Couch Available: Coffee or a drink Preferred Gender: Any
I just move to Istanbul to live with my wonderful girlfriend (http://couchsurfing.org/mineakman).
We have a roommate who's not cool with strangers around all the time (I know, I think it sucks too :P ) but we can host 2-3 times a month. Because of that we have to be really selective, so please only write to me if you have a special story! Hitchhikers always get a place no matter what!
We live in Bozkurt Mh, Sisli. It's about 20 minute walk to Taksim, from there you can go anywhere in the city :)
Mine Akman 27, Female Istanbul, Istanbul Turkey Friends since May 2011 "I met him on the Turkish border from Greece. I put a stamp on his passport!" Friendship Type: Best Friend 30+30+4
ELAHE 30, Female Brno, South Moravian Region Czech Republic Friends since July 2010 "we have been flatmate." Friendship Type: Friend
Niloofar Kalantar 27, Female Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory Malaysia Friends since July 2010 "He begged me to let him stay in my place " Friendship Type: Close Friend I vouched for Walter Heck 30+30+8
DUKE 34, Male Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland Friends since December 2006 "He let me and 15 other Csers crash at his place during a CS Rotterdam meeting" Friendship Type: CouchSurfing Friend I vouched for Walter Heck
TOEY83 23, Female Khon Kaen, Khon Kaen Thailand Friends since October 2009 "Met in Khon Kaen,Thailand." Friendship Type: Good Friend 230+8
Tiina 31, Female Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland Friends since June 2006 "met by the canals of Utrecht and became roommates later" Friendship Type: Good Friend I vouched for Walter Heck 32
Diederik en Esther de Vries 34, Several people Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands Friends since January 2007 "Walter was my collegue, and introduced us into CS. Thanks a million ;)" Friendship Type: Close Friend 2
Miss Mandie 33, Female Mullumbimby, New South Wales Australia Friends since June 2008 "He became like a brother to me while on the road from Alaska to Canada after the Collective" Friendship Type: Good Friend I vouched for Walter Heck 21
Peace Rompsaithong 31, Female Bangkok, Bangkok Thailand Friends since October 2009 "We met in Khon Kaen" Friendship Type: Friend
Me overlooking Grenoble on a sunny spring day in April 2011 View all 28 photos
Personal Description
People in my own country think I'm weird because I don't have a house and a car and a job guarantee until I die. I don't own anything other then 4 moving boxes of stuff in a basement in Holland and a backpack full of stuff. I haven't lived in one place for more then 6 months in the past 3,5 years. I have little to no private time. I usually don't know where I will be next week, sometimes even the next night. I don't always know I'll have enough money to last me through the month.
On the other hand, to counter all the points from the previous paragraph: I am not bogged down by high monthly costs for a car or rent, I don't have to worry about losing everything I have since I don't own anything to begin with. I get to see all kinds of wild places I have never dreamed of. I have the luxury to go wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go (as far as funds allow it ;) ). I know how to live with _very_ little money.
I love traveling, hiking, hitchhiking, life, human interaction, diving, metal music (though not exclusively :) ) and lots of more stuff!
After having been a carnivore for all of my life, I decided in June of 2009 that I wanted to eat vegetarian. I still love meat, but I decided that I needed to act on my feeling that meat production is destroying our environment. I don't wanna get all political or fundamental on you, so watch this beautiful documentary and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/homeproject
In general, I just try to live as conscious as possible, loosely following the rules of karma: do good things and good things will happen to you. It works so far :)
In November 2008 I started my own company to fund my travels. I am now moving from place to place, enjoying the every day life of the places I stay in, while working (well, it's my hobby really, so calling it 'work' is too much ;) ) as much as is necessary to sustain my traveling lifestyle.
How I Participate in CS
I hosted over 100 people before I left to go traveling. Since September 2007 I have surfed a lot of places during my travels.
I used to be a nomadic ambassador, but decided to give up my flag because the website doesn't offer me anything that I cannot do without the flag. I don't want just a status symbol on my profile that supposedly would make me better then not amb-cs'ers, after all we are all the same, right?
I have participated in two collectives and I volunteered for the tech team for over 2 years. I hosted a tech-collective at my house in Rotterdam and I participated in the Alaska collective as a techteam member.
I visited BaseCamp and the Costa Rica collective not to work, but to visit my friends (they feel like family!) there.
CouchSurfing Experience
More than I had ever dreamed of, but never enough ;)
I seriously enjoy every experience. I try to stay with as many different people as I can: students, older people, families, gay couples, whatever you can think of!
