What I’ve been up to lately

Dear contacts only,

No, I’m not going to tell you  e v e r y  single thing I did. A couple of more interesting ways of torturing you comes to mind.

Some of you might remember that I suffered a “being visited mood” disorder early this Spring. But no one here decided to come. What did I do to appease that mood? Nothing. But keep that in mind for a few lines more. Thank you.

Last year in June, Miriam G. went to Annecy’s International Animated Film Festival in France (the festival of festivals for such films). And the photos she showed us were great. And Animated Films are great (Go, Aardman, go!). So it was more or less arranged that we’d go there next year. Claudia M. and Marianne R. would go too. What a party that would be.

That year passed and I booked the plane tickets to Geneva, Switzerland, the nearest airport to Annecy. This was in March. Then I learned that Miriam couldn’t go, that Claudia couldn’t go and that Marianne, surprise, couldn’t go. What the heck, I thought, Annecy’s festival is Annecy’s festival. I’ve the tickets, I’ll go.

No, I didn’t go. I was unable to find lodging there. Even everything close enough was booked. Thought of staying in Geneva and going at least for a day to the festival… but  the Euro Cup was going on in there at the same time. Everything was booked in Switzerland also. Tried the festival’s suggestions. Tried a French site. And then affable Peter S. suggested me to try CouchSurfing.com. I did. Tried to understand the system. Wrote down a fast profile there (http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/papitata) and obtained only negative answers to my “surf” requests. No wonder. Those guys in Annecy are bombarded by requests every year in June because of this festival.

What could I do? Changed the flight to Madrid in August. Couldn’t find another place to go without paying even more money. It was great anyway. I had already pass four times through Madrid without actually visiting it. Before that, in late May and early June, Marianne and I had a great time in Barcelona, with the exception of not being able to meet Peter due to text messages lost in Heaven. Madrid, therefore, lost a lot of charm in comparison.

So I forgot all about Annecy and my frustrated attempts to find a place to stay there.

Until early August, when the requests to stay at my place started coming in through CouchSurfing. Oh, I had to reject much more people than I got to accept. I found myself discriminating people on account of their age, interests or linguistic skills.

The first to book my “couch” (which is a bed) were a Polish couple that has been “surfing” in South America for a year and a half now… Their charter flight was cancelled and they didn’t come yet.  I hope they manage to.

The first to arrive were Sarah and Jan, or Jan and Sarah, from Berlin. As all CouchSurfers, they only requested to stay for a couple of nights. What did I learn with them? Jan is apparently a personal friend of Manu Chao. Very cool. And a conceptual architect at the Bauhaus Foundation. Even more cool. His working materials include music and language, for instance. As he was 31 and she 21 years old, I almost didn’t hear her voice. She seemed to be a nice kid. Probably in five years time their age difference won’t matter so much, if they’re still together by then. Portuguese hospitality seems to have confused and overwhelmed Jan for he told me twice and on separate occasions, “don’t be so nice to people.” Still our talks were very interesting. And after this first experience, I decided that all I want in return for hosting is one nice talk, and that I’ll prepare at least a dinner for every one who comes.

Next, Julia (23) and Christian (31) from München, the Toycity. Indeed, and I don’t remember why anymore, our talks started with a good humoured tone and never changed much from that register. They are a lovely couple. Good-looking and with brains, the bastards. Hope to visit them one day, when they move in together. I learned that Germans are generally extremely rational about such decisions. Especially because that implies letting go of an apartment that they were waiting for ages to rent.

I went to Madrid and when I got back I still got to host Ayako and Gábor, an international couple of 26 year olders. Their names tell of their nationality, so I’ll spare you of that extra information while writing a much longer sentence than if I just told where the heck they were from in the first place. They spent only one night because they had to run next to Sevilla, but we’ll probably meet again in Budapest or Osaka. I learned or confirmed that an educated Magyar is always a good person to spend some time with, and that Haruki Murakami’s characters are inspired by any regular Japanese.

While talking of the CouchSurfing experience with others, I yet got to learn that not everybody is willing to receive “strangers” in their places. The reasons are various, but one is certain: fear. Fear either for his/her own life or for loss of material possessions.

And that is it. My “being visited mood” was fully delivered. Sorry for the long text. I surely tried to suppress a thousand details.