Looking for a host
For a city like Copenhagen, I felt it would be pretty difficult to find a host. However when I started to send out requests, I found out the real difficulty wasn’t ‘the hosts receive too many requests and they can’t host anymore!‘
The real difficulty was Danes have vacations and they take holidays abroad in summer, too! So if you go in summer, that’s also their time for vacation.
And I felt Copenhagen is quite ‘international’, usually in an ‘international’ place it’s harder to be offered generosity as ‘another tourist’.
Our Couchsurfing Experience
I believe every couchsurfing experience is unique. With my experience, my host’s house was 15 minutes walk from the train station and additional 30 minutes ride by train to Copenhagen Central Station. She offered to pick us (my family) up from a metro station on the first day so that we’d know where her house was.
However, a day before surfing at my host’s place, she sent me a message saying there’s been a change of plan yet she still looked forward in hosting us. That change of plan included both private issue and work related issue. She included direction to her house in case I’d still like to couchsurf. And I only saw that message on my way to the metro station where we agreed to meet. Ahh!
But it worked out well, when we showed up at her house at the unexpected hour, her husband was nice and polite. They prepared a room for us in their beautiful house. And in the next 4 days we had a good time talking about politics, tax, Christianity in Denmark, vacation, food etc.
On the second night she offered us dinner, home cooked! It was so amazing to sit with her family while having my family with me! Unbelievable!
Danish desert- you put cookies, berries and something like yogurt/butter milk together! It’s called a cold plate!
It was really interesting to see how Danes people eat their cereal (they put oats in cold milk)! And how simple their diet is (my host packed 2 slices of rye bread, some spread, and some carrots)!
A good cultural exchange is more valuable than visiting touristic attractions and savings on accommodation. This memory is warm.
And I also discovered that when hosts really want to host, they’d keep up to their commitment and overcome the ‘inconveniences’. And the reason they go out of their way to help you is usually because they’ve been travelers themselves, or they want you to have a good time in their country!
Finding a host for 4 surfers
-Cons
As we were traveling as a family of 4 adults (we couchsurfed in Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania, and Sweden) , it’s definitely even harder to find a host who can host 4 people. So I had to broaden the area in my searches. In an expensive city like Copenhagen, you’d safe more on accommodation if you couchsurf even if you have to pay extra money on public transportation.
-Pros
I can send a request to a host of all ages and all genders without feeling ‘restricted’ as a girl. What I don’t like to do on couchsurfing is making it looks like a request for a date. So when you travel in a group (especially family!), I feel invincible! No safety issue is an issue when your dad is around!
And for some hosts (usually elder hosts or hosts with family), I think they enjoy having a family over (who can travel independently).
Traveling Mega
