infested by smelly hippies.

[dddanieljjjamesss]

Have you had a lot of success with CS? I've heard of it before but was a little confused about the details. Is it a good community? Or is it a mixed bag? I am planning on traveling once I get out of school, busking on the street in major cities to make my bus fare and food money, would love to try this out.

[GregorArturo]

Originally Posted by K626

Not really sure I want to be infested by smelly hippies.

Many people on CS are not dirty hippies, and its full of intellectuals and eccentrics. There are a lot of college students from around the world using it. In my opinion, not a cool comment K626.

Originally Posted by dddanieljjjamesss

Have you had a lot of success with CS? I've heard of it before but was a little confused about the details. Is it a good community? Or is it a mixed bag? I am planning on traveling once I get out of school, busking on the street in major cities to make my bus fare and food money, would love to try this out.

Yeah that's what we've been doing, however, I've found it really hard to busk on the west coast. Too many pricks in towns making laws now, and Cali really doesn't like fire dancing due to their insane dryness. The couchsurfing community is a beautiful thing. At Burning Man, there was a CS camp, and one night they had a CSer meetup party and Claudia and I met CSer's from all over the world. Claudia had some crazy synchronicity while standing in line for food at the meetup as the person behind her had the same math teacher from high school in Kennebunkport, Maine (where the Bushs have their estate).

I really cannot fully express how beautiful the couchsurfing movement really is. You just have to experience it for yourself.

[Fredkc]

and Cali really doesn't like fire dancing due to their insane dryness.

GregorArturo...

Give us another try. We got that "dry thing" all sorted this season

Fred

[GregorArturo]

Originally Posted by Fredkc

GregorArturo...

Give us another try. We got that "dry thing" all sorted this season

Fred

Haha, well I was just saying today as it's raining here in Arizona, the whole 4 plus months we spent in Cali we had like 3 days of rain, while we've had like twenty here so far. However, I saw in Yosemite first hand what the dryness and fire causes so I completely understand.

[Tango]

hmmm... Raining in Arizona... Wonder how that happened...LOL.. How is your

stay going with Todd & Laura... Get you sing last nite...? Enjoy your adventure

my friend...


Trooly,


Tango

[mudra]

Thanks for that link Gregor.
I think it's very good and will pass it around

Love Always
mudra