So I figured I'd drop one more non-baseball related blog on everyone before we start back up this week in preparation for the playoffs over here. I guess you could call this free advertising for Couchsurfing.org, a site I've thoroughly enjoyed while become a member of while living overseas. Couchsurfing is a network of people who are either traveling or able to host travelers throughout the world. It's become very popular here in Europe, where thousands of backpackers jump from one city to the next via train or bus throughout the "tourist" season from May to September, all the while seeking ways to save money where they can. Rather than pay for a hotel, or risk booking a hostel that might be a bit shady, they find hosts who are willing to put them up for free on a couch, pullout bed, in a spare room, and so forth. The hosts and surfers all have reviews written about them, so you're able to verify that everything is kosher, and everyone has a profile and photos much like you may find on Facebook or Myspace back in the day (whatever happened to Myspace? Talk about here today, gone tomorrow). They get to save the money they'd be spending on accommodation and put it towards enjoying the museums and cuisine in the various cities they are visiting, and hosts - especially lonely one's like me who are living alone some 5,000 miles from home - get to enjoy some company for a couple days.
I really enjoy hosting because I'm able to meet people from all over the world, play tour guide around the city (though I'm hardly perfect at that), take them out to where they can find some decent Czech cuisine and hit some night spots that they would enjoy.
My apartment isn't huge, I might drive them nuts with stories about baseball and with my dry, often ill-timed sense of humor, but I think that they appreciate a having a clean place to stay for a couple nights, the privacy of not having to use a community bathroom like they might have to use in a hostel, and the fact that I try and have some kind of breakfast for them in the morning before they hit the sites around Prague. Once I'm assured they're trustworthy, I'll pass them my spare set of keys, and I always give them a little cheat sheet I put together with how to get downtown and back to my place.
All I usually ask in return is for them to cook dinner if they're staying more than one night, because as everyone knows back home, I'm really not much of a cook; to be clean and let me know a general idea of what time they would be getting in should they hit the town and I stay in that night.
I've hosted folks from the U.S., Canada, Poland, Australia, Germany and Korea, and really enjoyed making friends that I'll keep in touch with, and may hit up for a couch myself one day. Next week, I'll be hosting folks from Hamburg, Germany for a couple nights, and it'll be the last time I'm able to host as I move up to the baseball facility the following week.
So while that will take me off the "host" list, I will look forward to continuing with the site as a surfer when I hit the road later this summer, in the fall and next year when I return for another season over here.