CURRENT MISSION

Live as you feel right, making the world a better place along the way.

ABOUT ME

I can be very different, depending on the environment i'm currently in. Treating the people the way they treat me. I'm really about letting people be themselves and respecting their principles, and kinda expect the same for myself.

PHILOSOPHY

Openness. Reliability. Honesty. These things will make the world a better place =).

ME AS A COUCHSURFER

When i travel, i most often do it with my girlfriend Sasha. She's almost my age and she's a landscape architect. You can find our pics together in my album here, hope we don't scare you away =). We're very friendly, open and talkative, never passing a chance to have a good time. But it doesn't mean that you'll have to hear us chirping all day long, we know how to enjoy the silence too ;).

We're not an over-the-top, heavy club hitting kind of people, we do prefer something slower paced. But we're also not the boring tourist attraction junkies who always follow the guide books. Of course, we'd love to see the main landmarks, but i believe that, as in any city in the world, the locals always know a ton of nice authentic places that are not on the tourist map, and we'd be happy if you could share them with us.

The host of our dream is a person who is hospitable and who enjoys meeting and hosting new people as much as we would like to enjoy staying with him or her. We don't see CS as simply a hotel room replacement, so, if possible, we would really like to spend time with our host, talking, sharing stories, hanging out and visiting places. In other words, trying to learn how it really feels to live there.

As for the domestic behavior and habits, we're both extremely (and i mean it) clean and tidy, plus we don't smoke, so we'd be happy to be hosted by a person who values such things him/herself. We're all about playing by the rules and respecting your comfort, so if there's something in particular that you prefer your guests to adhere to, then it will most likely be no problem at all =).

We would really enjoy getting a taste of the local cuisine, so if you don't mind sharing your meal then it would be awesome. Of course, we'd be happy to chip in for the grocery costs. We could also cook something from our own cuisine for you, if you don't mind and we manage to find the required ingredients ;).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've been introduced to CS by a friend of mine who's now a real CouchSurfing guru. I instantly fell in love with the idea of CS. I guess i've always been finding some degree of happiness in the concept of sharing. Not only of the material things but also knowledge, emotions, views etc. And there are probably just two things in this world that really promote that "sharing is caring" philosophy: CouchSurfing and... BitTorrent =). So obviously i simply had to become a part of both.

Also, i believe that, to truly learn the soul of a place you visit, it's not enough to just roam and look around - that you need to meet people who live there, see the place through their eyes. And what's a better way to do that than CouchSurfing, right? ;)

Interests

Internet and all about it. Foreign culture. Computers and related stuff. Outdoor activities. Hanging out with people. Music, movies (obviously =)). Psychology. Politics...

I dunno, a lot of things - you name any, there's a chance i would be down for it =).

• culture
• books
• architecture
• environment
• cooking
• running
• clubbing
• politics
• technology
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• outdoor activities
• psychology
• tourism
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Simply A Lot. But just as an example...

Music: Queen, Kamelot, Dispatch, Blind Guardian, Nightwish, Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Dire Straits, Guns 'n Roses...

Movies: Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Fight Club, Kis Uyuksu, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Green Mile, 300, Watchmen, Up in Smoke, The Good The Bad The Ugly, Gran Torino, Love Actually, Point Break, Toy Story, V for Vendetta, Pulp Fiction, Hobo With a Shotgun :), Casablanca, Inglorious Basterds, Avatar, Big Lebowski...

I'm totally a cinemaholic, so if you really wanna know my tastes then here's my IMDb profile - http://www.imdb.com/user/ur41574791. I even write reviews, you're more than welcome to upvote them ;).

Series: Due South, The Walking Dead, Jericho, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Fargo, the BBC documentaries... I can't spend much time watching TV shows, but if i do, i watch the best =).

Books: Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower, The Stand (Stephen King rocks big time), some Russian classic, but not too much, 1984, Generation P by V. Pelevin, A Song of Ice and Fire. And, of course, the technical stuff.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Don't think it's up to me to decide whether what i did is amazing enough. So, instead, i'd like to say about things that amazed me, even though i'm not sure if it counts ;).

I am easily amazed by the beautiful landscapes. One of those was the view of the Oslo-fjord from the stern of the ferry heading to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a warm August evening of 2002, the sun was gently shining, the shore was moving away from me, leaving space for the sea and the little islands - and i couldn't imagine anything more peaceful...

One more place which i'll hardly forget is the Volga river from the hill on its side. It was May, 2008, and we took a little ferry there from Kazan, walked around the fields and hills the whole day, and then came to the ferry station to take a ferry back. On the way back to the station we were passing that hill with a village on it, and from its edge you could see the part of the river where it goes sooo wide... with various boats, barges and ferries running around... with the clouds reflecting in the water... It's the place where you could feel the magnificence of the country you were born in, the pride for being its citizen... And the utmost love for the life itself...

Teach, Learn, Share

I am a tech-savvy, extra environment-caring and generally compassionate person. So whatever there is that people need and that i have - i'm usually willing to share or teach, as long as people are friendly and not overly demanding.

As for learning... well, with my curiosity for the world, i'm easily amazed with people's skills, whatever those might be. So i try to learn a bit of everything, because who knows what might be useful in life ;).

What I Can Share with Hosts

A host-guest relationship is a two-way street. And since hosts do us a courtesy by sharing their homes with us, it's obvious that guests are the ones to adapt the most. And if that's too much for their comfort, then they just look for a different host, right?

Anyway, i can be very different depending on what people i am with. Naturally i'm quite talkative, open and friendly, so if you're a company person then i'd definitely want to enjoy communicating with you. But if the host is busy and doesn't want to be bothered too much then it's no problem at all. I'm all about playing by the rules, because without the rules there would be only chaos, and that's a bad thing =).

Anyway, if my hosts are really keen to learn something from me, then i'm always willing to talk about my home country and city. We could always discuss some movies, music bands, or the plain old politics. I don't preach the classical "Russia FTW, the rest of the world kneel and behold" agenda, and i'm really cosmopolitan, so don't worry =).

Countries I’ve Visited

Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

Russian Federation, Ukraine

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