Have you ever heard of CouchSurfing.org??? If not, and you're looking to travel, it's a must do! Basically, the concept of this is to connect people from all over the world through travel and hospitality. You do this by either hosting travelers in your home, they stay for free and sleep on your couch or whatever accommodations you're willing to provide. If you're the one traveling, you notify any host in the location you're going to travel to, ask if you can surf their couch, and they simply reply with a yes or a no. It's free, it's easy, and it's absolutely fun! It's customary to just clean up after yourself, treat your host to a meal, you can cook it or whatever, or you can go out with them as well and they will show you around town.
This weekend was my first time couchsurfing, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I traveled with three other friends to Zürich, Switzerland. The first night we stayed with a really nice girl named Anna, and she lived in a nearby town named Winterthur. She lived in a house of 28 people, all of whom were students at a local university. It was basically like a dorm building, but better. After getting settled in, we went out to the grocery store, bought a bunch of food, and headed back to Anna's house and I cooked dinner for all of us. It was a really nice feeling being able to do that again after 6 months of not touching a stove top haha. Regardless, the boys really enjoyed dinner, and aside from the food itself, it was a really satisfying experience to treat my friends :-) Once night time came around, we met a group of guys and girls in the house that challenged us to beer pong. After a lot of drinking and socializing, Anna took us to a house party and we met even more people. Once we were done with the house party, Anna took us to a local club. We left the next day, and made our way to downtown Zürich for sightseeing, shopping, and dining.
The second night we stayed with another girl, her name was Lea. Saturday night practically consisted of the same things as the night before. The point is that it was a really fun experience, and a cheap alternative to staying in hotels or hostels, which are cheap as it is anyways. Yesterday we spent the night in a hostel in Munich, and after meeting a group of 8 girls from Andalusia, Spain...the night consisted, AGAIN, of drinking and socializing. We literally rounded everyone up in the lounge we were hanging out in, and our group consisted of the spaniard girls, us, a few russians, yugoslavians, Austrians, Canadians, and god knows what else. Fucking unbelievable. We hung out a little bit today in Munich, until we decided to come back and regroup. I leave for Barcelona really early tomorrow morning, so my day today will consist of regrouping and prepping for my week in Spain. I have to say, if our experience with the spaniard girls from last night is any indication of what this week has in store, OMFG. Not to mention the fact I'll be meeting up with Eugene and Chetan. Good times are waiting on me :-) Cheers!
February 21, 2011
February 10, 2011
Lunchtime break
Hangin' out during my 1 1/2 hour lunch. That's one of the nice things about my job, most people only get a half hour break, meanwhile I get triple the time :-) Not too many updates. Last night I got to skype with Jackie and Eugene, finally caught up a little with both of them. Talking with friends always brightens one's day.
Later today I'll be filing my taxes while at work. Hopefully I'll get a nice return! All this traveling is leaving me wanting more, but sadly enough I'm on a budget. No one ever said you would get rich off of working for the U.S. Government. This weekend I'll be going to Rothenburg, a small town near from where I live. Sunday I'll be going to a concert in Stuttgart with my buddy Ryan and his friend. Not exactly thrilled about the concert itself, but I am about getting out of town and going somewhere new. More updates to come after this weekend. I hope everyone is doing great! Lots of love from Deutschland! 12 more days until Barcelona!
Later today I'll be filing my taxes while at work. Hopefully I'll get a nice return! All this traveling is leaving me wanting more, but sadly enough I'm on a budget. No one ever said you would get rich off of working for the U.S. Government. This weekend I'll be going to Rothenburg, a small town near from where I live. Sunday I'll be going to a concert in Stuttgart with my buddy Ryan and his friend. Not exactly thrilled about the concert itself, but I am about getting out of town and going somewhere new. More updates to come after this weekend. I hope everyone is doing great! Lots of love from Deutschland! 12 more days until Barcelona!
February 6, 2011
Nürnberg, Star Wars, and more.
Monday was payday :-) That means that I got to pay my bills, take care of a few miscellaneous purchases, and book my trip to and from Barcelona. Last weekend the boys and I held another poker night, and while hangin' we decided to go out this Friday night. As a result, the majority of the week became an eager anticipation for the weekend to arrive.
