CURRENT MISSION

my keyword: explore, explore cultures, explore peoples, explore the world...

ABOUT US (This profile combines both Ervin and Helene's tastes and experiences)

I am originally from France, Ervin is from a Hungarian speaking region of Romania. Now a family of 4. Ervin and I met in Sri Lanka, while both working for humanitarian organisations, since then we lived in Liberia, France, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Burundi, Jordan, Romania and we are now living in Budapest, Hungary. We have two wonderful children, Adele 13 and Daniel 11, they both enjoy having visitors in the house. We always enjoy hosting people, share meals, have great conversation, making us feel on holiday without travelling. We love to have impromptu guests, share a meal, share experiences...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Offering a room in our house in Budapest, we have a sofa bed in a room we use as an office and would be happy to offer to guests. We live in Hűvösvölgy in the hills above Budapest, you can reach the center of Budapest in 40 min by public transport. The area we live in is very quiet, with a village feel, though it is Budapest!!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

(Helene) Travelled for 6 months in 2007-2008 and had only great experiences in Quebec, San Jose and Buenos Aires! Thanks to my hosts and other couchsurfing friends I learnt a lot about their countries traditions, specialties, culture, history and even politics!
Difficult to give as much as I received with such good encounters, but trying
As a family we have hosted really great persons, including long-haul travellers in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Monrovia in Liberia, Beirut in Lebanon, Amman in Jordan, Lazarea in Romania and hoping to have new positive experiences again now that we live in Budapest.

Interests

We love photography and love to exchange experiences and tricks about the subject, though we have not practiced for very long. Ervin is an avid cyclist and trail runner, Adele loves playing music and singing and dances hip-hop. Daniel is a new but rapidly learning chess player. Helene loves reading novels and playing board games.
Travel is also a big hobby in books, in reality, in meeting other nationalities!

• culture
• books
• photography
• politics
• traveling
• history
• psychology
• management

Music, Movies, and Books

(Helene) I love reading and my favorites are Alamut (Vladimir Bartol), the shadow of the wind (Carlos Zafon), Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts), I also like Eric Emmanuel Schmitt short stories, Caryl Ferey novels. (Ervin) I am a fan of Haruki Murakami and recently discovered other great Japanese writers.
We love listening to music, often go to concerts when there is an opportunity, our tastes are quite eclectic and goes from George Brassens/Jovanotti to Foo Fighters.

Some of the series we really enjoyed watching: "Treme" about New Orleans (lots of music and great characters), "Kaboul Kitchen" (Satire about humanitarian workers), "The Wire", also some very good Danish series like "the Killing", "Borgen", "The bridge".

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

(Helene) Had a Congolese Lieutenant (not sure if the title was invented or not) in a tiny village in Congo draw me an organogramm of the army in Maniema province.
I had the chance to go to Afghanistan in 2003, only a small part of it! Amazing country, amazing people living now through hell unfortunately.
(Ervin) Living and working in so many very different cultures.

Teach, Learn, Share

We really enjoy conversations about cultures, travels, getting to know about your culture, share our experiences in the countries we lived. Apart from that, Ervin has some knowledge in nutrition he is happy to share and Helene is always ready to play some board games.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Germany, India, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, United Kingdom, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Romania, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, United States

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