After such great experiences Couchsurfing while I was travelling, I was keen to host as soon as I got settled. Once Ana and I got couches (thank you Craigslist) I updated my profile and opened up our house to surfers. In Burnie I got a couple of requests every week but here I’m getting heaps. Unfortunately, most of them I haven’t been unable to accept because the timing doesn’t work.
In some cities I had a lot of trouble finding hosts and any post on the Last Minute requests groups often only attracted replies from guys, which I didn’t always feel comfortable accepting. Although in Kamel’s case it worked out really well. So I’ve decided I will mainly accept last minute posts from girls who are in my position. Taking last minute requests works better for me anyway because at least I know whether I’m free or not.
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| Lucie and Bertille |
So, given all this, I offered to take in Lucie and Bertille, two French girls who are travelling from Vancouver then down the West Coast. They sent out quite a few requests but either got negative replies or no reply at all. Lucie is living in Whitehorse (a day-and-a-half bus ride from Van) while Bertille is in France and two weeks ago decided she would come visit Lucie. Instead of hanging in Yukon they decided to explore a little. I met them at a Skytrain station on Monday (my day off) and we visited Granville Island and walked around Downtown…a lot. On Tuesday I had to go to work (rather early unfortunately for them) so they set off alone. That night I went to a Couchsurfing weekly gathering to meet some more new faces, and the girls got back about 11pm. They were great surfers and I love that Ana’s OK with me hosting. She hasn’t moved in yet so I guess she’s not here to mind.
A couple of days later I accepted a request from Paul. He’s from the States and doing a bit of a roadtrip to work out where he’d like to settle now that he’s finished college. Unfortunately he liked the look of Nashville but had already decided to venture as far as Seattle (and duck over to Vancouver to visit a friend) so now has to drive all the way back. I met him and his friend Andrew when I finished work on Thursday night so we went out for a beer. I didn’t end up spending much time with Paul since I had to leave for work on Friday but it’s nice to host someone and give them some ideas of what to see and do in the city.
