CURRENT MISSION

meet exceptional people from around the world

ABOUT ME

MIKE:
...enjoys nice cold lagers, pilsners, ales, stouts, ciders, ambers, microbrews (and has the belly to prove it)
...loves a good jam session
...enjoys sharing travel stories
...enjoys sharing a cold brew and a good meal
...is a coffee lover (bubble tea is good too)
...is a freak for film and cinema
...thinks just about any human activity is better with MUSIC
...loves cats and other friendly creatures that neither bark nor bite

PHILOSOPHY

have fun and enjoy life;
read a good book once in a while;
eat your vegetables;
call your mom;
laugh a lot

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have fun and go with the flow.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Bristol, Luxembourg, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam and Utrecht, Neuchatel, Taipei and Taichung, Bangkok, Dayton, St. John's, Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow, Lviv, Lodz, Strumitsa, Belgrade, Riga, Tartu and Tallinn, Kaunas, Budapest, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Saigon, Seville, Tarifa, Catania, Szczecin, London

Interests

travel
literary journalism
history and geography
singing
good food (and how to prepare it)
books and maps
guitars
cycling
motorbikes
percussion instruments
prog rock/prog metal
international and independent cinema
stand-up comedy
landscape photography
throwing sangria parties for lots of fun people
surfing on your couch
you, surfing on my couch

• cats
• books
• singing
• performing arts
• photography
• concerts
• festivals
• dining
• seafood
• beer
• coffee
• partying
• pub crawls
• movies
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• camping
• geography
• history
• journalism
• mountains
• maps

Music, Movies, and Books

*MOVIES* The Blues Brothers; True Romance; Monty Python's Holy Grail; Buena Vista Social Club; The Pianist; Cold Fever; Romancing the Stone; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Fifty Dead Men Walking; The Disappearance of Alice Creed; GoodFellas; Aliens; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; A Bronx Tale; Lord of the Rings; Y Tu Mama Tambien; Pan's Labyrinth; The Shawshank Redemption; Glengarry Glen Ross; Saving Private Ryan; The Wrestler; There Will Be Blood; Rob Roy; La Cicatrice (The Scar); Dreams (Kurosawa); Black Swan; Lilja4ever

*MUSIC* Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Beatles, Bob Marley, Rush, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, AC/DC, Triumph, Foo Fighters, Humble Pie, Fleet Foxes, Van Halen, Bee Gees, Everclear, Iggy Pop, Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Leon, Crash Test Dummies, Stone Temple Pilots, Cake, Nirvana, Yes, Clapton, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Moody Blues, REO Speedwagon, Fairport Convention, Cranberries, Santana, Doobie Brothers, Opeth, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Judas Priest, Budka Suflera, Allman Brothers, Over the Rhine, Incubus, U2, Genesis, Eagles, Paul McCartney, Jethro Tull, James Brown, Traveling Wilburys, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Jahboy, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam, Goran Bregovic, Janis Joplin, Poco, Steve Miller Band, Ambrosia, CCR, .38 Special, Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Molly Hatchet, Leftover Salmon, Blues Traveler, Black Crowes, Guster, funk, motown, blues, soul, cajun/zydeco, percussion music, classical Baroque period, surf, rockabilly, roots rock, bluegrass

*BOOKS* Mike recommends the following titles:
"The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner;
"In the Beauty of the Lilies" by John Updike;
"Don't Tell Mom I Work on the Rigs (She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse)” by Paul Carter;
"The Earthsea Trilogy" by Ursula LeGuin;
"White Jenna" by Jane Yolen;
"Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer
“Love Thy Neighbor” by Peter Maass
“Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain
“Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure” by Paul Auster

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

**a rowdy 'kulig' near Zakopane, Poland on New Year's Eve (a caravan of sleighs by torchlight....with lots of vodka)
**the stunning vista from atop the Peak Tram in Hong Kong
**singing Johnny Cash tunes onstage at a country music bar in Trois Rivieres, Quebec
**getting 'screeched in' as an honorary Newfoundlander by kissing a frozen codfish in St. John's
**performing onstage at an international music festival in Gwangju, Korea
**celebrating a birthday with my Filipino friends at a private singing room in Manila
**climbing to the summit of Mt. Uncompaghre in the San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
**enjoying the incredible 'Siam Niramit' performance in Bangkok, Thailand
**visiting the William Wallace monument near Stirling, Scotland
**performing in a Scottish pipe and drum band during the halftime show at a Cincinnati Bengals game
**serving as a group leader/coordinator for an international summer English camp in Minsk, Belarus
**enjoying whales passing by my camp on the shore of Naked Island at Mingan Archipelago National Park, Quebec, Canada
**enjoying a generous serving of 'entrecote de cheval' in Neuchatel, Switzerland
**Pink Floyd in concert at the Canadian National Exhibition Stadium (Toronto)
**a visit to the burial place of J.R.R. Tolkien near Oxford, England
**the Golden Circle tour out of Reykjavik, Iceland
**the amazing 'Wieliczka' salt mines near Krakow, Poland
**enjoying a beer with a Serbian MMA fighter and his friends at a pub in Sjenica, Serbia
**a seafood dinner with the European ambassador to Korea in Pusan

Teach, Learn, Share

give me a guitar, feed me beer or whiskey, and enjoy the show

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Poland, South Korea, United States

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