Couch surfing?

I know someone who uses this a lot, and I guess it works well otherwise people wouldn't do it. Not my thing, though. I'd never do something like this myself.

I knew a girl who lived in Bushwick - or rather the part of Williamsburg that is so close to and as crappy as Bushwick that it's called that - who did it. I think she used it more to travel than anything, but she had a few of her own couch surfers. One girl stayed in her living room for quite a long time, but I don't think she minded at all. It's a good way to travel on a budget, or just travel extensively and freely. I keep waiting for the Couch Surfer episode of Law and Order though....

The Law and Order writers are probably to stodgy to have heard of couch surfing.

It seems like something you do in your early twenties, but after a certain age you get yourself a job and some money to pay for hotels.

@DBlack I tend to agree - with the latter statement, anyway.

Seems like Couch Surfing would be a great thing for people who travel to foreign countries and make friends with those in local communities of the places they visit.

Wait, what I want to know is what the hell is wrong with the people who lend out their couch to strangers for free? Seems like it would only be Stage 5 - Creepos and Crazy Cat ladies.

I've surfed in Zagreb and Budapest, met up with people in Paris, NYC, and Vienna, and hosted in Oxford and Vienna. By and large I've had great experiences hosting and a mixed bag with meeting/staying - most people were great, but I had one creepy-ish experience in Budapest (nothing too scary, just a bit shady, so I left a day earlier) . It works on a trust system/reference system, and it's easy to tell the guys who just are looking for a hot girl to stay at their pad from the CS community.

And no more Law and Order episodes of ANYTHING - waah!

Weird - my post seems to have gotten deleted. But I wrote to say I've had plenty of experience with CS, and most of it has been fine. It's ranged from totally great to slightly odd if I didn't get on with a host, but never dangerous or creepy as such

@DBlack, BroadwayBK totally agree with you..

That all might well be the case, a jadeidealist, but I would never find it a good idea to couch surf rather than work a while longer and pay for my own hotel. Maybe that makes me old, but...

@JenMac I don't think so - I'd bet that it is mostly just poor college kid types. Travelling in such a manner tends to be the right of passage for educated early twenty-somethings, doesn't it?

@ajadedidealist Thanks for the insight!

@Uraniumfish I think I am that old, too. It's much more comfortable to have some private space to go back to whist vacationing.

@BroadwayBK Are you British? I'm asking because of the "whilst" which I think I've seen you use several times?

so true BroadwayBk I also value a nice, clean bathroom when I travel I dont necessarily have to stay at a five star hotel but a hotel with a clean room and a decent bathroom fits the bill.

I agree on the personal space. I can't even do a bed and breakfast situation because I don't want strangers up in my kool-aid when I'm trying to relax. We get enough of that in this city as it is.

@DBlack Ha..no. I did spend some months in London a few years back. One of my writing gigs centers around British pop music, which is likely where I picked that up. Either that or I actually took one of my writing professors seriously when she said that it was in bad taste to ever use the word "while." Not that "whilst" is much of an improvement.

@uptowngirl And a nice, clean, spacious bathtub! With little soaps!

@everyone But I do like that this site exists - I like the idea that even those of us on seriously limited budgets can vacation in the Keys or the mountains or where ever.

@BroadwayBK I am sitting here writing posts with a sore back, I pulled a muscle earlier on and now all this tall about vacations is making me want to go run away on vacation ...wait isnt the Fourth of July weekend in three weeks??drat I have a deadline for a small project which I haven't even touched as yet!!

I could use a vacation too... But with my current budget, I would be forced to go couch surfing.

But don't you guys have a handful of good friends from college or whatever who you could visit and therefore do a kind of couch-surfing vacation? Just the idea of staying with absolute strangers that makes me uncomfortable.

@Uraniumfish That's actually an excellent point. I just wish I knew someone who lived in very close proximity to a body of water.

@Uraniumfish I actually have some friends who will be working in Newfoundland this summer, so I'm considering just such a couch surfing vacation with friends. Since everyone always wants to come to New York, I'm in a pretty good position to be able to repay the favor. I mean, this is probably the one city where you could have your pick of couch exchanges with far-flung friends.

@Uraniumfish me too but couch surfing with friends or even mere acquaintances seems somewhat doable..

Golly I need a vacation and this is not likely to happen any time soon...

I think I'm getting too old to CS. The types on there tend to be young adults who want to "party" with people from other cultures - emphasis on that "partying." I'd love international exchanges, but wish there were exchanges for those of us who prefer a nice cup of tea, a stroll through the city, or a museum tour to a "party."

@ajadedidealist Indeed. And curling up under some clean linens on a nice bed instead of on a couch after a leisurely day would be nice, too.

@Uraniumfish I was literally just telling a friend the same thing about myself. Can't wait until my days of retirement in Paris...

In addition to working too much, I also get to move, and have all the fun that moving entails. Sweaty lugging of boxes, painting, scraping away kitchen grime accumulated over aeons...sigh. Yeah, it would be really great to at least take a weekend somewhere. I'm starting to see that one of the indications of being a grownup, aside from owning a couch, is that you actually take yourself a vacation and learn to relax.

@Uraniumfish You certainly picked an interesting month to do all that heavy outdoor lugging and lifting. I walked outside today and immediately began to sweat. Did you at least land a place in the desirable Boreum Hill?

Indeed I did, BroadwayBK, I landed myself a place exactly in desirable Boerum Hill. Today I went over there to have brunch with a friend and thought, this cafe is just a couple of block from where I'm about to live and I can do this sort of thing ALL THE TIME!

Yeah, and give me moving in the middle of frosty January over this any day. I too walked outside and encountered a Wall o'Heat.

@Uraniumfish Congratulations may you be very happy in your new abode!

@Uraniumfish Yes, congratulations! And good luck not having a heat stroke.