Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is a website where generous people offer their couches for travelers to stay on. In exchange, ideally, these same travelers would offer their couch for other travelers when they are not traveling. In other words, it is a network of people willing to share their couches with people who do not live in the same city.

To me, it is a fantastic idea, one that merges cultures while saving the traveler money. I personally think the world is too big and too fascinating to not be traveled, and everyone, everywhere, no matter their race or religion should be given this opportunity. Money is something that can stand in the way, but not having to pay for accommodation helps. Additionally, you can learn a lot more from someone who lives in the city than from other travelers at a hostel.

I have personally participated in couchsurfing 3 times, but do not use it to its full benefits and advantages.

The first time I took part in it was in May of 2010. I was going to a friend’s wedding in the New York City area and wanted to save a little money on accommodation. I feel slightly guilty as I was really just looking for a place to stay, which isn't what couchsurfing is all about. I already had friends staying in New York, so didn't need my host to show me around or spend time with me. He of course, was more than welcome, minus the wedding.

The way it worked was I just searched through profiles of people living in and around New York City. People describe themselves on their profiles, as well as their experiences couchsurfing, what their couch (or spare room, or mattress) is like and anything else that may be relevant to making a stranger feel welcome and safe in this person’s home. There are also references from other people so you can have an idea of what an experience with them might be like.

As I mentioned, NYC was my first experience with this website. That means, all of my references were just friends I had made while traveling, not through couchsurfing. That probably means they aren't as credible, which may make it more difficult to find someone willing to allow you to stay. I sent out many requests and it seemed like a hopeless cause until someone finally told me they could probably host me but they were really busy and likely couldn't show me around. That was fine, as I already knew people who would be there. I did invite my host to the Yankee game I secured tickets to, but he kindly refused (not a baseball fan and incredibly busy).

The experience had me sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor, but it was overall a good first experience. It wasn't too awkward and it didn't sour me from the site.

In January and February of 2012 I revisited the idea of couchsurfing traveling, this time with no friends in the countries I was heading to and a desire to experience a bit of culture. Having a specific plan of what I wanted to do helped me. My reason for visiting was to see hockey (as you have already read about in a couple previous posts). So when I searched for couches I searched for someone who mentioned hockey in their profiles.

I didn't end up finding exactly what I was looking for in Prague, but I did find a very gracious set of hosts who went above and beyond what they could to make my stay comfortable. Two of them were from the USA and the third was from Ireland. They were all teaching ESL at a university. I didn't get to share or understand the Czech culture as much as with a Czech host, but it was nice to be able to relate with people who have experience in a city but also are familiar with your culture. The three girls slept in a large room while I slept in the living room on their couch. It was pretty comfy. When I first arrived they all made me feel like I had known them for years. Nothing felt awkward despite the setting of sharing a home with a complete stranger.

One of them misinformed me about the game times and it ended up that there was not a game in Prague during my stay. To her credit, she worked hard to make sure I got to see a game from researching what city close by there was a game being played and how to get there by bus. She made sure I was fed and helped me spend as little money in the country as I could.

Finland was probably my best experience, not to discredit the girls I stayed with in Prague or the guy in New York. It was just the one that I arranged for the best experience. I did a search for couches near the city I wanted to fly into with hockey in their profile. I finally heard back from one who was a student and enjoyed his hockey. In fact, he had tickets already to a game in Helsinki. Plus, he was Finnish so I was able to get more of a culture experience as well.

This also was not awkward in the slightest. My host was able to pick me up at the airport and he gave up his bed for me to sleep in while he slept on the floor in his living room. He let me hang out in his apartment while he went to class and we talked a lot about our shared interest of hockey. He brought me along when he went out with friends and we saw a couple of hockey games. He was also able to explain to me different rivalries and compare some of the Finnish rules to the NHL ones I am so used to.

How could I fully use couchsurfing to my benefit? Well, I could try hosting people. I find myself too busy with the teaching to actually do that. When I am not busy, I am traveling myself. I could also participate in group events. I am a member of the Kuwait group and they do meet regularly, but I do not participate myself.

20 Countries

Friends back home have introduced me as a world traveller. I recall one person telling people that I have "been everywhere." This is a statement I have never agreed with, and who knows if I ever will.

I have in the past compared myself and my travelling to Socrates quest for wisdom: The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing. In the same way, the more I travel, the more I realize I have not travelled at all.

I have met several people along the way who have seemed to travel a lot more than I have, seen a lot more than I have and done a lot more than I have. I am always hearing about experiences that I have never done. Some I have never even heard of anyone doing.

To put it further into perspective, I have seen 20 countries or roughly 10% of the world's countries. This is more than a failing grade, especially when you consider how little I have seen of some of these countries. The following is an alphabetical list of the countries I have been to and a brief description of what I have done there. I could have spent as little time there as a few hours to as much time as 23 years.

