Couchsurfing.org é uma das maiores invenções da Internet nunca para viajar, but unfortunately over the years some people have done their best to turn it into another sleazy “hook-up” network, and use the website to get play. Antes de eu ir mais longe que eu quero dizer, Se você está lendo isso e você usar Couchsurfing principalmente para ligação em cadeia, você é um perdedor patético. Leve o seu triste, furado, fora de ideias ass para um dos 17 milhão de outros sites de namoro que existem. Ok, Eu tenho que do meu peito.

Para aqueles que não sabem, Couchsurfing.org foi criada sobre 10 anos atrás, como uma rede social para colocar viajantes em contato com os habitantes locais em todo o mundo. A idéia principal é para as pessoas a ajudar viajantes de passagem, oferecendo-lhes um extra cama / sofá / lugar para dormir, ou mostrando os viajantes em torno de sua cidade em primeira mão com dicas, suggestions, & por vezes, até mesmo passeios.

Agora a maioria das pessoas que eu contar sobre Couchsurfing responder imediatamente com, “Mas como você sabe que não vai matá-lo?” Bem, para vocês, meus amigos não viajam, Eu primeiro gostaria de dizer-lhe que a maioria das pessoas ao redor do mundo não quer matá-lo. Eu sei que é difícil de acreditar, mas a maioria das pessoas são boas no coração, e sinceramente quer ajudá-lo. Em segundo lugar, Couchsurfing é baseado no sistema de confiança, onde os viajantes deixar comentários positivos ou negativos sobre o perfil de cada pessoa depois de conhecer-los. Estas referências / comentários não podem ser apagadas, para que você possa ter uma boa idéia de quem alguém é baseada no que os outros dizem sobre eles.

An exemplo de uma referência positiva pode ser, “Lisa foi incrível – ela nos levou ao parque & me apresentou a seus amigos. Londres não teria sido a mesma sem ela, & Eu recomendo ficar com ela, se você vai para Londres!” An exemplo de uma referência negativa pode ser, “Ned era estranho. Eu me senti desconfortável quando ele virou na música techno, arrancou sua camisa, começou manchas nutella no peito na frente de mim, & me perguntou se eu queria ter relações sexuais com ele. Eu não recomendo ficar com Ned.”

Infelizmente, existem mais & mais histórias como Nutella Ned do saindo do Couchsurfing todos os dias. Mas apesar desse fato triste, I still recomendo usar Couchsurfing para viajar. A boa FAR supera o mal, e com um pouco de seletividade & smarts, Couchsurfing deve enriquecer suas experiências de viagem, não retira-las. Use Couchsurfing corretamente e você terá incrível & experiências autênticas & fazer amizades duradouras. Use Couchsurfing incorretamente & você poderia encontrar-se em uma situação como eu fiz uma noite em Berlim, Germany.

Couchsurfing Hosts Nymphos in Berlin

Eu tinha sido nas ilhas gregas por um tempo, and needless to say, Não estava preocupada sobre a ligação à Internet em excesso. Eu pago para usar um internet café, e passou 30 minutos explodir para fora pedidos para Couchsurfers em Berlim, meu próximo destino, sem tomar o tempo para investigar adequadamente os seus perfis. Eu só precisava de um lugar para ficar, e além, Eu não tinha tido experiências negativas CouchSurfing até agora, assim como bad poderia ser realmente? Que acabou por ser muito ingênuo de mim…

Quando eu chequei de volta para o café, alguns dias depois, Eu tinha recebido Couchrequests quase todos negados, mas tinha um convite. Sophia seemed to have a decent profile. She had one reference from some guy named Michael & was located in a good part of town, plus I didn’t have any other invitations, so I confirmed.

A couple of days, a delayed EasyJet flight, a long train ride into the city, & directions from a few people on the street later, & I finally arrived at Sophia’s apartment & knocked on the door. It was almost midnight, so I let out a huge sigh of relief when someone opened up.

“Hey – are you Ford?” the girl who opened the door asked me.

“Yea, are you Sophia?”

“Yea, come in. We waited for you at the airport for a few hours, but you never came so we had to come back home.”

“Yea, thanks & sorry. The flight was delayed. I’m just glad to be here though, I seriously thought I was going to die when we were landing,” I replied truthfully.

Yea, esses voos são baratos por uma razão. Aqui ter um assento. Quer uma cerveja ou algo?

Depois de todo o caos que eu tinha sido através do passado 10 hours, eo fato de que eu estava agora na Alemanha – capital da cerveja do mundo, que foi talvez a cerveja mais bem-cronometrada de todos os tempos. “Yes, Eu adoraria uma cerveja.” Eu respondi como eu deslizei minha mochila para o chão.

Portanto, não nos sentamos em sua cozinha, fazendo a conversa pequena, conhecer uns aos outros, Perguntei-lhe perguntas sobre Berlim, ela estava me fazendo perguntas sobre minha viagem & o que eu tinha feito até agora, etc. etc. Lembro-me de pensar para mim mesmo que a Alemanha foi desligado para um bom começo depois de tudo.

Mas depois de cerca de 15-20 minutos ou mais, ela me perguntou se eu queria outra cerveja, tem um fora da geladeira, entregou-me, e perguntou como ela estava sentada de volta para baixo, “assim, Você gosta de sexo?”

*inserir 2-3 segunda estranha pausa *

“Um….o que?”

“Do you like sex? You know, like having it.” she repeated.

“Uhh….yea I guess so. Eu quero dizer, who doesn’t right?” I half responded, half nervously chuckled. That is a weird question to ask someone you barely know, I thought.

I quickly changed the subject and steered the conversation in another direction. I’m usually pretty good at that, but after a minute or so she completely jerked the conversation back where she wanted with her next question, something along the lines of, “So what’s your favorite position?”

