Whether you are my guest or you host me, you can be sure to enjoy good vegan food, I love to cook.
And if you like cooking together, even better. No need though, also if you’re not too experienced with cooking vegan, so far I’ve always been able to find good ingredients on my couchsurfing travels.
Apart from cooking, I love to spend time to talk about life, politics, travels etc.
I’ve been playing sports for as long as I can remember and am always up for a round of (beach) volleyball, Roundnet (spikeball) or almost any other sport. I oftentimes take the Roundnet set with me, so I can play with my hosts or other people I meet.
Since October 2025 I study economics-sustainability-transformation at the “Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung“ in Koblenz where politics, especially around economic systems, (utopian) alternatives to our current very capitalist world are central. For example commons and mutualism where couchsurfing is a prime example for an island where alternatives are practised.
I’m learning more and more how to create a space where there is room for emotions and mutual understanding, which to me is extremely important. (Human) psychology in general fascinates me especially what factors are needed to create community and relationships.

There’s a couple projects I am supporting and working on at the moment. Maybe you find some interests in common here as well?

1. A book exchange platform, open source and federated, that as a first step makes it possible through image recognition to catalogue and search public bookshelves regularly (someone else already created a map to find them easily). Later on that technology can be used for private bookshelves too so others can search whether someone has this exact book in a specific area. You can then contact the owner to borrow the book.
2. A collective that collects and spreads knowledge and Tools on how civil initiatives for referendums (such as the Zukunftsentscheid in Hamburg or Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen in Berlin) can be successful.
3. The Bahnkollektiv: a collective that aims to make train rides more enjoyable. One thought of many is to create a network of people close to train stations who prepare tea while others who get on or change the train pick it up and share it on the ride.

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This section is for the negative reviews that I received.
I don’t really know if it’s a good idea, that this is what potential hosts see first, but I wanted to find a way to reply with messages longer than 259 letters, because otherwise I’d either have to leave out relevant context, what I learned after having read the review or a decent way of addressing the person.

Reply to Ada Rastelli, June 2025

Hey Ada,
Thank you for your honest review. It sure made me think.
You’re right, after I offered to cook dinner, I could (and maybe should?) have put more effort into making my ideas better compatible with the food you like. Because that didn’t work well, I was especially glad that I could help you in the garden to return at least some of the favour, when you asked, because you couldn’t find a gardener until now.
Also I’ll take away from your review, that I’ll every time talk more explicitly about how my hosts would like to share expenses.
Overall I am really sorry, that I didn’t notice how unhappy you felt about how the stay went.
Maybe I can make it up to you in some way.
Nevertheless, I wish you all the best, am still glad for having met you, our conversations and the time we spent together.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

So far when travelling I very often had the feeling that I didn’t really get to know the place because I only had the “touristy” view as I/we mostly stayed in Hostels or Apartments with some but little interaction with locals. So when I heard that Couchsurfing was a thing I was all ears and now that I have the opportunity to again spend quite some time travelling I’m excited to get to know the CS community and my hosts places, towns, cities.
Also, on another level, I think that concepts like CS might be a little bit of an antidote to nationalist trends, helping build cross-border understanding and friendships.

Interests

Sports, travelling, reading, organisational culture, sustainability

• politics
• hiking
• sports
• volleyball
• lacrosse
• kitesurfing
• vegan food
• vegan cooking
• intersectional feminism
• commons
• roundnet

Music, Movies, and Books

I prefer listening to music and reading books over watching a movie. In the last couple months I’ve been listening more and more to French music which I already liked a lot before (some examples: L.E.J., Ben Mazué, Eddy de Pretto). German musicians I really like are Provinz, Paula Hartmann, JPD, AnnenMayKantereit, Nura. Just to name a few.
When I read it is often historical fiction like Ken Follett or Jan Guillou (a Swedish author who wrote a series about three Norwegian brothers studying engineering in pre First World War Germany and later on building bridges and other infrastructure in Norway and other countries across time up until after WW2).
Other authors (different genres) that come to mind are Yuval Harari and Marc Elsberg.
A book that I read recently that I would highly recommend is Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina documenting what goes on in the high seas and which in many parts reads like a thriller. (Disclaimer: You may end up eating less fish and buy less goods from abroad.)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

After graduation I spent six weeks with one of my best friends travelling through British Columbia (Canada) in a pretty rundown camper.
I loved the interactions with the people we met and the nature there is simply amazing.

You’ll have to actively stop me from talking once you have me started remembering those six weeks.

For example in 105 mile house while making a stop and playing a round of chess at a lake we met a couple, talked a while (the husband giving us tips on how to improve our game) and in the end got invited to stay at their place overnight. Since then almost every time I play chess, I think of them.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I am quite confident to say that I am a good vegan cook and I am very much enjoy cooking either with or for my host.
If you enjoy evening talks about basically anything I’m all in and apart from that I’m a sports lover so I’ll be very happy to join.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Denmark, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Tanzania, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Germany, New Zealand