Couch Surfing 101: "How to do it for 200 Days?"

What is this surfing on a couch?

We found out about couch surfing in May of 2012. Brock told us about it and became our first “friend” on our profile.

Brock gets ready for his Romanian wedding to Cristina -June 16, 2013

Now Brock & Cristina will cut their most amazing-tasting wedding cake.

Couch surfing was founded in 2004. It is currently in 100,000 cities all over the world and has 6 million members. It was only a year ago when it had just over 3 million, so it is growing rapidly. The website provides a platform for members to "surf" on couches by staying as a guest at a host's home, host travelers, or join an event.

It is free to register. Members are encouraged to provide information and photos of themselves and of the accommodation they offer, if any. More information provided by a member, and other members, improves the chances that someone will find the member trustworthy enough to be their host or guest. Security is measured in a variety of ways, including member references, verification and the vouching system. Members looking for accommodation can search for hosts using several parameters such as age, location, gender, and last login. 

We put up our profile and decided to start hosting, especially European surfers, as we knew we were going to take this "trip of a lifetime."  We met some amazing people through this project.  Most of  the surfers were on their way to Yellowstone National Park, so they only stayed one night.  They would bring us small gifts or cook us a meal from their country.  There is no exchange of money so it is an expensive way to travel.  But more than that, we have met people that will forever be our friends.  We have learned so much from their culture, tasted great foods, and shared memories of a lifetime. 

  

Sometimes we stay with families (like the Sandu Family from Rhodos, Greece)

Or like Nasko and Naska's sweet family from the small village of Ivan Tarnova in Macedonia.

We might have a whole flat to ourselves like this one in Budva, Montenegro.  We only saw him once, but that was ok because we needed some relaxing, down time.









 Or...we surf with a ghost host who we never even end up meeting
 (maybe he's hiding behind the picture on the wall)

There's a host, like Leo, from Florence, who dedicates his life to couch surfing and his surfers.  There were 8 of us total this particular evening....from Rome, France, Philadelphia, and of course, Idaho.

This bathroom in Bulgaria takes the prize for being the tiniest.  See the shower hose on the left of the sink.   You can barely see the drain on the floor next to the toilet.  The wall is directly on the right of the toilet.  SO SMALL - we are spoiled!

                                         

  Sometimes we cook a meal or two that might be typical from Idaho.  This is in  Brceli Village, Montenegro (only 8 - 10 inhabitants) with Bagi and Sasa.  It's called "musgo soup". (from Rich's mother).  Whatever is in the fridge, you just throw it in...potatoes, carrots, cabbage, wilty lettuce, mushrooms.  It turned out great!

The young guys from Sofia, Bulgaria, were great hosts even though we were "seniors" and they were used to having parties and hosting single girls.  The boys loved our "funeral potatoes with ham" dish and boy did they eat it up!



  Then there is the host who owns a restaurant and a hotel and gives you the weekend of your life.  This was in Ohrid, Macedonia.  There happened to be a group of Polish people there and with the special band that played, we sang, ate, and danced til all hours of the morning.  So fun!  










  This Polish man just came over and "whooshed" me up in his arms and took complete control and I felt like I was flying.  It was the most exhilarating experience of my life.  I felt like I was in the clouds for about 6 minutes.

As of 5 months ago, 20% of Couchsurfers had registered their country as being the United States, with Germany, France, Canada and England also registering large numbers of participants. The city with the largest number of registered Couchsurfers was Paris.

The average age of participants is 28, so when we request and they see we are 62, they either are excited to see what it would be like, or they immediately decline as they use couch surfing as a venue to meet people their own age.

It is time consuming, however, taking time to read their profiles, requesting personally to 5 - 7 hosts for each city, documenting on a spreadsheet to keep track of responses, waiting for your one good "accept", then not forgetting to give them a reference after each stay.  And...most want to become your friend both on the couch surfing site and on facebook.  We wouldn't do it any other way, however.  We are loving this experience and getting to know so many cultures and people. 

DAY 43 – "Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me"

May 1 – Keukenhof Sunshine for May Day

You may be wondering why we started our trip back in mid March with Turkey and Greece and flew to Germany. Our destination was to go and see the tulips in Holland in the spring and we found an inexpensive flight to Berlin. So we were finally here to see the beautiful spring flowers in the most amazing place in the world.

I LOVED this place!!!

• Tulips were imported from the Ottoman Empire and became very popular in Holland in the early 17th century. Nowadays, the Netherlands is the world's first producer and exporter of tulips.
  

• Keukenhof Park also known as the Garden of Europe is the largest flower garden in the world.
  
  
• Keukenhof  plants approximately 7 million flower bulbs every year.
• The park is located in the small town of Lisse in southern Holland, southwest of Amsterdam.
• It's located on 15th century hunting grounds
• It was established in 1949

MAY DAY Traditions   - how lucky could we be to have such a beautiful May Day at Keukenhof?  It had been a long winter and a very cold Spring, so to have a total day of sunshine was welcome for everyone!  I remember as a child we made May baskets and would sometimes give them away.  There were also times when my children were younger that we would make them, put them on the doorsteps, ring the doorbell, then run away.  It was such fun!  It seems that this tradition has faded out in the past twenty years throughout the world, however.

Whatever happened to the May Day Tradition?

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.

The street organ “The Adriaen” was built in 1978 by Hank Heuvel from old organ parts and is named after and old windmill in Haarlem. It has 75 keys, 11 registers, 406 organ pipes and percussion. The organ plays on the perforated system invented in 1897.  This was its 23^rd season playing at the Keukenhof. It was so amazing to watch it work. I could have listened to it for hours as it had many types of music.

“The Adriaen” street organ

The back side with all the songs and showing each instrument being played

 ENJOY all the sights of Keukenhof and imagine all the smells of some of our favorite pictures.  There is a picture of a bee on one of these flowers.  As soon as you find which flower, email me and let me know and when I get home, you'll get a prize!  GOOD LUCK!!

 Wooden shoes for every occasion:

Boots, Skating, For Dress, Sandals

The Dike, The Garden, Fisherman, Smuggle

Rich loved the hyacinths - smelled so yummy!

Yellow and Purple are still my favorite colors

Rows and rows of bulbs planted outside of the gardens

This was a Beethoven statue in a garden named after him....he had a sad life when he began to go deaf.

"Tiptoe through the tulips with me"

Taking a picture through a waterfall into a mirror-reflection.

Resting in the sunshine for a bit

 Good Job Rich for taking such amazing photos - memories for a lifetime......

Thank you Keukenhof for such a memorable May Day