I am just a girl who fell in love with traveling once and still cannot get over this infatuation. I love to see the landscape changing around me, strangers turning out to be amazing people and world showing its magnificent beauty in least expected places.

For some time I used to work at the university, teaching economics and writing a phd thesis, but once it was over, I understood that life is much more than following a path that everyone expects you to follow. One clever guy once said that real development happens to you once you start moving in the direction of the growth of your fear, and I can totally relate to that.

The Big Dream is to travel around the world, and in every single existing country to try:
- living with locals;
- hitchhiking;
- cooking an authentic dish with locals;
- learning some phrases in the local language.

Hopefully, this will allow me not to be disappointed with my life choices when I am an old woman, sitting in my rocking chair on the veranda. Moreover, it will make me one of the most culinary sophisticated grandmothers in the world ;)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am on couchsurfing because this service provides an unprecedented database of open-minded people, ready to embrace other cultures and to show their own one. Curiosity, courage and sense of adventure can turn every trip into a journey of a lifetime.

Interests

Morning coffee, baking, candles, laughing out loud, small live concerts in tiny clubs, coziness, ambiguity, children, friendship at first sight, finally understanding something, kitchen philosophy at 4 am, walking, cats, spontaneity, beauty, poetry, mountains, water, smell of freshly baked bread, sense of humor, buddhism, sunshine, waking up early, streetfood, boho style, reading, art, acting rational when feeling chaotic, pushing to the limits, overcoming fear, making lists

• cooking
• fitness
• yoga
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• languages
• mathematics
• food
• nature
• adrenaline

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera), Vanity Fair (Thackeray), The Hunchbak of Notre Dame (Hugo), The Prophet (Jebran), Demons (Dostoyevsky), The Forsyte Saga (Galsworthy), The Alchemist (Coelho), Hamlet (Shakespear), Master (Osho), Journey to Ixtlan (Castaneda), My Name Is Red (Pamuk), Peaceful Warrior (Millman), How to Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie), A Hero of Our Time (Lermontov), Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Ralston), Master of Petersburg (Coetzee), The Moon and Sixpence (Maugham), Antic Hay (Huxley), Lady Chatterley's Lover (Lawrence), Great Expectations (Dickens), The Razor's Edge (Maugham), Fight Club (Palahniuk), Atlas Shruhhed (Rand), The Fountainhead (Rand), The Shadow of the Wind (Zafón), The Magus (Fowels), The Gypsies (Pushkin), A Clockwork Orange (Burgess), The Gadfly (Voynich), poems and essays by Joseph Brodsky

Movies: Memento, Stay, Life Before Her Eyes, Across the Universe, Singin' in the Rain, Mulholland Drive, Legends of the Fall, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Julie & Julia, 21 Grams, Seven Years in Tibet, Les Miserables, Les Choristes, Life of Pi, Wild, Mamma Mia, Mr. Nobody, Love Actually, Song of the Sea, A Single Man, Touching the Void, Alive, Green Mile, Catch Me If You Can, Inception, The Graduate, Great Gatsby, Cinderella Man, The Bucket List, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Everybody Says I Love You, Leon, The Prestige, Solaris, (500) Days of Summer, Walk the Line, Eat. Pray. Love, 12 Angry Man, Beautiful Mind, Green Street Hooligans, Pi, Moneyball, V for Vendetta, Sin City, Palm Trees in the Snow

Music: The Smiths, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Nirvana, The Decemberists, Johnny Cash, Belle & Sebastian, Joe Dassin, Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel, Franz Ferdinand, Joe Cocker, David Bowie, U2, Green Day, Nick Cave, Muse, Simon & Garfunkel, White Stripes, The Doors

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I fell in love with a cyclist and having zero experience of riding a bike, living in a tent or making a fire in the wilderness agreed to make a week-long ride in Karelia (a beautiful area of lakes and forests in the North-Western part of Russia). It was worth it 100,000 times :D

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm really sorry I can't provide a couch for anyone yet, but if you're in St.Petersburg, I can show you around this marvellous city and teach you a bit of Russian.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Russian Federation