Couchsurfing Across the Coast
Over the last few years I have embarked on a few things that I never thought I would:
I have solo traveled, stayed in a hostel, joined nomadic communities like Couchsurfers and even road-tripped to tourist attractions with strangers. For the most part I’m still very conservative in my free-spiritedness towards traveling. As I’ve circled the globe, I have met some courageous travelers who hitchhike, stay in camper vans, stay with couch surfing hosts or home-stays and travel with no return flight or agenda.
It has been incredible to meet people, including those in their 30’s and 40’s who decide to do something different. I have come in contact with engineers, nurses, accountants, teachers and lawyers who are trusting in the kindness of humanity to make their travels complete.
This past weekend, while in New Zealand, I logged into the Couchsurfing app. Couchsurfing has 3 services on its free platform.
FIRST is for those who want to crash on a couch of a person that lives in the area. This service has been going on for years and was made by travelers for travelers. It is a free service and is a place that travelers can meet others from around the world, take them around their hometown while they occupy their couch or spare bedroom for a few days. Something, I have not been courageous enough to do.
SECOND is for hangouts. You activate your status and choose a type of hangout you want. It could be to explore the area, grab dinner or a drink. You can scan others in close proximity and choose (based on their profile and interests) if you want to hang out. If it’s mutual, you will be matched and others can join the meetup and you meet up at a location (hopefully in the next hour or so). The first time I used it was when I went to Dublin. I was working in Greece at the time and was melanin deprived. I found this beautiful Black woman and we met up for dinner and drinks! We hung out every day until I left. It was perfect for me because I was there for work and was busy during the day but she gave me fun company in the evening. To this day, we are still friends and next year I’ll be hanging out with her in ETHIOPIA! That’s the beauty of these hangouts. You meet kindred spirits. I told her I would be in East Africa and wanted to visit and her response was, “just get here and everything else will be taken care of.” You see, we both needed each other in ways that we didn’t know. I remember being so afraid to use the app. Thankfully she was my first person to match on the meetup and it was great! We share laughs to this day, she got her first bold lipstick and we we pissed off this guy for being “happy, beautiful Black women.” It was like we knew each other forever, but without couch-surfing, we would have never met.
LAST is an opportunity to post events. Someone will create an event and others will join. It can be a picnic in a famous park, head to a museum, or weekly happy hours that go on globally to connect people as they are trekking along their journey. This past weekend I did a road trip in New Zealand, with strangers, to Hobbiton (the stage for the film, The Hobbit). As a solo traveler or a traveler on a budget, it is often expensive to do activities without a group. The tour on Viator was around $250 per person. With the group, we spent $125 each. A local couch surfer even allowed us to use her car which took the cost down. We had a blast, spent 12 hours together, had someone to take our pics and we shared our culture. There were 4 of us: Myself, an English guy, and 2 girls, one from Germany and one from Switzerland. We are forever united.
In NZ, I met Diane. I’m sure I will stay in contact with for a long time. She has committed to 4 years of solo traveling as she builds her brand to ensure diversity and inclusion in the adventure traveling space. Thanks to meeting her, she blessed me with the gorgeous cover photo. She lived in Alaska, Colorado and now New Zealand. We took a trip to the nearby island from Auckland, NZ and talked a lot about representation in spaces like Couchsurfing, Hostels and even abroad. We talked about the pure joy we had when we saw each other’s faces on the app and even more joy when we met up on a random corner of a street just to say hello! We both decided separate plans but I was thinking, girl, lets at least say hi! It was pure comfort. We both have nomadic spirits. We both are risk-takers in our activities and asked ourselves why more people aren’t seen. We know that folks are traveling, but not with the adventurous spirits of our…lets say, white nomads. My coworker from Spain literally hitchhikes lol. Something that is so common. We wondered if the fear of living in America or the media is to blame. Why are others so free yet we are so restricted. Its a question I’m not entirely sure of the answer.
But both of us shared the amount of wisdom we gained from others who are on this journey. People who pick up their bags, take risks, venture out to meet people and decide that they won’t allow fear to stop them. Now let’s be SUPER clear. I’m a WISE traveler. And I’ll share some tips on another day on how to keep yourself safe. But never once in these nomadic communities have I ever felt trapped and like I couldn’t leave. I don’t have the information on hitchhiking, quitting my job, or doing the camper van life…but I plan to interview a few people on my podcast (POC) so we all can get insight, to take away the fear and see if venturing out is something we can do on our next journey!
If you are a traveler, do download Couchsurfing. Use the feature you like the most and allow yourself to be a light to others. I needed both of those women when I met them. They were energy for my soul. You can be the energy someone else who is itching to bond, even for a moment, may need!
