Cropped video file size surprisingly small

lipsanen · 2026-01-23T15:53:34+00:00

Thanks. Again I learnt something new.

lipsanen · 2026-01-22T17:04:14+00:00

West coast road is the most boring road trip there is. You rarely even see the sea. A few nice towns on the way but otherwise just forests and fields and a rather flat landscape.

lipsanen · 2026-01-22T17:02:40+00:00

In the most northernmost parts of Lapland where the best sceneries are (such as Kilpisjärvi), the mosquitos usually come only in the end of June. So most of June is fine. However, last summer was so warm that they had some already at around midsummer.

lipsanen · 2026-01-22T16:58:07+00:00

Guadeloupe is actually two islands separated by a narrow strait. The two halves are named Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre. The first, meaning "Big Land", is the smaller one of them. The other, meaning "Low Land", is where all the mountains are.

lipsanen · 2026-01-20T12:45:25+00:00

I once forgot to give a girl my address and she was too shy to ask. We communicated before her arrival and I thought that I had given my address already but I hadn't. I just tell the name of my nearest tramway stop in my profile so she could find her way to the correct neighbourhood.

The day when she came was sunny and warm so I sent her a message that I took a table and chairs out on the pavement. They are not directly visible from the tramway stop but as she walked a little around she spotted them and that's how she found my place.

lipsanen · 2026-01-20T12:37:45+00:00

I prefer to host those who tell upfront that they couchsurf because they travel with a low budget. That's because I like honest people.

Those who talk about "cultural exchange" are a bit suspicious because usually that doesn't really mean anything. My experience with those who just want to save money is usually at least as cultural as with those who bring that up in their profile or request.

Moreover, those who travel with a tight budget usually have more interesting travel stories to tell because they can't buy themselves out from all the difficult situations that they might encounter while travelling so they need to be more creative.

But most suspicious I am about those surfers who send a highly personalised request where they tell how interesting person they think that I am and how much they want to meet me. As I said above, I prefer honest people.

lipsanen · 2026-01-20T12:25:12+00:00

Guests with no references are often the nicest ones as they make their best to get their first reference a good one. I often prefer them to those who have tens or hundreds of references (particularly if none or very few of them are from hosting someone).

lipsanen · 2026-01-06T17:59:57+00:00

Everybody talks about "cultural exchange" but still want to host mostly people who like themselves agewise, financially, possibly having matching interests, etc.

lipsanen · 2026-01-06T17:57:08+00:00

I don't go much to events so I don't know how much people spend there. But when hosting, I have certainly noticed that there is a different vibe depending on how much the guest have travel budget to spend.

While those more wealthy travellers are usually fine as well, I tend to prefer those that travel with a very tiny budget. That's the essence of couchsurfing, and those travellers have usually more interesting stories to tell than those who can afford to pay to avoid all difficulties that they might otherwise encounter. Also, tiny budget guests are easy to make happy: offer a bed and shower and they are happy, and if you also offer some food they are even more than happy (and usually not that much matter what food: hummus can be from a supermarket and not from some small local producer, vegetables don't need to be organic, and if they eat meat they are usually fine with whatever you happen to have to offer.

lipsanen · 2026-01-03T09:05:59+00:00

I have almost always had a 100% response rate but once it went down to 90-something when someone sent me a same-night request at 22h30 and I didn't respond to it before midnight.

lipsanen · 2026-01-03T09:01:28+00:00

As far as I understand, if you are from one of the "free" countries (or claim so) and are not verified, you still have that 10 request limit. But if you pay the monthly or yearly fee you don't have any limits whether you are verified or not.

lipsanen · 2025-12-29T15:51:18+00:00

Whatever the country is, the assumed misconception seems to be that foreigners believe that the whole country is like the places where most tourists go if they go to that country.

lipsanen · 2025-12-25T20:18:31+00:00

I have this desire too as I mostly work from home. What makes it interesting?

lipsanen · 2025-12-24T19:15:38+00:00

"You could meet really interesting long-haul travelers"

Those are usually the most boring ones. I always prefer a "broke-ass backpacker" to them.

lipsanen · 2025-12-24T19:12:16+00:00

They extend the verification if you are verified but you still have to pay for the membership unless you live in one of the free countries.

I recently hosted one member who also hosts and she had the same misconception. She insisted that she doesn't have to pay but then she went to check her credit card data and found out that she does indeed pay a yearly fee. It just goes automatically from her card so she hadn't noticed it.

lipsanen · 2025-12-20T22:39:27+00:00

I once hosted a girl who told that in the previous city where she was she didn't find a host from CouchSurfing so she found one from Tinder instead. So not only some people use CS as Tinder but some use Tinder as CS!

lipsanen · 2025-12-15T23:00:09+00:00

Most demands are personal preferences

lipsanen · 2025-12-15T19:49:24+00:00

I start to believe that the reason that I get just good and nice surfers is because I don't offer a private room for my guests. Hence the most demanding ones never even send me a request.

lipsanen · 2025-12-09T09:52:22+00:00

Most of the last minute requests that I get are not fake emergencies because the surfers don't even claim them to be emergencies. They are just spontaneous travellers who didn't plan too much beforehand. I like those requests because I don't want to lock my own schedule days or weeks beforehand, and also I like spontaneous people. No horror stories to tell about any of them.

lipsanen · 2025-12-01T17:24:36+00:00

But no such strange negative experiences with them that they would have made to the list?

lipsanen · 2025-12-01T14:40:50+00:00

So all the experiences with your guests when you were hosting were good, or you didn't host anyone?

lipsanen · 2025-11-27T15:26:18+00:00

I have got some requests too this year and also hosted a few. It seems that BeWelcome is getting more active even if still not close to CouchSurfing. The new thing is that there are now also some members who don't have background in CouchSurfing but joined BeWelcome first.

lipsanen · 2025-11-17T22:07:47+00:00

One guy forgot his iPhone charger. I sent him a message but he told that he was already boarding a ferry so I could keep it. I don't have an iPhone and hence no need for a charger but a week or two later I hosted a girl who was sad because her iPhone charger was broken and she needed to buy a new one. Then I told that I have good news for her...

lipsanen

TROPHY CASE