(Just to note, I have not counted places I have spent layovers in an airport in the 20. These places would be China, Japan, Iceland, Qatar and Turkey)

Australia: I lived here for 9 months in 2009. I saw 4 states, Queensland, New South Wales, Southern Australia and Victoria. Regrettably, I never made it to Ayers Rock, one of the most popular things to see.

Austria: When in Munich (summer 2010) I took a train to Salzberg Austria for a few hours. That is all I saw of this country.

Canada: I was born and grew up here. Roughly 23 years but regrettably it has all been spent in one province. Canada is so big I am ashamed that I have only been to one province. The rest of Canada thinks people from Ontario are self centred and I do not help that stereotype.

Czech Republic: I went to Prague in the summer of 2010 and really enjoyed the city. I decided I must return to the country to see some ice hockey and I did just that in January of 2012.

Denmark: While in Australia I lived with several Danish people and in the Summer of 2010 I had the chance to visit a couple of them.

Dominican Republic: This was my first real 'travel' experience in May 2006. I use the word travel very loosely here as I went to a resort for a wedding and spent the majority of the time on the resort. I did do some 4 wheeling through a jungle however.

Egypt: Christmas 2011 was spent in Egypt over the course of a long weekend. I saw some of the ancient Pyramids, the Spynx and the Greek inspired city of Alexandria.

Finland: During my winter break of 2012 I went on a quest to see some European hockey and I saw 2 games while in Finland. I spent most of my time in the cities of Tampere and Helsinki

France: In Australia I lived with some fantastic French people whom I have visited on a couple of occasions. The first was the summer of 2010 when I also taught ESL at a camp for a month near Mount St Michael. I then spent time in Paris and the South of France during January and February of 2012.

Germany: I began my travel to Germany in Berlin in the summer of 2010. I loved the city and decided to try the city of Munich out later in the same summer. Germany and my love of history mixed well together.

Italy: I spent a few days in Italy at the end of the 2010 summer, the majority of the time spent in Rome. I woke up in Rome on my 25th birthday and took a train to Pisa for the afternoon and then headed to Florence. I had gelatto wherever I could get it (which was everywhere). 

S. Korea: I spent exactly one year there and have 2 regrets. That I didn't become a black belt in Hapkido while I was there and that I never made it to the beautiful (so I've heard) island of Jeju.

Kuwait: This is where I currently reside. I have been here for about 7 months. It is giving me a chance to develop professionally in the teaching profession, pay back some student debt and travel.

Netherlands: I spent 3 days in Amsterdam being mesmerized by the canals and greenery of the city. The coffee shops and red light district were also interesting to see.

Sri Lanka: In November of 2011 I spent a week here, soaking in the sun and the great Sri Lankan hospitality. While there I had a dream of being a tuk tuk driver in the country for a little while.

Sweden: My second stop in Scandinavia occurred in February 2012. I only spent time in Stockholm and it reminded me of New York City.

Switzerland: The Swiss alps (visited in the summer of 2010) may have been the most peaceful place I have ever been. That was my only true exposure to the mountain life.

Thailand: While living in Korea I went on vacation to Thailand. I spent a night in Bangkok before I went to one of the islands (Ko Samui). It had a lot of potential, unfortunately it rained almost the whole time I was there.

United States: A lot of my exposure to the USA has been on days trips to the ball parks in Detroit Michigan (way too many to count to both the former Tiger Stadium and the current Commerica Park). I have went on a couple trips to New York City as well as a couple night trips to Buffalo and one trip to Sandusky Ohio.

Vatican City: Perhaps the only country I can say I have seen everything in. I found the Sistine Chapel and the stories of Michelangelo among the top things I have learned about.

Finland

 Often when I travel I spend the majority of my time with friends, others who are traveling or by myself. Generally I don't typically spend a lot of time with the locals. My only interactions with them is when I am purchasing a service, or inevitably get lost and need to ask for directions.

Finland was different from my 'regular' travel experiences. I actually spent all my time with people from Finland. I helped celebrate one guys birthday one night so was with about 5 other Finnish people. One of my first questions was if everyone in Finland could speak such English. One girl responded that she could not speak good English, although I still have trouble believing that. I was able to have a conversation with her relatively problem free. One of the first questions I was asked was if I had Sauna.

I stayed the majority of my time in the small city of Tampere. I regretfully did not spend a lot of time outdoors in the city as the temperature was -20 for most of the time I was there. Basically the only time I went outside was to get food or to go somewhere else. I did not roam around the streets, which is how I typically travel.

That isn't to say I didn't try to wander, the temperature indoors just won me over. The first time I went out the plan was to walk the streets, get some food and walk the streets a little more. I walked for 2 minutes, and not only did I change my plan about walking around I also broke my new years resolution and ate at McDonald's. It was so cold that I decided to go to the first easy place I saw to get out of the frigid temperatures!