I travel to see how people live in their every day lives, as that is what is so interesting to me. If you host me, please don't go out of your way for me; I enjoy going grocery shopping with you or cooking a meal (and eating it afterwards ;) )
Interests
Meditation, Conscious living, Outdooring, Hitchhiking, Diving, Hospitality, Programming, Heavy metal (don't be scared ;) ), Movies, Concerts, People and Life!
Philosophy
I live my life to get the most out of it as possible under the circumstances I'm in.
I don't very much like violence or frustrated people. Frustration is unproductive and makes people close to you frustrated as well.
Music, Movies, Books
Music: Gojira, Textures, Opeth, Metallica, almost any kind of metal music actually ;) Of course I also have some non-metal favs, but I am not gonna tell you about those ;)
But don't let the metal scare you away from getting to know me!
All kinds, as long as they are not narrow-minded ;)
Teach, Learn, Share
Uhm, Uhm, Uhm?
Well, a little bit of teaching then:
After my first year of traveling, I wanted to stay on the road but money was running out. I realised that I needed to find a way to make money while traveling. I started my own company and with a bit of smart marketing it is making me enough money to sort of support myself.
One Amazing Thing I've Seen or Done
- Camping on the quiet side of Isle of Skye (Schotland) with no people around for 10 km. We ate mossels right from the water (of course we boiled them first ;) )
- Looking at the light show of the Eiffel Tower at night from the Montparnaisse tower in Paris
- Hitchhiking up to Northcape in September
- Hitchhiking in the snow in subzero temperatures in the dark in western rural slovakia
- Celebrating carnaval in Salvador, Brasil (the biggest carnaval celbnration in the world!)
- Celebrating NYE in Rio de Janeiro (also, the biggest NYE celebrations in the world)
- Flightseeing around Mt. McKinley, Alaska
- Hiking on Vancouver Island, Canada
- 10 day Vipassana meditation course in Thailand
- Nightdive at the
Opinion on the CouchSurfing.org Project
I can honestly say that couchsurfing has changed my life. It might sound corny to say that of a website, but it is true :)
The feeling that comes with couchsurfing/hospitality in general can imho not be written down, it has to be experienced first hand, so stop reading my profile and meet me ;)
This summary is not a replacement for reading references; it's a quick summary to help you get started. At a glance, you can see how many references a member has, and how many of them are positive, neutral, and negative.
In the second line, you'll see how many references came from people who hosted this member, surfed with them, and traveled with them. These numbers won't always add up to the total: some references are not categorized, and some may be categorized as more than one thing.
When viewing this summary, don't jump to conclusions! Things that are negative for one person may be positive for another, and vice versa. It's important to read references carefully and evaluate what that information means to you.
Walter and a friend of his stayed at our place for a long weekend. As they were our first couchsurfers, we didn't know what to expect, but I don't think a couchsurfing experience can get much better. From the moment they walked in, it was like having old friends over (the only difference between them and "old friends" was that they even did the dishes :D). We could talk for hours and it was a really relaxed atmosphere. We'd definitely host them anytime again.
Yaay, it was a pleasure hosting Walter. We first met on various CS gatherings round Europe and when I heard he was in VIenna I finally got the chance to host him. He was a great guest, made me laugh and cooked me an awesome dinner. Also he played with my little baby boy a lot, carried him round and taught him dutch :) I find him a really interesting to talk to and love his hitch-hiking, free spirit-life style. I am sure I will run into him again someday.
Walter has been picked up by my flatmate while he was hitchhiking. He came to our flat for that night and he decided to rent a room in our place for a month. He is really smart and has knowledge about lots of things -excluding playing fifa on xbox :))- I am really happy that I met him. Talk to him for a couple of minutes and you will learn a lot!
Walter is a great guy with a nice lifestyle. He is someone thrusthfull and very open, and is used to travel a lot. he gave me valuable feedback about my round the world trip preparation.
Walt is, as most would guess from his homepage, an incredibly interesting guy! We had a great time hanging out and talking.....and talking.....and drinking coffee....and talking......and walking......and talking.....and cooking......and tasting beers......and LATO G!!! Oh yeah, we talked a lot too....HAHA. Couldn't have asked for a better 1st surfer! And when you finally find someplace where you can settle down and buy a couch....I'm surfing! All things considered, Walter Heck could be the poster child for couchsurfing!! Happy trails, friend!!
walter was a great, no, better the best first host i can imagine! thank you for great conversation and bringing perfect karma to my flat....... hope to see you again, to show you salzburg without rain. .....cu shanti wally
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