G'day folks! I'm Silas and well, what to say about me? :D My friends describe me as a well-travelled person. I've been backpacking extensively through 58 countries. So far, I hitchhiked over 10,000 kilometres in 46 countries and experienced the hospitality and kidness of strangers through Couchsurfing in each one of them. 🌏

I not only like to explore the outside world, but also the one inside me. I hold a Master of Science in international finance with an area of expertise in sustainability, consider myself a global citizen, and am a passionate vegan. I argue that it's a moral obligation to lead a vegan lifestyle in developed economies. Challenge me on a debate if you think otherwise. 🌿

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am a person with a keen interest of the local way of life in different countries. I reckon the best way to experience how locals actually live is, well, to meet locals. :D This is best done my being off the beaten track. Also because travelling is not only about taking pics of checklist destinations, but rather about making memories with the people you meet along the way. Couchsurfing is just one bloody god damn good way of doing exactly this, especially when those journeys are combined with exciting hitchhiking adventures. ☺️👍🏻

Interests

• vegan
• traveling
• investing
• darts
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• skiing
• languages
• psychology
• hitchhiking
• cultures
• universe
• couchsurfing
• diving
• mindfulness
• meeting new people
• finance
• self-development
• cannabis
• plant-based
• development finance
• career-building
• beer and wine tasting
• impact finance
• structured finance
• one-way tickets

Music, Movies, and Books

techno, progressive house, trance, 60s, 70s, 80s, country, lofi, jazz, classic (as I used to play piano for several years), but I can vibe to most genres (not all, though, haha - e.g., I'm not really into modern rap)

I mostly prefer to get educated rather than just entertained. So I love listening to pods, such as "A Question of Science" hosted by Brian Cox, prefer to watch documentaries such as the ones from Sir David Attenborough, and prefer to read factual books, for instance "Kopfsache", a book about state-of-the-art brain surgeries.

Best movies of all time, though: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition. I'm quite a LotR fan and also visited a fair amount of movie locations in New Zealand.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

• Travelled overland all the way from Bali, Indonesia to Germany by hitchhiking, local bus, train, ferry, and hiking ~ without using any airplanes 🌏🌍

• Hitchhiked from the Netherlands through the Balkans to Turkey while crossing 17 countries overland 🇳🇱🔜🇹🇷

• Hitchhiked from Mexico through all Continental Central American countries to Panama 🇲🇽🔜🇵🇦

• I free jumped 134 meters, the highest bungy in the southern atmosphere 🤙🏼

• Had a close encounter with a shark while diving 🦈

• Climbed the Chinese Wall and ended up at the police station 😂🇨🇳

• Lost my backpack and credit card while hitchhiking in Thailand...

• Took the six days Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia 🚞🇷🇺

• Found the love of my life in New Zealand "Mary" 🇳🇿❤

• Bought an empty van "Bob", built it up with Mary, and lived in it in it for a year 🇳🇿

• Jumped out of an airplane and skydived back to a beach 🪂

• Skied the steepest piste in Austria a fair amount of times 🎿

• Completed my Bachelor's in Germany 🎓🇩🇪

• Went to the DMZ and saw North Korea 🇰🇵

• Did my diving certification in Bali 🤿🐟

• Saw the midnight sun on the Lofoten during a road trip through Norway and Sweden 🇳🇴🇸🇪☀️

• Hiked from Switzerland through the whole of Liechtenstein to Austria 🇱🇮🏕

• Studied in Seoul, South Korea - and hitchhiked through the country twice ㅎㅎ 🎓🇰🇷

• Touched dolphins in the wild 🐬

• Completed my M.Sc. in International Finance in Lisbon, Portugal 🎓🇵🇹

• Was an au-pair in a kiwi family in New Zealand for three months 🥝🇳🇿

• Survived an armed robbery in Guatemala, 10cm away from getting a head shot...

• Volunteered in five countries as a language teacher 👨🏼‍🏫

• Lived in a van "Galadriel" in Australia for six months 🚐🇦🇺

• Studied in Taipei, Taiwan 🎓🇹🇼

• Saw the Aurora Australis on Bruny Island in Tasmania 🌌

• Co-hosted a mini podcast series on Spotify called "Real Talk @ Nova" 🎙 (if keen, check the first episode where I talk about my travels)

But anyway, you should try to give every second in your life the chance to be the most amazing one. Live now, since every moment has the potential to be sweet as!

Teach, Learn, Share

One travel advise: I always only travel with hand-luggage (if I end up flying which I usually try to avoid) and book one-way tickets only. That's the way to go! Don't plan to much. Take the road less travelled by. :D "A traveller sees what he sees. A tourist sees what he came to see."

What I Can Share with Hosts

Deep conversations about the world, morality, politics, and the universe. Always keen for a conversation of how we can mitigate diverse global crisis and how they are interconnected. I also love to talk about medical topics and quantum physics. Well, as far as my senses go, hehe. :D Uh yeah, and if someone's keen on enhancing their financial literacy, I can deep dive into finance topics such as personal finance, sustainable finance, development finance, trade finance, structured finance, and local currency hedging mechanisms. :D

Anyway, I also might be able to offer you delicious plant-based food, beer, wine, cannabis, or other mind-expanding substances, hehe. ;) This is a bit off-topic for this section, but I truly believe the world would be a better place if our literacy and use of psychedelics were better. Heaps of people seem to have little to no awareness for this matter and end up generalising by putting everything in the "drugs = always bad" basket (while they continue to drink alcohol and/or smoke cigarettes). That being said, no drugs should be chronically abused to try to solve problems they're not meant to solve. But if they're used wisely, you could experience something that I wouldn't be able to describe with words.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan