i've stayed on many couches, couches of people i've known for years, people i've randomly met on my travels, friends of friends, and people who host the kind of parties that are sometimes hard to leave... and of course my own couch has often been kept warm at night by various people too.. so it goes! here are some couchsurfing experiences which i would never have had without this amazing website: stayed with maria in kaiserslautern met up with katie for the first of many times during the world cup.. party on, chicken! stayed with matthias and nico in stuttgart stayed with maria in kaiserslautern again, she rocks! stayed with lauren in paris went out for a drink (or 8) with roman in paris stayed with shirlz, paul and lizzie in edinburgh hosted carrie from the US hosted john from wales hosted angelika from germany took nicole out to see a band hosted jonas from germany (nico's brother!) hosted julie and cathie from quebec hosted saskia from belgium took jill from the US out for a drink and couple of comedy shows hosted birgit from germany hosted alexandro from mexico shayla and her hyper dog juno took me on a great lake walk in whistler, canada dale took me out for burgers in whistler, canada stayed with rob in vancouver stayed with nico and matthias again in stuttgart, had a great time again... awesome guys! stayed with dora in budapest hosted sara from holland took maria from russia out for dinner hosted ank from holland hosted nikki from seattle hosted sophie and veronica from quebec hosted matthias and yvonne from stuttgart stayed with cejana in new york hosted steffan and anje from stuttgart hosted damian from france hosted tokeah and annika from germany hosted mareike from germany hosted ludi from france partied with jeremy (le_mex) in paris stayed with kendra in chengdu hosted cejana from new york hosted julie and sabrina from france hosted david from france hosted lena from germany stayed with louis in miami stayed with peter in nottingham stayed with maya in porto alegre hosted sandra from quebec hosted dominick from austria

i once rode a camel out into the sahara desert one morrocan dusk, whilst suffering a truly monumental case of the runs... a stranger combination of happiness and anguish i have never experienced! it seemed like someone snuck out to the saharan sky the night before we arrived and put up about 20 million extra stars. i think that the star-installing vigilante must have also swung by my camel on the way back and installed about three extra knees, because the thing moved with a total absence of rhythm. after i launched myself onto the saddle, the thing felt like it stood up about five times. after it wobbily ascended with the unfolding of all the limbs i thought it could possibly have, it found another couple of joints and just kept rising. when it started to walk, it felt like i was riding a cross between a new born giraffe and an enormous sack of angry squirrels. as our camel train left the station, it became obvious that our arses were in for a pounding of the highest order, and not in a good way. but before long, we were suddenly lost from the rest of the world, the horizon a complete circle of simple sandy curves, the sky a total blue. with the lack of anything to hold them in, your thoughts start rolling with the endless burnt orange dunes, hinting and tracing their lines, drifting beyond sight. and then thumping back to the reality of having your tender arse being mercilessly hammered on a camel hump every two seconds, and the distressing possibility that large volumes of liquid could explode from any number of orifices at any moment. truly a unique experience...