Collecting Moments

We woke up in a sleepy fishing village on the north-east coast of Lanzarote. Our couchsurfing host had kindly offered us a cozy room in his house in Punta Mujeres. We thanked him for his hospitality and packed our bags. Our destination for the day was Famara, a surfers' paradise on the opposite side of the island. There we had found a host on Trustroots, a hospitality exchange website that reminded us of the old days of couchsurfing, when it was more about community than business. As we always do, we chose our favorite means of transportation - hitchhiking . It's not only faster sometimes than public transport, but also more adventurous. You never know how your day will unfold, who you'll meet on the road and what stories you'll get out of the experience. Our first ride was with a familiar face. We had seen that guy the day before in the harbor, walking his white fluffy dog. She was so popular among the kids in town, we could tell her owner was a kind person. He was

For quite some time, I had lost the spark of adventure and the thirst for exploration. I had grown hesitant and indecisive, even in simple things like venturing out into nature and following hidden paths. But yesterday, something stirred in me. I felt a sudden urge to face the unknown and savor freedom again. It was a short walk in the nearby forest, our first mushroom hunt of the season. We had two young energetic couchsurfers staying with us. When I told them we were going to look for wild mushroom spots, their eyes sparkled. “Finally, we’ll learn how to forage for our food when we camp!” — they exclaimed. There were a few hardly visible trails in the woods that I had noticed before but never got around to tracing them. We waded through thick undergrowth and thorny vines, until we reached a clearing where oily brown caps glistened under the pine needles and grass. Gradually making our way across the dense greenery, we filled the bags with Slippery Jack fungi, a delicious treat.

Day 4 Before our boots touched Terceira’s soil, we sought our host’s advice on the island’s best hikes. Without any hesitation, she suggested Alagoa da Fajãzinha ( Baías da Agualva ) and Rocha do Chambre . We decided to hike to Rocha do Chambre on our last day, despite the cloudy and humid weather. We grabbed some sandwiches, put on waterproof socks and trail runners, and headed for an adventure. Little did we know how tough a challenge that would be! We definitely don’t recommend this trail after rainfall, as it can be quite risky. Not as dangerous as Arbel mountain in Israel , but still unwise. The trail was circular and could be walked either clockwise or counterclockwise. We chose the latter, following numbered signs. Our journey began gently — a flat dirt road, volcanic formations, and a valley adorned with green peaks. Then the trail climbed up to 700 meters and we reached the Miradouro da Rocha do Chambre , the highlight of the hike. In front of us stood a colossal cliff

Day 2 Our host kindly offered to drive us to Angra do Heroismo on her way to work. We left the house at eight, armed with sandwiches, fruits, and water, for a long hike on Monte Brasil . This extinct volcano dominates the landscape of the city, and offers spectacular views of the bay and the ocean. She dropped us off at a viewpoint called Miradouro do Pico das Cruzinhas. The sun was just rising, and everything around us was sparkling with golden light. We could see the whole city below us, with its colorful houses and churches. From there, we followed the trail to all the peaks of Monte Brasil, discovering its natural and historical treasures. We walked around an emerald-green caldera of an ancient dormant volcano. Along the forest path we noticed a family of timid deer who ran away as soon as they saw us. We climbed up to a whale lookout, where a sign informed us of all the marine life that can be spotted around the island. We scanned the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of a blue

When we started planning this trip it looked like a typical getaway, a break from the routine and the news. We initially even booked a double room in a hostel for the whole duration of our stay on the island. It had a kitchen, of course, as we like to be self-sufficient and budget-friendly. We are independent travelers, after all, and we enjoy doing things our own way. Since I started working two years ago, I have limited time to travel. So I had to squeeze in four days on Terceira, one of the nine islands of the Azores in Portugal. We took advantage of a cheap Ryanair deal that we booked two months in advance. However, three weeks before the flight, we had a stroke of luck: we found a Couchsurfing host on the island! We were going to stay with a local couple. This was a huge surprise, because we had not been able to find hosts on most of the islands we had visited before, like Madeira or Gran Canaria. We quickly canceled our hostel reservation and got ready for an adventure. For us th

I met Edurne and Raul in 2015 when they hosted me through couchsurfing in their cozy wee attic flat in Bilbao. It's from them that I learned about the magical place of Gaztelugatxe . Thanks to their advice, my time alone with the beauty of this marvelous spot remained a particularly memorable moment of the whole trip. Over the last eight years the threads of our travels intertwined in unpredictable and unexpected ways although we did not communicate much with Edurne and Raul after my journey to the Basque Country. Shortly before the pandemic, in December 2019, I arrived in Jerusalem. Edurne and Raul saw my Facebook check-in message and swiftly responded with their location which, as it turned out, I could almost see from my window. And there we were – eating falafel outside of the Damascus gate and discussing plans for their trip in Israel. Actually they had no definite plan and were open to my numerous travel suggestions. We ended up visiting my friend and watching the sunset o

День в Копенгагене. Июнь 2023 Знойный июньский полдень в Копенгагене. Жители города высыпали на улицу и уютно расселись с шампанским и закусками вдоль каналов. Потягивая игристое, толпа веселилась, махала проплывающим мимо моторным лодкам и комментировала навыки неопытных рулевых-туристов. Звон бокалов сливался с громким смехом и радостными возгласами. Вдруг на противоположной стороне канала мы заметили голую женщину. Она сидела на деревянном настиле, окруженная модно одетыми людьми, и как будто не замечала своей наготы. У нее были азиатские черты лица и белоснежная кожа. Ее светлая фигура резко выделялась на фоне серых досок, будто выхваченная лучом софита. Женщина встала, быстро проскользнула мимо загорающих парней в шортах и прыгнула в воду. Нырнула, проплыла вдоль набережной, несколько раз акробатически перекувыркнулась под водой и зацепилась рукой за лесенку для купальщиков. Поныряла еще несколько минут вокруг нее, потом вылезла из воды и спокойно и уверенно прошагала обратно н

Каучсерфинг. Дания и Германия. Июль 2022 Каждый день во время поездки мы останавливались у местных. Для нас любое путешествие — это люди. Их истории. Их судьбы. И то незабываемое время, которое нам выпадает разделить с ними. С Аней и Дэни мы пекли сосиски в тесте на костре прямо на берегу моря. На следующий день гуляли в парке с дикими оленями, в лесу нашли грибы: моховик и белый. Добавили их потом в борщ, который сварили на ужин по просьбе хозяев. “Хорошо, что я, наконец, попробовал такой вкусный борщ”, — оценил наши кулинарные изыски Дэни, который раньше ел “красный суп” только в столовой для рабочих в Казахстане. На закате он отвез нас на свою яхту, пришвартованную в гавани, — посидеть в покое и тишине на воде, глядя в открытое море. Уте и Марк отреставрировали старинный каменный дом с крышей из камыша. Они живут в деревне на берегу Балтийского моря, а работают в городе. Она — детским врачом, он — прокурором. В день приезда нам повезло попасть на семейный праздник: на воду спу