Getting in touch with local people, learning about their cultural similarities and differences tends to be a much more rewarding experience than visiting a crowded tourist attraction. Also at home I often feel like living in a social bubble of similar background and values, and couchsurfing proved to be a great tool to break out of this bubble. I made some of my fondest travel memories with couchsurfing, and I hope for more to come! :-)

Music: Hard to say, anything can be interesting: Classic rock (The Doors, The Who, The Rolling Stones, …), metal – or strange stuff like 8-bit electronic music (Pornophonique). Also minimal electro like Kraftwerk and Welle: Erdball. But honestly, I do not listen to music as often as most other people do. Movies: I tend to prefer arthouse movies over hollywood blockbusters, although these are more fun to watch with friends. My all-time favorite director is Stanley Kubrick, especially his masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey". I like the twisted plots of Korean movies and the weirdness of Japanese ones. Books: High fantasy (e.g. The Lord of the Rings) and (hard) science fiction (e.g. Roadside Picnic, The Martian, Seveneves, The Three-Body Problem, anything from Philip K. Dick…), but mostly non-fiction. Topics vary a lot here; some more recent books would be: Off the Map, Red Plenty, Design for Hackers and the Aquariums of Pyongyang.