Couchsurfing

S and K got married last week in Amuqqa, Galilee, so I went to a week-trip to Israel doing couchsurfing. It was my first experience doing that, although I had surfed other couches before, but always from people I knew or friends of friends. This time was going to people I had never seen before. So I chose them according to the pics and their mails. I had two very nice hosts, ED in Jerusalem and SB in Tel Aviv.

I was amazed by the kindness and generosity of these girls, and I had a great time in both cities. ED told me about Eran Bar-Gil's project "1:1", which sounds great (I just found one song on YouTube, not the best one), and SB brought me to the best sushi ever.

Surfing couches in Israel is a life experience, due to the cosmopolitanism of the population. They all travel a lot, know many languages and are extremely kind. I though that Mexicans were good hosts, but that is not to compare with Israelis. Other couchsurfers even offered me to leave me the key since I was planning to come when they weren't at home.

CouchSurfing seems to be a little utopia where everybody is nice and looking forward to help each other. The only problem I know about happened just few weeks ago. It is the sad story iof a male Marrocan host who abused his guest, a girl from Hong Kong traveling through Europe.

Of course this kind of things can happen. It is a very close relation you establish with unknown people, and you shouldn't be naïve or stupid. I was very lucky and had a great great time, specially in Tel Aviv. I even tried to postpone my plane to Berlin, but it was impossible. I will go back there soon, in any case.

Foto: ED, my host in Jerusalem