Hi, I‘m Rike.
I grew up in Berlin. During highschool I went to France for 1 year.
After highschool me and a friend of mine did a work and travel year in New Zealand, where we were also couchsurfing and woofing a lot.
Back in Germany I did a voluntary ecological year, an ecological agricultural education and a carpenters education afterwards.
Since I‘m done with that I was on a traditional journey (Walz) in Germany, where everyone who learned a handcraft can do these travels for minimum three years. That means a lot of hitchhiking through the country and never staying for long in one place, working here and there, getting to know a lot of different places, people and couches.. :)
So until last summer I’ve only been traveling around Europe as a craftsperson so far.

Now me and my friend Martin are traveling through Canada since last June. Doing a work and travel year. We were traveling in our minivan from Québec, around Atlantic Canada, back through Québec, staying in Ontario for a bit and traveled towards BC in crazy winter conditions, stood in the Kootenays for the wintertime and to found some nice places to stay and work there. Now we're already on our way back East again. In between we were ˋwwoofing´ or doing a ˋworkaway´ (that‘s both working in exchange for food and accommodation worldwide).

That‘s also the reason, why I can‘t take people who couchsurf at the moment, because I‘m traveling the whole time.. :/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When we‘ve been to New Zealand, a long time ago, me and a friend have already been couchsurfing over there, and we had couchsurfers afterwards, back in Berlin.
With couchsurfing we had very nice encounters with people. And it’s a quite special and much more personal way to getting to know places, people and the spirit of countries.
And often, after leaving someone's place, you‘re on the one hand happy and thankful, to have met such nice people and having spend time with them, but on the other hand a bit sad, too, because you might never see each other again.

Interests

• arts
• books
• singing
• animal welfare
• politics
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• canoeing
• mountains
• nature
• bike riding
• museums
• climbing
• sustainable living
• ecological farming
• carpentry
• arthouse movies
• lgbtq+
• queer culture
• boulder climbing
• history and culture

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
Hard to say. I like a looot of different music types - rap, rock, funk, soul, jazz, acid-jazz, rock ´n roll, swing, blues, some pop, classic and music from all around the world

Some favorites were or are: David Bowie, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits, Manfred Krug, Patti Smith, Foreigner, Phil Collins/Genesis, Prince, The Doors, Rory Gallagher, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Zombies, Nirvana, Jefferson Airplain, Jordan Rakei, Jamie Woon, Jose Gonzalez, Buena Vista Social Club, Jamiroquai, Everything but the Girl, Massive Attack, Omar, Erykah Badu, A Tribe Called Quest, Fugees, Ebow, Jurassic 5, Gang Starr, Pete Phili and Perquesite, Pearljam, Anthony and the Johnsons/Anohni, Christine and the Queens, Lie Ning, Sevdaliza, Michelle Gurevich, Paul Kalkbrenner, Tamikrest, Fatoumata Diawara, Greentea Peng, Ghostpoet, Queens of the Stoneage, Kyuss, All them Witches, Radiohead, Porridge Radio, Connan Mockasin, Soft Hair, Alanis Morissette, David Crosby, Hamlet Gonashvili, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Schuberts ‘Winterreise‘…
Only the old stuff from: Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, NIN, Metallica

Movies:
I like movies from Lars von Trier, Tom Tykwer, Doris Dörrie, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Andreas Dresen, Jean Pierre Jeunet, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Anderson and Tim Burton a lot.
Arthouse and Independent movies, old movies, french movies…
I used to love David Lynches’ and Tarantinos‘ films, too. Even though I still think they‘re big masterpieces, as I grew older, they often seem a bit too violent to me.

I like movies like ˋMoon‘ by Duncan Jones, ˋInterstellar‘ by Christopher Nolan, ˋLe Havre‘ by Aki Kaurismäki, ‘Wiener Dog‘ by Todd Solondz, ˋLes triplettes de Belleville‘ by Sylvain Chomet, ˋNapoleon Dynamite‘ by Jared Hess, ˋInto the wild‘ by Sean Penn, but also the romantic novelettish movie ˋthe holiday‘ by Nancy Meyers.

And everyone absolutely should see ˋeverything will change‘ by Marten Persiel!!

Some series are also great. Like ˋThe expanse‘, ˋHeartstopper‘, ˋBabylon, Berlin‘, ´Flight of the Conchords‘, ˋTales from the Loop‘, ˋthe Simpsons‘ and ˋFuturama‘

Books:
There are just to many wonderful books, and books that I like..
But I like biographical novels a lot, fiction but also nonfiction books that make you think about stuff and make you more aware.
Roald Dahls’ and Erich Kästners’ children books, The Diary of Anne Frank, Harry Potter and The Hobbit as a teenager, books by Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Ken Follett, Tobias Ginsburg, Roxanne Gay, Mithu M. Sanyal…
One of my favorite books after reading so much is still: ˋInto thin air´ by Jon Krakauer

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Many! :) I would have to tell it in person.
But maybe one: meeting an old, huge moose bull just beside our hiking trail on Gaspésie Peninsula, who stood totally laid-back and kept on eating after a minute of eyeing each other.

Teach, Learn, Share

I could share some craftly skills (‘cause I‘m a carpenter and gardener..)
..and german?

What I Can Share with Hosts

My experiences and stories.
Cooking vegetarian meals.
And the good mood :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, France, New Zealand