I did manage to get to an observation tower where I was able to see the whole city and that is where the pictures come from. It actually felt slightly good to be in this wintry atmosphere--although the feeling was very brief--because it reminded me of home.

The first meal I had was pizza. I had the Finlander, it had different kinds of cheese on it and reindeer meat. It was fantastic.

I went to the Finnish hockey hall of fame in Tamperes as well. It featured some of Finland's--and the world's--most talented hockey players, as well as the history of how hockey was introduced to Finland. I think the most interesting thing I learned was the trophy that the Finnish play for is the Canada cup because it was given to them as a gift from Canada.

After the outdoor hockey game in Helsinki it was finally time to try Finnish Sauna. I was told there are over 2 million saunas in the country and only about 5 million people, so roughly for every 2 people there is a sauna. I have done a sauna before, in Korea, but that was a large public one. In Finland, it was a private sauna and it was quite hot. Once we could no longer take the heat we ran into the backyard and jumped into the snow, then warmed ourselves in the sauna once again.

I was a little skeptical about jumping naked into the snow, but the others were doing it so I decided it was a cultural must. They told me not to worry there was a large fence in their backyard so the neighbours couldn't see us. Then they told me it was the neighbours who built the fence, insinuating that the fence was erected because of them rolling around in the snow naked.

I certainly enjoyed the Finnish sense of humour.

Outdoor Game in Helsinki

The game of my trip that I was anticipating the most did not disappoint. I was excited to see it because I had never seen an outdoor game before. The atmosphere was sure to be huge because of the larger than normal crowd. It seems sort of silly given the bitter cold temperature. Who would want to sit in an outdoor arena when the temperature is -18 Celsius? Apparently, 34, 264 people—the normal crowd for a baseball game—were crazy enough to do just this.

I wore just about every piece of clothing I packed with me and then borrowed other clothing articles such as additional long underwear, thick wool socks and a long scarf. I also borrowed a pair of boots that were too big for me, but felt like they fit because of the abundance of socks I was wearing. I still felt cold after 3 periods of hockey.

I learned during the drive from Tampere to Helsinki that there were some other things about this game that I found interesting. Number one, was the two teams that were playing—HIFK and Jokerit—were Helsinki’s two largest clubs with the biggest rivalry. Every game between the two clubs is sold out. This game at Helsinki Olympic stadium would be no different. The game from last year drew over 2000 more spectators, but the temperature was not nearly as cold.

The second was that Mikael Granlund, the leading scorer for the eventual winning HIFK, also was the second leading scorer in the whole league and was only 19 years old (he has turned 20 between the time of the match and me writing this piece). He was drafted by the Minnesota Wild and easily could be playing in the NHL this season, but decided to stay in Finland for one more year. He is expected to play next year in the NHL and must be the favourite for the Calder Trophy as the top rookie.

 Unfortunately, Granlund did not do much during the game. The player that stole the show was former NHL’er Jarkko Ruutu. Ruutu was known as a pest or agitator in the NHL. In fact, he was once suspended for biting another player’s glove. Jarkko drew several boos from the home crowd, and got under his opponents skin right from his first shift. To me, he was the most noticeable player playing albeit in a losing cause. He scored the game tying goal in the third period that eventually forced the game to a shootout and extended the shootout longer by scoring as well. The home team HIFK scored the eventual shootout winner and Jarkko Ruutu’s impression on me went to waste.

Hockey in Finland

I took a bus from Prague to an airport in Germany and flew from Germany to the small city of Tamperes in Finland. In Finland I had the opportunity to see a hockey game in another small city close by Tamperes with a Finnish and a French Canadian architecture student. 

The Finnish league--SM-Liiga--did something unique that I thought added to my enjoyment of the game. The leading scorer on each team wore a gold helmet. I found this to make things more interesting, especially for someone unfamiliar with the players. My anticipation rose when the gold helmet players were on the ice as I was waiting for them to do something exciting—by scoring a goal or making a pretty pass—and I found myself at the edge of my seat.

To add to the excitement, with the home team down by one goal with time dwindling down on the clock in the third and final period their leading scorer –the gold helmeted player—had not one but two break away chances! That is to say, he was stopped on both chances and disappointed all the fans that were cheering him on. Would these plays have been as exciting without the special lid on his head? 

I know one thing, I felt more disappointed because he was supposed to be the best player, exactly the player your team would want to have on a breakaway in such a situation. He choked under pressure. I am not very familiar with the league, nor with the players in the league so the helmet helped highlight the players worth coming to see and the players I would expect to come through in clutch situations.

