During my recent road trip, I found myself mulling how different my trip so far would have been if it hadn't been for couchsurfing.
I first got into couchsurfing just over a year ago during a trip to Spain. I was travelling on my own for a week, and looking for an alternative to staying in a hostel. A friend told me about couchsurfing, and despite being a little unsure, I registered and looked for a place to stay. The principle of couchsurfing is that you stay with local people, sometimes on their actual couch but often in a spare room. No money changes hands (although turning up with a bottle or some food never goes amiss) - instead people do it for a love of meeting people and travelling. There's a proper profile, referencing and feedback system, so it feels safe and that you have a good idea who you're going to be staying with.
During my spanish trip, a couple in Bilbao offered to host me for a weekend, and so off I went, a little unsure and deliberately not mentioning what I was doing to my parents (sorry mum...). What resulted was an awesome weekend where I saw all the best bits of Bilbao, ate awesome food, hung out with great people and got to experience a lot of stuff I would never have seen if I'd gone to a hostel (including the world's greatest paella cooked by my host's dad). Yes, I saved some money too, but that was never really the point.
When I got home, I met up with some travellers passing through Bristol through the couchsurfing network, and hosted a few times when I had the time. I also met a lot of other people in Bristol who were into couchsurfing and made some great friends along the way. So when it came to planning my trip to Canada, I knew couchsurfing would make up some part of the trip. But I think I underestimated how much of the trip it would be. I've loved the wwoofing, but when you're on a farm you don't always get much of a chance to get out and see the area around where you are.
I've been in Canada for almost two months, and so far I've ended up couchsurfing for almost half of that time. Some of the most interesting and awesome people I've met have been through this - people who are trying to live in a different way, who are passionate about the world they live in and making it a better place, people who love to travel and want to travel more, people who love meeting new people. I've also really got a much better idea of the places I've been through this too - from Carla, my host in Yarmouth, who took us on amazing driving tours of the local area and told us everything we could ever want to know about the place, to Scott, who lives and breathes the Acadian culture on Cape Breton. And people are incredibly generous with taking the time to show you the best parts of where they live - tours of harbours in Yarmouth, pubs in Wolfville, fiddle music on Cape Breton, canoeing surrounded by eagles and herons and digging on beaches for clams on PEI...
Without couchsurfing, I would have been staying in hostels where I could, but they're pretty few and far between in rural areas. So I wouldn't have been able to do either my hitching trip or my recent road trip, both of which were amazing. I'd have seen a different side to the places I've been and had a very different journey so far. I know I'd have met people along the way, but I really feel that I wouldn't have met so many amazing and inspiring people. As I type this, I'm sat in a house in Wolfville belonging to a couple who I first stayed with during my hitching trip. I really got on with them during my first visit, so I've come back for afew days as they're on the way to my next farm. And it feels like staying with old friends, which is a wonderful thing to find when travelling, a real home from home.
Who knows where my next couch is going to be, but I can't wait to find out...
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