Hi, my name is Henrik! I am a musician / media designer / aspiring filmmaker who has been living in Berlin for sixteen years. I grew up in Bavaria (Franconia, to be exact), a.k.a. the place where the real, proper, stereotypical Germans come from, lol. (Don't worry, I'm not really one of them... at least I like to think that I'm not!) Lately, I have been travelling around Spain quite a bit; my latest journey led me to lovely Andalucía, where I spent two months going from town to town, doing some volunteering and trying to decipher the Andalucian accent (Dios mío, it's almost as terrible as the Bavarians' version of German... well, ALMOST, hah.) - Anyway, I love travelling in general (even though I don't get to do it nearly as often as I would like to); it truly is one of the best ways to get out of your everyday rut, learn about life and human beings, make new experiences and broaden your horizon.

I like all kinds of artistic activities: Making music, going to concerts, making / watching movies, painting, drawing, writing... you name it. Even though I am German (lol), humour is very important to me; I cannot stand people who haven't got a healthy sense of humour and self-irony. I mean, why make life more grim and serious than it needs to be, right?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to meet people, listen to their stories (and, of course, share my own stories with them), explore different cultures, learn about different ways of living in and looking at the world, so I am super exited whenever I get the chance to travel around, be welcomed into the homes of local people and make new friends. I am still relatively new to Couchsurfing, but the experiences that I have made with it so far have been really cool, so I am definitely looking forward to meeting many more Couchsurfers over the next years!

Interests

• meditation
• movies
• music

Music, Movies, and Books

I like Classical music (especially late romantic and modern) as well as Rock and Jazz; in fact, I play a few instruments myself and have been working as a professional musician for a couple of years. Some of my favorite movies are Amadeus, Apocalypse Now, The Graduate, Last House On The Left, New Hollywood films in general as well as a whole bunch of other movies that have been done mostly in the 60s and 70s of the last century; I am also fond of the Expressionist cinema of the 1920s. (I have even done a ten minute short film of my own once, but I wouldn't say that this one is quite on par with my favorite movies, haha!) Probably my favorite book is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; I also really like the stories of Voltaire and E.T.A. Hoffmann, a fantastical 19th century German writer who used live in my bavarian hometown Bamberg - which, sure enough, is exactly the quaint kind of town where an E.T.A. Hoffmann story could take place. Since I have taken up meditation over one year ago, I have also become somewhat interested in eastern spiritual texts such as Laotse's Tao Te Ching lately... but don't worry, I am definitely not going to try to convert you to Hare Krishna or anything like that. ;o)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Like I said, I did a ten minute short film once, which didn't turn out to be the greatest masterpiece of all time... but hey, I am kind of proud that I managed to finish the damn thing!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can play a few instruments like guitar and piano - and I plan to take my mother's old flute with me during my trip, since neither guitar nor piano are likely to fit into my suitcase, heh. Other than that, I am more than happy to practice English with you, which I am quite fluent in; and if you are crazy enough to want to learn the German language, I can definitely teach you something!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Stories, laughs and friendship

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Switzerland, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Spain