 

Had it been the NHL the helmet would be unnecessary for me because I already know who these players are and who to have my eyes on. It would still be interesting to see. I also think it would be an interesting dynamic from the team perspective, especially where the top point producer on the team changes from game to game. I think it would also make the game more interesting for the casual fan, for the same reasons the helmet made the Finnish game more interesting for me.

The only standout comment I had about the game play was how poor some of the line changes were done.

Czeching Out Some Hockey

 

I have been horrible at keeping the blog updated as of late. It seems to be the norm after the novelty of living in a place wears off for me. It happened in both Australia and Korea, but I vow not to let it happen for my time in Kuwait. It is an especially different case considering most of my travel stories will be about places outside of Kuwait. Truth be told, I am extremely busy. I am not using that as an excuse however. I could still manage to find time to dedicate something of substance to the blog.

Right now I still have at least one story to share about my Christmas trip to Egypt. I am going to get back to that eventually. I just had a 2 week winter vacation in Europe that I am itching to share.

The purpose of the trip was to meet up with old friends and to see some of Europe’s professional hockey. There are four professional hockey leagues outside of the NHL that are fairly competitive. The top of these is the KHL in Russia. I knew I wouldn’t get a chance to see a KHL game, but I planned on seeing at least one game in the 3 other leagues. This desire brought me to Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden where the Czech Extralgia, SM liiga and Swedish elite leagues were hopefully awaiting my visit.

My first stop was Prague, in the Czech Republic. This was not my first visit to Prague as I had visited back in the summer of 2010. The purpose of this trip was solely for hockey. It was nice when I got out of the airport to see the sprinkle of snow on the ground and the fresh cold air filling my lungs. The snow didn’t last however as once I got into the city it was pretty much all gone.

Unfortunately I was misinformed prior to arriving in Prague and was unable to see a game there. I did manage however to take the bus to a smaller city to see a game. I arrived in Ceske Budejovice and I had no idea where the stadium was, so I asked around. I went into a hotel and asked and was given a map. The lady circled where a stadium was and told me that was where I needed to go. She didn’t circle the right arena but luckily the way I walked took me right past Budvar Arena, the actual arena I wanted to go to.

I got to the game really early and grabbed a program and just sat at my seat for a while. I was early enough to see the teams do their pregame skate before returning to their dressing rooms. I went to the concession stand to have something for dinner and to see what they served there compared to home. There were a lot of odd things. I decided on this massive sausage that I was not sure how to go about eating. It was not like a hot dog back home, it was larger and didn’t come in a bun. It did come with a piece of bread and was super greasy. I held it with the piece of bread so as to not get grease all over my hands and began eating it. It was good enough—kind of spicy—and it filled the void in my stomach.

Looking at the program I was hoping I could see a name I recognized or a fellow Canadian. I saw both, although there was only one Canadian mentioned in the program and none of the players in the game were familiar. I wasn’t really expecting that but I did recognize the name Petr Sykora and assumed it was the Petr Sykora who currently plays for the New Jersey Devils.It turns out I was mistaken by this, someone who shares his name played for that team. The home team featured at one time former NHL goalie Roman Turek. Turek played for the home team after his 9 year NHL career.

The level of play was okay, but I did find that the shooting and passing was not as crisp as the NHL. It isn’t really fair to compare it to the top league in the world, but really that is all I can compare it to. For being my first live professional game in over 5 years it was entertaining enough. I unfortunately had to leave the game after the second period—with the score 2-1 for the home team—in order to catch my bus and ensure I did not miss my flight to Finland.

The Pyramids

The pyramids are fascinating structures, but I never truly appreciated just how fascinating they are until I saw them in person. Of course, I never saw all 138 Egyptian pyramids, but I did see some of the most famous, like the one to the left of the first picture here. It is the largest Egyptian pyramid and is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing.

Think about it, this pyramid was built over 4500 years ago and is still standing! That begs the question, how could such a sturdy structure be built without the use of the modern machinery we are used to today? Furthermore, how were the amateur slaves forced to build these pyramids. This is a great point. The only logical explanation is slaves couldn't have possibly been used. I didn't really realize that the pyramids had already been built for roughly 1300 years before Moses led his people out of slavery across the Red Sea.

The pyramid on the right here has the most casing still left on it out of all the pointed structures. I marvel at the abilities of the Ancient Egyptians. How could they have possibly built these phenomenal structures in only 20 years without the use of modern machinery? In addition, how in the world were they able to know that the land they built the pyramids on was geologically the strongest? This is only information we were able to find out very recently. Surely it was no coincidence!

If you look hard in the background here you can see the city in the background!

Another famous, but less impressive site. I always thought the Spinx would be bigger!

The Spinx with some pyramids in the background. I had the option of seeing a light show at the Spinx but instead opted to do dinner on a boat restaurant on the Nile river.