This title is little bit tricky. Actually this one is gonna be about Couchsurfing and my best experience which I had in 2017. So here is a small intro.
My plans for summer 2017 were this – buy Interrail ticket and travel around Europe. Visit Germany, Denmark, Sweden etc. But just one day before whole this trip, things changed and I had to change my plans. So, where to go, which country, which part of Europe? And there it came, an idea to travel to Baltic countries. There were 2 main reasons why to go there :
- I didn’t know anything about these countries, probably just their capitals
- Helsinki and Finland is so close, so maybe there will be a possibility to visit it
So decision was made and I was ready to go. Things were already packed, so I just bought a ticket from Puchov to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Suwalki. From there the story began – if you are curious what happened, follow this link to my previous post about Baltic trip :
- https://supertrampdiaryblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/vilnius-klaipeda-very-first-baltic-experience/
- https://supertrampdiaryblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/estonia-tallin-finland-helsinki/
But back to the accommodation, that it what I wanted to talk about. So first Couchsurfing experience in Baltic countries was for me in Riga, Latvia. I wrote to one older lady from Riga. She looked really nice and had a good references on Couchsurfing, so I was hoping and I though this might be a good deal – to meet a nice person and also to get a great accomodation. First of all she wrote me that she offers a small room in her massage saloon in city center. Massage saloon said I .. hmm that sounds interesting.
Living like a King in Riga
So I arrived to Riga and I went directly to meet with Alinda. It was her name. She was waiting right on the place where we said, we will meet. She was really friendly, her English was so so, but it was really cute. She was a bit in hurry so she just went with me to this place, gave me the keys, explained what to do how to do where to go .. and offered me help on Viber. Btw she gave me some really good tips what to visit in Riga, I loved it. She cared so much about me even we did not meet later – I just left the keys on the place she told me and that was it. But now lets speak about the accommodation.
I was seriously amazed when we were going closer and closer to the city center. My expectations were, not even close to what I got. We went through one gate, next to Blue Church and there it was. A small room, with all these equipments for massage with one small sofa and small shower. This place was a bit .. I don’t want to say dirty, but lets use the word used. She was working here, so I expected it will be like this. I still remember the smell from all these creams etc. It was so strong! And that cat behind the window every single time when I looked that way haha. I loved this place. And guess what. Right next to me, actually I had the same wall, with the Riga castle where the president of Riga lives. This was super amazing! Castle right next to me, city center 10 seconds far away, this was the goal. Living like a king in Riga, yes, I know what it means. This couchsurfing experience gave me more that living in a very city center in a 5 star hotel! Cmon, this I got for free – sounds unreal!
UNESCO heritage
From Riga, as you probably read, I traveled to Tallinn. Here I contacted one girl called Aninna. She was Finnish but she was working in Tallinn right now. She offered me to stay in her small room in Tallin. Her references were perfect, so I decided to visit this person. And I was right, Anina was lovely girl and the place where she lived, amazing. She lived in and old heritage building right next to the city walls of Tallin. To the city center it was just few minutes. The building was used as community center for Ukrainian people if I remember it right. The house was smaller and had 2 floors. I lived on the second one, first night alone and second and third night in the same room with my host. Small kitchen, small bathroom but everything so lovely. Here I also met 2 other surfers from Germany, Lisa and Max. They arrived a bit later as me. I remember the first night when we were still alone in this house, we said almost in the same time like, we feel like we are living in a museum and just in few minutes somebody will entry here – like group of tourists. Entire place was made from wood, wooden stairs, wooden kitchen …
When I wanted to entry this place (where was also a big garden in the middle) I had to open old wooden gate. Every single time when I came from the city, I felt so special opening it. Some people were walking there, mostly tourists, and they were photographing this place and I just came, took out key and opened and entered it. I just felt the special feeling in my belly like yay, I live here now, how special it is! Loved it!
So these are the 2 most incredible accommodation experiences on Couchsurfing which happened to me. I loved them and I hope to get more soon!
And one big thanks for to Alinda and Aninna 🙂 Both of you were amazing and I want to say big thanks to you both! Without you this Baltic experience wont be so great! Also big thank to go to Max, who I met in Aninnas place. I visited him this year with mom and he gave us a chance to stay in his place in Amsterdam! Loved it man! Sometimes I do not have luck to find a Couchsurfer who to meet .. but sometimes, I meet really nice people! I wish you all to find a nice Couchsurfer at least once! But if you are not lucky to find anybody, here is something I can share : https://www.booking.com/s/35_6/9a484ff9 my discount for Booking 🙂 have a nice ans save traveling!
See you!
Your Supertramp 🙂
Supertramp Diary 
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