Project Vanilla Hugs and Teddy Bears

I arrived in Berlin, the city of my dreams, on June 20 to stay at an organized couch surfing and travelers spot called Project Volunteering. 

Click the link to see the web site and mission statement but basically this spot is a project run by couch surfing ambassadors that hosts anywhere from 3-13 people, including families and kids, at any given time. There's a dorm room where 6-7 people sleep on mattresses and a separate main room for travelers passing through to either have a mattress, the couch or space for their own sleeping bag. Visitors are encouraged to give donations for coffee and laundry but generally everyone shares in cooking and cleaning and there's communal BEER too :) 

I found this option the perfect way to see Berlin. Beyond not having to spend money for a hostel , Project Volunteering was an organized squat in a city of squats. The international community lacked native Berliners but that's how the streets of Berlin look too - filled with artists, writers and creative people from across the globe interacting and sharing ideas. 

It is interesting how romantic and exciting I find the idea of squats and how much I wanted my own bed and privacy after 15 days of living in one. The exchange of ideas, trying new foods and learning new languages was amazing..the waiting for the bathroom, squeezing into the kitchen to find my apple juice was gone and waking up at 5am to the sound of 15 people thrashing and turning at night was not. Not bad, not weird, just different in a way that I came to appreciate having a door. 

As for anyone traveling in Berlin I highly recommend this spot as your place to stay.  Jake, a theater artist from Oakland, CA was my official host but I became quick friends with Timmy, an Aussie native who lives and works as a pub crawl leader in the summer and travels in the winter to spots like thailand and brazil. There is also Emma, a big boned swedish make up artist and jewelry designer who goes to famous night clubs and BDSM spots.... the list of characters goes on and on. 

As for the location.. you couldn't ask for a better neighborhood.  

Project Volunteering is located at 

146 Schonhauser Allee

That's right on the U2 Line at the stop Eberswalder StraBe, two blocks from Mauer Park. 

Surfing in Athens

Couch surfing that is!! Wow - what an amazing community around the globe of people who offer their couch or apartment to travelers. But it's usually much more than just a resting place - these people become ambassadors for their cities and step up to show other travelers around.

Talia and I arrived in Athens yesterday and stayed at a hostel in Syntagma Square. This bustling area is filled with tourists and restaurants that trap wandering germans, australians and americans into spending $10 on souvlaki (we were paying 1 Euro for street food.)

So yesterday we decided to couch surf and emailed about 20 different people in the city who said they could host two people. It turned out this man Demitris Tolis was a first time user of the site and he had no friends or references for his profile. We'd been warned with the service to stay w/ people that usually have both but the man had huge dreadlocks and a big friendly smile and his profession listed him as an editor.

Since we're traveling together both of us figure we have nothing to worry about with safety issues against one man so today we met D and are currently staying in his beautiful apartment in the Aghais Ionnis section of the city - 4 metro stops away.

He has kitchen space, a nice bathroom but the best part is the BALCONY! - complete w/ a unique Greek BBQ pit and a view of the acropolis at night that is just stunning and memorable for sure. Talia and I cooked all afternoon - Israeli salad, guacamole, ate Babaganoosh, olives, pastries from the corner bakery.... Y U M.

Then we sat outside because the one downside is D doesn't have a fan or air conditioning and this city is as hot as ball basically until the sun sets around 9:00pm - drinking wine, smoking cigs and taking photos.

It turns out when D comes home from work that he edits movies and commercials and lived in Prague for a year in 2006. He was in the cinema dance workshop from FAMU and acted in a movie that Talia saw at a screening of the films back in June of that year!!!!! What a tiny tiny tiny world this is!!!!

If you want to see D he showed us his band on Youtube. Check out "the koolians the spot story anti art." This band reminds me of the Spazmatics from San Francisco, in that they wear wigs, sometimes make up, crowd surf and cause general calamity!

Couchsurfing - you rock my world.