by Alex in Couch Surfing, Pre-trip
One of the best things about being involved in Couchsurfing is the opportunity to meet not just travellers from a variety of countries, but also people travelling under a variety of circumstances.
This week we hosted Rachel and Andy, from Pittsburgh USA and Cumbria UK respectively. Hosting a backpacking couple was a great chance to see how other couples handle long term travel, and learn about some of the opportunities and problems inherent to travelling with a partner, rather than flying solo.
The first glimpse I got of Rachel and Andy was as they poked their heads into our living room to drop off their bags before driving to the airport to drop off the van in which they travelled from Sydney.
After getting back to our apartment and settling in with a cool drink, they shared some anecdotes from their travels. Particularly, they gave us a warning about a certain restaurant on the island of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands where the owner brings her six dogs into the dining room to eat with the customers, as well as showing us some crazed text messages that we are unfortunately honour-bound to not share here.
During the night, they also told us about some of their favourite comedians, and we discovered that a couple of them are performing here for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. (Although I can't speak for how International it should claim to be considering that Rachel and Andy were completely unaware that Melbourne had a Comedy Festival at all!) As a show of appreciation (albeit completely above and beyond the call), they were generous enough to offer to take Tash and I out to two shows next week.
While we were talking, they also showed us their travel blog the Omnimail (originally a mailing list that got reappropriated), which is fantasically well-written and fascinating, although at the time of writing it is somewhat less than up-to-date. As Tash was working late that evening, and they had been driving for three days, we all retired to an early night.
One of the best things about being involved in Couchsurfing is the opportunity to meet not just travellers from a variety of countries, but also people travelling under a variety of circumstances.
This week we hosted Rachel and Andy, from Pittsburgh USA and Cumbria UK respectively. Hosting a backpacking couple was a great chance to see how other couples handle long term travel, and learn about some of the opportunities and problems inherent to travelling with a partner, rather than flying solo.
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| photo by: hankjames |
The first glimpse I got of Rachel and Andy was as they poked their heads into our living room to drop off their bags before driving to the airport to drop off the van in which they travelled from Sydney.
After getting back to our apartment and settling in with a cool drink, they shared some anecdotes from their travels. Particularly, they gave us a warning about a certain restaurant on the island of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands where the owner brings her six dogs into the dining room to eat with the customers, as well as showing us some crazed text messages that we are unfortunately honour-bound to not share here.
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| A dramatic recreation? photo by: carterse |
During the night, they also told us about some of their favourite comedians, and we discovered that a couple of them are performing here for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. (Although I can't speak for how International it should claim to be considering that Rachel and Andy were completely unaware that Melbourne had a Comedy Festival at all!) As a show of appreciation (albeit completely above and beyond the call), they were generous enough to offer to take Tash and I out to two shows next week.
While we were talking, they also showed us their travel blog the Omnimail (originally a mailing list that got reappropriated), which is fantasically well-written and fascinating, although at the time of writing it is somewhat less than up-to-date. As Tash was working late that evening, and they had been driving for three days, we all retired to an early night.
The next day, we arose at a delightfully reasonable hour and took absolutely no hurry in eating breakfast (hot cross buns which, again, they brought - above and beyond the call). Tash was again working, so I took Rachel and Andy to the tram stop to commute into the city for the day. At this juncture, it is important to note something about the Melbourne public transport system - there are ticket machines and (theoretically) ticket inspectors on board the trams, but Melbourne public transport operates on largely an honour system. Rachel and Andy, unfortunately, didn't know this.
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| photo by: colinlogan |
After taking one glance at the sign on the ticket machine reading "coins only", a look of despair crossed Andy's face, accompanied by the revelation that they were only carrying notes of Australian currency. Despite my insistence that there wouldn't be a problem, I finally acquiesced to disembark the tram on the way through Fitzroy to exchange a note for some change.
Luckily for us, the next tram was ready and waiting at the stop as we emerged from the fish and chip shop, and we in fact arrived in the city literally 15 seconds behind the tram we had originally boarded. To the best of my knowledge, no ticket inspectors boarded that tram after we got off, but I also don't know that there weren't any inspectors, so I choose to take this incident as a moral victory for Andy, Rachel and myself.
Upon arriving in the city, we first made a beeline for the box office of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where our tourist visitors bought tickets for our group to Dave Gorman's "Powerpoint Presentation" and Daniel Kitson's "Where Once Was Wonder".
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| You might remember him from his widely publicized endevour to locate and meet 54 other Dave Gormans |
Rachel, on the other hand, walked into the store, spoke directly and immediately to the nearest storeperson, handed her phone over, had it fixed on the spot and was out the door in less than 5 minutes. I've gone over those 5 minutes in my head repeatedly, and I have no idea how she managed it. Some kind of magic, perhaps? After a brief tour of the city, Rachel and Andy departed my company to meet up with some friends, and I headed home.
The next day was Rachel and Andy's last morning with us, so we decided to try and thank them for being such wonderful (and generous!) surfers by taking them out to breakfast. Our expression of gratitude, however, received a hairline fracture when they insisted on paying. After a great breakfast of pancakes and cheesy fries, we took Rachel and Andy to a tram stop, said our farewells, and saw them off to their next destination.
It was great to meet a couch surfing couple, and particularly, it was great (if a little awkward as we had no bags to pack) to be there with them while they were repacking their bags, as it meant we were able to talk to them about some of the gear and equipment that they're carrying. It really helped us to discuss the pros and cons of certain types of clothing, brands of gear, and particularly their somewhat (to us, at least) creative solutions to problems like transportation and accommodation travelling between cities. In particular, though, it was just really affirming to meet a couple travelling together, to see that someone else is undertaking what we intend to, and how successfully they're managing it.
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| Best of luck to these guys! 'Til we meet again! |
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And as that last picture shows, even after giving away those icepacks, we are still way way overpacked. Thankfully a cat was sick on one of my t-shirts the other day, so we've managed to get rid of one more thing since that picture was taken.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for hosting us and good luck in your travels.
Andy
Hosting you guys was awesome :) if for nothing else to see the giant mound of stuff be packed ever so nicely into three normal-sized bags. Keep us posted where you guys are up to...and hopefully we can drop by when you're back in the UK.
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