Okay, I thought to myself, she clearly wants to talk about sex. I tried to ignore it the first time, but that didn’t work. This is weird, but I’m an adult & I can handle this. Maybe talking about sex openly with strangers is normal here in ole’ Deutscheland. I don’t want to be rude to my new Couchsurfing host, but this is definitely weird.

“Why do you keep asking me about sex?” was the best comeback I could muster.

“Well, I just really like sex. I think it’s a great hobby.”

Hobby? Really Sophia? You think sex is a good hobby? Well I think collecting baseball cards is a good hobby. You know what else is a good hobby? Not creeping your Couchsurfers out within 20 minutes of knowing them. Ever thought of trying that hobby out Sophia?

“Huh.” was all that came out of my mouth.

With a proud & matter-of-fact aire, Sophia continued, “Yea, actually me & my flat-mate Michael have a competition. We like to see who can sleep with the most Couchsurfers. We try to have sex with at least 10% of our Couchsurfers.”

I choked on the beer that I had been taking a swig of in that very moment, wiped my mouth off, & remarked, “Is that right? And which one of you is winning?” Somewhere in the back of my mind the name Michael rang a bell…

“Well, Michael was, but I think I am now. I’ve been getting laid a lot lately! Michael says it’s not fair because I’m bisexual, I have double the opportunities. But Michael’s just into guys!”

“Into guys?” I asked.

“Yea, Michael’s gay. I told him him being bisexual is more fun, but Michael just likes guys, HEHE!

Yeah…..big “hehe” there Sophia. My chances of getting sexually assaulted just went from “extremely high” to “already been raped.” Out of my 2 new Couchsurfer hosts, finalmente 1.5 of them wanted to do the hokie pokie with me.

“Yeaaa, I don’t really believe in that. I try to use Couchsurfing just for traveling & not as a dating site. It says that in the guidelines when you sign up, ya know?”

“Yea, but whatever it’s just fun. So do you like to use toys in bed?” Sophia continued, after acknowledging & charging headfirst through the NOT INTERESTED sign that I just tried to put up.

At this point I realized that there was nothing I could do to change the subject. This German chick was just too blunt & too horny to talk sense into. I was sure that I was not getting anywhere near her “10%, so I decided to play along.

“I don’t really know much about them – but I bet you do.”

“Oh yea, they’re great.”

To keep things PG-13, I won’t get into too much detail, but I will say that she proceeded to describe to me, in detail, what her favorite sex toy was. She didn’t really need to though, because after telling her that I wasn’t familiar with said toy, she immediately informed me, “Well, there’s one right there.”

She pointed, so I turned around, e right behind me on the shelf next to a stack of plates was a little football looking plastic thing with a handle on it that I presumed to be the previously mentioned contraption of sinners.

“Don’t worry, it’s clean” she told me.

I made a mental note not to eat anything in the apartment.

The conversation went on for a while longer before we both got tired and went to sleep, her in her bed, and me on the air mattress on the floor. Despite Sophia getting straight to the point about her intentions with me, nothing ended up happening during my 4 day stay there. Luckily her flat-mate Michael never made a move on me either, but he did pressure me to have a threesome with two German girls who we had just met in a club a few nights later. He simply could not understand why I wouldn’t go home with to have sexual relations with two strangers, and tried to make me feel like I wasn’t “man” enough (ironic from a gay guy huh?). He became so mad & aggressive with me, that it finally convinced me to leave the next day.

How to Avoid Weird Couchsurfing Experiences

Why were Sophia & Michael so sex-deranged? To each his own, and who am I to judge how you want to live your life, but why were they so hell-bent on imposing their sexual appetites on me, their guest, their Couchsurfer?

I don’t know if I’ll ever have the answer to that question, but I do have the answer for avoiding these types of Couchsurfing experiences – BE SELECTIVE! I copied, pasted & blasted this Couchsurfing request out to around 20 people in Berlin, without even reading their profiles. Because I didn’t take the proper time to investigate who I was going to be staying with, I ended up with two freaks who wanted my wienerschnitzel.

Take your time when investigating people’s profiles. Read everything thoroughly – see if you would get along with this person. Read the references other people left them. If they have multiple positive references you can be pretty sure they are a decent person. If they don’t have references, try to do some research on the person by messaging back & forth a bit, getting their Facebook, or calling them on the phone.

My friend Rachel from the blog Hippie nos saltos has a great article 9 Tips for Safe Couchsurfing for more in-depth tips & safety-protocol for the network. She’s used Couchsurfing all over the world, and highly recommends using it, even as a solo female traveler. Which brings me to the last point I want to reiterate….

Couchsurfing is Still Safe & Recommended

As I mentioned at the beginning, despite the random creeper, Couchsurfing remains an invaluable tool for travelers. For every weird Couchsurfer I’ve met (there have only been a handful), I’ve met 10 REALLY COOL Couchsurfers. I’ll never forget Yohana, who took me to a hidden waterfall in Bali, or Leo, who let me crash at his beach house in the Grecian islands for a week, or Susie, who gave me the keys to her apartment during the 2008 EuroCup & took me out to all the celebrations. All of these experiences were not just highlights of my trips, but memories that I will never forget. That is what the beauty of Couchsurfing is – meeting & spending time with locals, doing what they do, going where they go, REALLY digging into their culture, and getting a chance to see their version of life.

 

What do you think about Couchsurfing?

Do you have any good Couchsurfing stories? Have you had similar experiences? Would you recommend using Couchsurfing to other travelers? Or are you reluctant to use Couchsurfing for reasons such as this? I’d love to hear about your Couchsurfing stories in the comments below!