Couchsurfing.com is one of the recent community websites
offering free housing to travelers. Sounding like something I would do in the 70s, it’s a brilliant way to meet people who live in the city
you’re traveling through to find housing for the night, free of charge. It has
safety features for those who pay attention with the ability to filter. I always
start by searching for women over 40 (with apologies to my beautiful, young
pals), and look for folks who have been “vouched” for and have a number of
references. It’s required that your profile includes a description of the bed
offered (Any shared space? Privacy? Available bathroom?), occupation of host,
other family members, places they’ve traveled and more. People who abuse the
system – hitting on someone is an excellent example – gets them reported and
removed. I’ve had a number of delightful couchsurfers stay at my home and now
it’s my turn to travel.
Jean is my
first host and at the risk of sounding gushy she was the best! Ok. There’s no
comparison yet, but she certainly sets the bar high and was a delightful start
to my adventures. She’s a professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee WI and
an avid traveler. She’s also a Unitarian Universalist (small world) and liberal
in a not-at-all-liberal city and state. She gave me a marvelous tour of
Milwaukee and we shared a dinner together. Thank you Jean! I fully expect that we will continue to develop a friendship and my hope is to someday visit her in Italy after she moves there to be with her sweetie!
One of my
good friends said to me before I left, “Talk to strangers”! What a brilliant
piece of advice. Traveling alone can be, well, lonely. Because of the kindness and
good company of strangers I am seeing even more of the world, through the eyes
of others.
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