Surfing Couch Style



Couch Surfing What Else!!



I received a call from a PCV in Ganja asking me for a favor (I hate when they say that!!), two girls from Zurich are heading to Balaken but might not make it all the way (one was sick), could they stay the night if they don't make it? Oh, (Annette, I said pay it forward), okay, they should be there by 4 or 5 PM if they decide to stay said the PCV.  So I went to my friend at the wedding palace, did wash and drank tea.  By 5:30 and I hadn't heard from them, I figure they went straight to Balaken to another PCV's place.  So I went home, and around 7:30, I received a call from the girls, the marshurutka in Ganja changed time and they were just getting in to Zaqatala (too late for a marsh to Balaken).  I went and picked them up at the bus station and they were both so young, just 20 years old.  After getting them settled in, I asked them how they traveled, they told me by couch surfing!!  Are you kidding, I said??? No, you set up a profile on the web (look it up, I did, thousands of people travel this way) and then you are ready to go.  I asked them if it was very safe considering you don't know who you are staying with (and it works both ways, you don't know who is staying with you!!).  Both girls told me that they had "surfers" at their flats back home and you can say yea or nay at having someone stay with you. Both girls told me they would not have men over 30 stay at their flats, but mostly they host girls.  I then asked them what their parents thought about this type of traveling.  They also said their family was fine with it, one of the girls mother is doing the same thing in a different part of the world.  They are traveling for a month and after Georgia, they are going to Turkey, then Bulgaria, Romania, Hungry, and Belarus and then flying home. Wow, what a way to travel (cheap but you have to be extremely flexible and adventurous).  The next morning they got up and I fixed them breakfast, walked them down to marshurutka stop at the bank and waited with them until the Tbilisi marsh came.  I hug them both and sent them on their way.  I received a text message later in the day, telling me they made it to their next "couch" in Tbilisi and everything was great.

Life Challenge:  When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say "I used everything you gave me"!!!!  Erma Bombeck