Hi there!

My name is Finn and almost a year ago now I took on my most daring challenge. I left my home in Adelaide, Australia, to see if it was possible to solo travel Europe and the UK for a year.

I love what I refer to as "the temporary life", relinquishing fears of social norms and just living day to day. One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite films best describes this: "Friends come in and out of your life, like busboys in a restaurant - [Stand by me]. Knowing that in many ways you'll just be a small hopefully enjoyable piece of nostalgia in someone's life, generally because of you're strange accent, but at least you'll have a story which you can tell to a friend, or maybe even change you as a person. I'll never get sick of wandering around a city I've never seen before and may likely never see again, but I crave more. I want to walk down the unbeaten path, have disagreements, piss a few people off, but most importantly be in the now, not look at the horizon or the future but live where I am in the present where I am now, focused only on what I'm doing instead of worrying about what is to come.

I travel to learn and to push myself. It's almost a bit of a curse sometimes, as soon as I realise I'm afraid of doing something that has 0 repercussions, I have to in that moment do it. Most of the time it leads to terrible dance moves but it's also introduced me to some of the most incredible people I've ever met. This is why I'd say I prefer a bar or karaoke to a club where I'm unable to talk with people

I've yet to couch-surf yet, I'm not actually sure why. I've already crashed at places; friends from Australia living in Europe, best friends I've made from hostels. I'm at the tail end of my travels, my university degree, a Bachelor in Theoretical Physics begins in July and I refuse to go home without saying I've tried couch-surfing.

I'm excited to meet new people and try something new!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

In early Feb 2025, just over 10 months into my travel, I visited a small place in Finland called Kotka where I'd contacted some distant relatives of mine. They took me to this island, Kuutsalo where I slept in the house where my great grandfather was born. Who, at my age left his home and travelled all around the world before arriving in Australia. From my family I also found out the meaning of my name. Autio: "deserted", the Autio's were the first people to move into the barren scorched earth of Eastern Finland after the Russians attacked and so they became known as Autio, the deserted people.

Originally I came over to discover how to have fun on my own, to travel this "Autio way", alone. However along the way I learnt something much more powerful and that was how to make new friends and the importance of the company of others.

This is why I travel, that never-ending satisfaction from the hunger from of something new
whether its your family's origin, a skill, a philosophy and so on. I've been a little anxious about signing up to couch-surfing. I've heard a fair few horror stories but fuck-it lets take that risk. I want to experience that enjoyment I get when I participate in other peoples lives, when I get a snapshot of how it feels to be a resident in their day to day culture, and be inspired and introduced to the diversity in which people of the world live their lives and hopefully introduce them to some of my own.

So many places I've been I find an interesting person or group of people and I completely forget I'm in a city I've never been in, you go to you next destination and ask yourself, wait what did I actually see in that city? But I think that's the way I prefer it, a little bit of history, a little bit of sightseeing, a lot more talking and action.

I'm afraid I don't have a couch to offer only my own stories and company, and so I am extremely grateful for your generosity.

Interests

I'm addicted to learning new things, it's always been something that I've loved. Oddly I'm a champion at losing beanies so recently on a 3 day train journey to Tallin I learnt to crochet, and made myself a beanie.

I'm a big fan of being healthy, although I definitely drink my fair share. When I'm not meeting up with people I love to cook new things and experiment with new flavours. Something I learnt in Finland was how to properly smoke salmon, so I have to try that out again at some point.

I love reading, currently I'm reading Trainspotting by Irving Welsh, On Palestine by Ilian Pappe and Nome Chomskey, Quantum Electrodynamics by Richard Feinman and Goblin Market and other Poems by

I enjoy a hike and I love being out in nature especially in the snow, as an Aussie we don't get much of that so I love a cold-hike.

My phone is terrible, especially my maps so slowly on cloudless nights I'm learning to navigate by the stars and learning my constellations.

music
cooking
exercise
stargazing
crocheting and knitting
hiking
reading

• reading
• music
• hiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Back home I love reading sci-fi, my favourite book series is The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, favourite book of all time however is definitely The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. I'm still a big reader, which is a bit of problem since I dont have an E-reader and books aren't exactly the easiest to pack. Currently I'm reading Trainspotting by Irving Welsh, On Palestine by Ilan Pappe and Nome Chomsky, Quantum Electrodynamics by Richard Feynman and Goblin Market and other Poems by Christina Rossetti. I have the cliche response to the music question that i listen to everything, which is kind of true, I love a song which tells a story, Middle of the Hill by Josh Pyke would have to be one of my favourites. Anything really except heavy heavy metal and specific genres of rap. My favourite movie is Back to the Future, I love that film however whilst travelling I've also fallen in love with travel-genre films like Into The Wild and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Lived and worked as a bartender in a pub in London

Teach, Learn, Share

I play guitar, piano and sing (albeit a little rusty without being able to practice) extremely passionate about theoretical physics I could talk to you heaps about string theory. I could talk lots about how Australia isn't as dangerous as everyone actually thinks it is although I ran out of Vegemite a while ago soz.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A pretty good conversation, my own stories

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, England