Couchsurfin' Yotvata (photos)

I've been doing this for some good eight years now and it gave me great experiences, moments of love and happiness and some hundreds of amazing friends all around the world. It's called Couchsurfing and it's a global online and real-life community of hospitality exchange. In other words, random members of this community are surfing your home's couch, you let them sleep at your place, instead of a boring hotel, and get to see the insights of your life, how locals live in their countries. I've hosted more that 60-70 couchsurfers from dozens of different countries, in several places that I've been living, such as Athens, Almyrida of Crete, Hermoupolis of Syros, Gyor in Hungary and Manhattan, NY. Also, I've been hosted in 16 different cities here and there on this planet. Pristina of Kosovo. Belgrade and Novi Sad in Serbia. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva in Israel. Istanbul. Shanghai. Doylestown, Pennsylvania in the USA. Washington DC. Boston. London town, twice. Madrid. Budapest. Paris. Amsterdam.

It's a totally different feeling than any other fashion of traveling. People who accept to host someone they haven't met before, are de facto open-minded, friendly and cool people. You are not a tourist with a map, asking taxi drivers and random locals about the city. You are their guest. You live with a local, he/she's telling you all the good stuff of the place. You get to see how their everyday life looks like. Cultural exchange, music, food, mentality. Late night conversations. When you have a totally unknown person on your couch at 2am, it's way more easier to confess anything and feel safe that your friend will listen to you with no prejudice - he/she doesn't know you, you've got no mutual friends, probably you'll never get to see each other again.

This time, it's Yotvata, the place that I currently live. A few people that reside here are couchsurfers, my friend Oded Weiss often hosts people that want to experience kibbutz life. I got my first guest yesterday, it was Jen from Denver, Colorado, a ski instructor in her late 30s. A brave couchsurfing woman, traveling alone, carefree and happy in Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Ethiopia. Super friendly and nice, like all the couchsurfers I've met so far. She got to see from the inside our desert community, go through a milk-tasting, have a couple of meals in the Dining Room (no, Jen, you don't need to wipe tables, you're a guest!), have coffee in kibbutznik houses, meet our cows and enjoy our delicious home made ice cream.

Now she's back on the road, she left us this morning - heading to Jordan first. It was awesome to meet her and have her over as my first couchsurfing guest in Kibbutz Yotvata. Yes, we may not see each other again (only if I take up her offer and visit the mountains of Colorado for some skiing lessons), but we'll always feel like good friends, like any two people that shared the same roof even for one night and had the same dream: a world of open doors, pure hospitality, friendship and coexistence between people of different cultures in total peace and harmony. A world where we trust each other.

Yes, Couchsurfing is the way the world was supposed to be: Open and free.

>> Click here to view my profile page on www.couchsurfing.org