Part 2: Under Dutch roof

Some background about the people we met there:

Our hosts in Eindhoven and Amsterdam

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the platform Couchsurfing (CS), but this is one of the best decisions I have made in my life (in chronological order after Famelab and Erasmus). For some CS is just a website where you can meet other people while traveling, or just find a place to sleep for free. For me it is a whole institution. I haven’t been a member of CS for a long time, no matter that it is written that I registered in May 2012. I actually made my profile as it should be in November 2012. And the first time I was couchsurfer was at the end of November in Bergen, Norway. Once you start you realize that the world is even more beautiful than you’ve expected because there are a lot of positive, open-minded and hospitable people, and after 10 minutes together and it feels like you've known each other for years. You find in yourself that adventurous spirit that you've only seen in movies. You start to feel like you've found your drug, and it is never enough, you can’t be satisfied. Your trip is now even more beautiful and exciting. I wish you all to experience the satisfaction that I experienced over the past few months during my travels.

So here's a little bit about our hosts in Amsterdam and Eindhoven ...

Let me tell you it is very difficult to find a CS host in Amsterdam. I decided to stick to watching profiles of people who are around our age with Mihaela. Of course, age is just one of the criteria. The profile is also important. It's nice when you have written more in it, so one can get at least a vague idea of ​​what kind of person you are. It is even better if there are profile photos. By seeing what kind of pictures you have decided to put to present you, one can suggest how you would like to be seen. In addition, in everyone’s eyes and smile you can see if they are friendly, funny, optimistic, welcoming people. Of course, you define your own profile, and anyone can write all the best for themselves, to put the most friendly pictures, even lie about the age, although this is not the idea of ​​CS. And probably the most important thing that would make one send you a message are the references beneath your profile description - the opinions of the people who have been travelling with you, who have been hosting you or you have been host to, people that met you on their trip. The truth is, I have seen some negative references on profiles. It is not often, but it occurs. And after very good look at your profile, one can decide if you will be nice company for each other, if you are suitable and you will get a long, even if it is just for few hours.

Now after all this description you can see that I am not looking for just a place to sleep, but for  interesting people that we could have magical time with. And by knowing them I could get to know better the culture, the way of living and the way of thinking of the country that I am visiting. There lies the beauty of CS.

For Amsterdam host I sent messages to a few people, I waited for a while, but the replies that I got were either that they are busy, or no answer... So I wrote to few people more.

At some point I really started to get worried that there is no place to spend the night. Of course there was still an option to go to a hostel, which would be like more than € 30 per night, but given that I already gave enough money for a plane ticket and a ticket for the party and a few other costs, I really wanted to spare this drain ... Meanwhile, I ‘met’ on CS website a guy, with whom we became friends very quickly and very naturally ... I shared with him my worries about my search for host in Amsterdam and he didn’t even hesitated to offer me to stay in the apartment that he and his friends rented for their staying there. They were arriving on 5^th  in the morning, so I could stay in their place on 5^th in the evening. This somehow made me feel much better. Then the options for 4^th in the evening were to stay in a hostel or to go partying all night long... Since I know myself it was more likely to be the second one...

You are probably wondering why I speak only for myself, not for both of us with Mihaela. She had a friend with whom to stay, but he couldn’t have her both in his place, although we wanted to be together.

And finally, two days before we left for Amsterdam, a girl from CS wrote me back that she would gladly accept me into her home on 4th during the night. Yes, but after that message the girl no longer the replied, or atleast not until I had left my room to catch my flight. I wrote to her 2-3 times, but by the morning on 4^th  I didn’t have any news from her, neither an address, nor a phone number. And then AGAIN I was at the same spot with no idea where to spend the first night in Amsterdam. Somehow I didn’t feel worried about that, because I was feeling that everything will be OK. And when I woke up on 4^th I finished packing and I had about 30 minutes to look at CS website and send several desperate requests for shelter. Honestly, people, I know it looks like I just didn’t want to spend money, but It is not like that. The trill and the excitement of all this looking and wondering is like adrenaline rush but from the nice ones. However, since I wouldn’t stay just in anyone's house, I started digging and sent a few people message, I explained the situation, left my number and I hoped that when landed in Netherlands I will receive magically a sms, which would say I was welcome to a very nice place... Why not!?

