Michael Carøe Andersen

Tag: couchsurfing

  • Spring in Cambridge

    Crocus in bloom

    While central Europe is still struggling to shed the winter I went to Cambridge to meet Ann. Cambridge is a 50 minutes busride from Stansted airport so we had decided on Cambridge for our weekend together instead of London. It was really great to spend time with Ann again, last time we saw each other was in Denmark for the Christmas holiday. It is the first time we are vacationing together in a place which none of us knew beforehand so we had a good time exploring together.

    Us in Cambridge

    The atmosphere of Cambridge reminded me a lot about that of Ann Arbor, Michigan where I lived back in 2005/2006. They are about the same size and the university has a very prominent role in the cities. Both places are very green, there is many university students and interesting cafes, restaurants and museums. Both have a size big enough for life but small enough that a bike ride will take you anywhere in less than 20 minutes or less.

    Cambridge University includes a number of old and distinguished colleges which in the Oxford and Cambridge meaning of the word is independent institutions within the university where students live, eat and socialize. Below is the Chapel of Kings College where we went to Evensong Saturday night.

    King's College

    Another thing I really liked about Cambridge was that it was so bike infested. Every now and then we would experience a near miss when a student, biking as if his life depended on it, would flash by. But I loved it and it added to the cozy atmosphere of the city.

    Bikes, bikes, bikes

    We stayed two nights at a cozy Bed & Breakfast a bit of a walk from the center. The last day we couch surfed with a British/Kiwi couple. We had a great time talking with Lou and Alex, went to a concert, had dinner and got introduced to Natures home Elucian Islands in Second Life that Lou had just launched the previous week.

    Lou and Alex

    It was a very nice weekend I must say but of course the time went by too fast. Next time I see Ann will be for Easter in Malta :) If you are interested in reading more check out her first and second post from the weekend.

    PS. For some nice pictures from the Cambridge area in spring check out what Tina omme i London did this weekend.


  • Bohemian Paradise

    About an hour north of Prague is the area called Ceske Raj or Bohemian Paradise. The area is scattered with sandstone tables, forests and quaint castles. Together with the IAESTE interns in town we went there for a Sunday hike yesterday.

    Group photos

    The weather was really nice and the trees were slowly starting to change into autumn costumes.

    The sandstone tables

    The last week we have also been hosting Ryan and Marisol, two American CouchSurfers who are travelling Europe on their 8th months now. It is amazing how many places they have been and it makes me tick to go on big trip. See Ryans great pictures at Flickr.

    Marisol and Ryan with their dinner

  • Adventures in Ostrava

    Thursday we jumped on a bus and drove 6 hours east of Prague to get to Ostrava. We are here to attend the Ostrava Rails Conference for the next two days. To those of you who dont know Rails it is a programming framework that is talked a lot about these days and it is one of our primary tools. So when we discovered that this event was on we decided to check it out.

    The bus system here is amazing. We paid 1160czk for two return tickets on an air conditioned bus with leather seats, showing movies and Friends episodes and complimentary copy of the days newspaper or Maxim.

    On our first venture in Ostrava we jumped on the tram to take it two stops and figured we could do that without buying a ticket. Bad idea. As soon as the tram started roling a ticket officer busted us and we had to pay a 400czk fine each – doh!

    I contacted a couple of people on CouchSurfing to see if somebody had couches we could crash on and thats how we ended up meeting Petr. Or we havent actually met Petr yet. He wasnt home but he got Zeno – his flat mate and landlord – to let us in so that we could sleep on his floor.

    Zeno is a photographer and cinomatographer and the flat were staying in is also his studio. The rest of the evening we spend with Zeno drinking whiskey – good times.

  • Mi casa es su casa

    Last weekend two guys from Madrid stopped by our place for a couple of days. I didnt know them and they didnt know me but they found me on the website Hospitality Club (HC) where travellers can find free accommodation. Ive been a member of the site for two years but so far I hadnt used it myself and wasnt home when people wanted to stay at my place. This time it worked out – and it was a blast.

    The cool thing about HC (and other sites like CouchSurfing) is that everybody gets something and it doesnt cost anything – social software at its best. When I travelled to America in 2000 I tried to use Servas – an off-line predecessor of HC started in 1949 – to find some people to stay with in US. The idea was great but in practicality too cumbersome for me. With HC its fairly easy and relatively safe to meet local people and get cheap accommodation.

    Nacho and Alfredo are studying aerospace engineering and architecture and they had found some cheap flights to Malmö. So they had a few days to visit Copenhagen. They brought along some Mahou Negra cerveza (thanks!) and local red wine and then they cooked a traditional Spanish omlet. Here they are in action:

    Spanish cooking

    They stayed with us from Saturday till Monday so we went to a private party Saturday night and to Sunday Reggae at Rub A Dub (thanks for that idea, Alice).

    Reggae Sunday

    Nachos and Alfredo invited us to a party at their apartment the 16th so now we just need to find cheap tickets to Madrid