Alas, friday came around, we got off from work, had dinner and made our way out. We arrived in Nürnberg with plans to go out and stay the night at a hostel. To our surprise and a few apparent technical difficulties, we were unable to book a hostel for the night since there was a big Toy Fair taking place that weekend. Literally EVERY hostel and hotel in town was booked to the max, so we were now left hangin' high and dry in a city with no where to spend the night. This is where my assertiveness kicked in. Instead of suggesting, I demanded that we hold on tight to our 'fuck it' attitude, go out anyway, and make friends and get them to let us sleep at their pads. I rallied the boys, they agreed, and so that is what we did. We ended up in this really nice venue right outside of the castle's walls, The Castle Pub was the name. Upon entering, it looks almost as if you're walking into some kind of professional office of some sort, until you take a flight of windy steps going down that lead you into a wine cellar-esque basement with dim lighting, a cozy and packed crowd and live music.
This reeked of opportunity. My friend Ryan insisted he would buy us the first round, and while he was at the bar ordering, I went through my progressions...of course step 1 is scoping out a table with decent looking people to approach haha. Fortunately, I found a table next to where we were standing to have a group of Germans conversing and having a good time, I approached a girl sitting there and pulled out an old camera trick Eugene and I used through out freshman year. We would basically go up to girls, ask them to take a picture of us (about 99% of time they happily agree) and once they did we asked them to jump in the picture with us instead. Easy and great way to break the ice. They invited us all to sit with them, and we spent the remainder of the night socializing and drinking with them. The best part, aside from making new friends, was that we accomplished our goal and one of them welcomed us into crashing at their place.
We spent Saturday walking throughout the streets of the city, taking a brief tour of the Castle, and we also shopped for a little bit. We came back, began a Star Wars movie marathon (I had never watched the movies, and after somehow getting into a conversation about the series we decided to watch them all) and finished off the night playing Halo hahaha. Today I will be watching sports all day, as well as taking part in my first ever Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. Wish me luck! I leave you all with a newfound obsession of mine. This will be on repeat for months. Tschüss!
Alas, friday came around, we got off from work, had dinner and made our way out. We arrived in Nürnberg with plans to go out and stay the night at a hostel. To our surprise and a few apparent technical difficulties, we were unable to book a hostel for the night since there was a big Toy Fair taking place that weekend. Literally EVERY hostel and hotel in town was booked to the max, so we were now left hangin' high and dry in a city with no where to spend the night. This is where my assertiveness kicked in. Instead of suggesting, I demanded that we hold on tight to our 'fuck it' attitude, go out anyway, and make friends and get them to let us sleep at their pads. I rallied the boys, they agreed, and so that is what we did. We ended up in this really nice venue right outside of the castle's walls, The Castle Pub was the name. Upon entering, it looks almost as if you're walking into some kind of professional office of some sort, until you take a flight of windy steps going down that lead you into a wine cellar-esque basement with dim lighting, a cozy and packed crowd and live music.
This reeked of opportunity. My friend Ryan insisted he would buy us the first round, and while he was at the bar ordering, I went through my progressions...of course step 1 is scoping out a table with decent looking people to approach haha. Fortunately, I found a table next to where we were standing to have a group of Germans conversing and having a good time, I approached a girl sitting there and pulled out an old camera trick Eugene and I used through out freshman year. We would basically go up to girls, ask them to take a picture of us (about 99% of time they happily agree) and once they did we asked them to jump in the picture with us instead. Easy and great way to break the ice. They invited us all to sit with them, and we spent the remainder of the night socializing and drinking with them. The best part, aside from making new friends, was that we accomplished our goal and one of them welcomed us into crashing at their place.
We spent Saturday walking throughout the streets of the city, taking a brief tour of the Castle, and we also shopped for a little bit. We came back, began a Star Wars movie marathon (I had never watched the movies, and after somehow getting into a conversation about the series we decided to watch them all) and finished off the night playing Halo hahaha. Today I will be watching sports all day, as well as taking part in my first ever Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. Wish me luck! I leave you all with a newfound obsession of mine. This will be on repeat for months. Tschüss!
At the Castle Pub, with only half the table.
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