Well, yes, but something even more magical happened... Fifteen minutes before I shot myself from my room towards the bus stop my phone rang ... Unknown number with an unknown country code! I replied and a nice voice of a guy told me that I was welcome in his home ... Super very happy! I was no longer homeless. Well, of course, he introduced himself and I looked at his profile before I left. I was very glad that it was him because actually I really hoped for him to answer me because he seemed extremely nice and clever boy, Koen.

So ... my nights in Amsterdam (4.04 and 5.04) were settled ...

It turned out that I was Koen’s first couch surfer. He had registered on the CS website four days ago. He was damn nice, funny, charming ... We exchanged few messages in the afternoon while we settled where and when to meet. The meeting was at 22:00 after his classes in Chinese language. We met in the center on the main square, Dam square. And like all Dutch, he came by bicycle, which is feared the most because he would offer me to bring me to his place on the bicycle. And he did so. It turned out that he lived 30 minute far from the center by bike. And as I had a heavy backpack, I got on the back of the bike and we took off.. Well, on the way there were lots of bumps, paving, and sidewalks. Two days later I still had pain in my bud.

Koen is very charming, smiling, friendly, open, but also extremely smart person. Interested in many things, traveled so much, seen so much. And is only 20 years, turning 21. I could talk to him about everything and with a smile on my face from the first minute I met him. In one moment while we were in his place he showed me a large box with Indian spices and I gasped and he smiled and said: "This is nothing!". Then he opened a drawer and it was filled with more spices arranged in little jars. Very cool! It was late and we had already had dinner, but he had to cook for the next day for an evening with his friends. While he was cooking a typical Indian dish with all the spices possible, we were talking, laughing, getting to know each other. It was great!

The next morning we both had to get up early because he had a lecture, and I had only one day in Amsterdam and I wanted to walk around as much as possible. So he woke me up carefully, made my tea, give me advices where to visit, where to eat, how to get to the center. We said goodbye with a big hug and both wish we had more time to spend together. However, we were texting during the day and finally  he decided he would join us in the evening after the dinner with his friends, no matter how far and late it was! We had an amazing time!

On 6.04 my plan for the evening was to 'sleep' at the party. (Unique!)

On 7.04 and 8.04 we would spend the night in Eindhoven and on 9.04 pm back to snowy Gdansk.

For Eindhoven it wasn’t that hard to find good and hospitable people to accept us in their home. Of course there were a lot of people that we could write to, but I chose few. From them, a guy, Jordi, replied that he would be very busy with learning, because he had very important exams exactly on 8th and 9th, but it is not a problem for him to have us in his house. I didn’t want to 'use' him and his place only for a place to crush because CS is not about that. I also didn’t want to bother him while he had to study for the, but eventually we ended up in his house and diI really don’t regret it...

Jordi, Nico and the rest of their roommates (nine people, boys and girls) were very nice and talkative. The first night me and Mihaela made dinner, Spanish Tortilla, and the next night they prepared dinner. Our first night was very philosophical. We talked until late for all sorts of philosophical themes - relationships, jealousy, unemployment, salary and life of young people... All kinds of social issues ... And at the end they agreed with my theory that there are three types of jealousy, but by the end of our stay there we discovered there are fourth and fifth type (maybe one of my next posts will be about my theory for jealousy) ...

The second night was movie night. We watched movies! But of course we would watch a movie, provided that Nico has an enormous collection of CDs with music and DVD-s with movies. If I am not mistaken, he said something like 1200 DVD-s and around 1400 CD-'s. I haven’t met anyone with more  impressive collection than this one. Insured for € 22,000! Awesome! And of course he is an artist and his entire room was painted with different things - Spider Pig Simpsons on the ceiling, Sponge Bob on his refrigerator. And in the living room, where we slept with Michaela the ceiling was plastered with LPs, the walls were covered with different colors hand prints of people who had visited them. On the door of course was drawn the Super Cow from the series ‘Chicken and Cow’ from Cartoon Network. There is no way one would not admire such place. The truth is that the whole time I had very strong feeling of Deja Vu, while I was there. I felt as if I had been there before and everything seemed so familiar.

The second night there, after watching "Brave", we came to a dispute which series is better "Simpsons" or "Family guy". And since I wasn’t familiar with either of them, we made competition - launched one episode from both of them. In conclusion, I can say that both are not my type and I won’t watch them. Perhaps I would watch Simpsons. But when I asked them who is the best series for them, we all agreed that it is "Friends", but Niko agreed with me that on second place is "The Big Bang Theory." And of course he had the whole discography of both the series and the aforementioned animations and a bunch of others ...