I graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 2012 as a furniture conservator (with a specialization in plastics) and spent the last two years doing apprenticeships at various museums. At one of these jobs I slept on the attic of a seventeenth-century Dutch manor and could walk out on the roof in the morning to watch the foggy countryside. Before that time I mostly read books & did not care to travel. But from then on I longed for new sights. Or so the story goes. And then I am blessed, and sometimes cursed, with great curiosity

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To travel & talk. Any maybe be a host when I get back home

Interests

I like to cycle, play guitar, cook, write & design and make furniture. O and I like industrial landscapes. They're great. And sometimes I enjoy discussions about the work of Heidegger (I don't like him), but mostly I don't. I like to laugh. Maybe Heidegger liked that too - we could talk about that

• books
• design
• cooking
• traveling
• guitar
• cycling

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:

Bill Callahan / Bonnie 'Prince' Billy / Gert Vlok Nel / Leonard Cohen / Mark Kozelek / Deerhoof / Pere Ubu / Morrissey / Talking Heads / The Magnetic Fields / Tom Waits / Captain Beefheart / Wilco / Radiohead / Duke Ellington / Charles Mingus / Kraftwerk / Aphex Twin / Gillian Welch / Townes van Zandt / The Kinks / T. Rex / John Zorn / Jonathan Richman / Yma Sumac / Goldfrapp / LCD Soundsystem / The Beatles / Grandaddy / De Kift / Django Reinhardt / Naftule Brandwein / Bob Dylan / The Velvet Underground / Carlos Gardel

Movies:

Twin Peaks / Everything by Mike Leigh / Sideways / The Wrestler / Everything with Buster Keaton / Some Like It Hot / Factotum / The Trip / Early David Cronenberg / Les Valseuses / The Long Goodbye / Lost in Translation / Sci-Fi movies with Charlton Heston / Jurassic Park / De Noorderlingen / Festen / Leaving Las Vegas / Walkabout / Stalker / Ace Ventura (1&2) / Diner / Blow Out / Everything by Hal Hartley / Paris, Texas / They Live / Gegen Die Wand / Gadjo Dilo

Books:

E.B. White / Nyk de Vries / Willem Elsschot / Henry Miller / Venedikt Jerofejev / Jean-Phillipe Toussaint / Daniil Kharms / Bruce Chatwin / Charles Bukowski / Raymond Chandler / Nescio / V.S. Naipaul / Murray Bail / Tip Marugg / W.G. Sebald / Eduardo Galeano / J.G. Ballard / Joe Sacco / Paul Auster / and on & on into non-fiction

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was a kid I was playing with my brother and I fell on the blade of a plough - I still have the scar tissue above my right eye

What I Can Share with Hosts

My Dutch dialect if they want to hear it

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Netherlands, United States