I'm back home and the frenzy of intense traveling is still in my body. Resting after 3.5 months of traveling can sound like a joke for many of my hard working friends but more than anything, it is a difficult business. Traveling for so long in the way we did meant that we stayed most of the time at people's houses, take one or two random motels in equally random towns in America. That meant a lot of socializing, a lot of going around, seeing what other people do in the places they live in. Being home with the prospects of staying here for a while puts me in a place where I don't know where to start. Should I rest? Should I take my time? Should I get on with things? What do they all mean? What do I do with my time in my own city 12 years later.
Anyhow this is not a post about what's to come, I guess it is only interesting to reflect on what has actually hapenned already and not what might come. At least not in this entry. This entry is meant to be a big THANK YOU to all the people that by opening their doors and offering us a bed or similar have made possible for us to travel for so long.
I guess hospitality must have always been a key value for ancient cultures, as we can observe in myths and cultures that remain closer to what they were hundreds of years ago. It seems that a first attempt to rekindle the light of hospitality in the so called Western world was the Servas Open Door, an initiative post WW2. More recently the concept was taken to the Internet in a project called Hospitality Club: a social network of people who open their houses to travelers and also stay at other people's houses when traveling. Then Couch Surfing came up with the same idea but more developed and with a younger look thus attracting more people. Today those projects are all over the world and one can safely say that it is possible to travel the entire world without having to pay for a bed.
Sure, you give up part of your privacy. And yes, not every host or guest will become your best friend but it's not about that. It is about an alternative way of traveling, meeting other people, learning about the place from a local point of view or be inspired by someone who brings some new air into your house.
In chronological order this is our experience:
In Munich we stayed at Eve's cozy studio at Jenny's relaxed apartment and then Vina' and Moritz's warm flat. In London we stayed at the happy house with Nelly, Mania, Jon, Glen, David and Gizmo a place with people and a kitchen for great laughs and a toilet to learn about anarchism. We arrived in NYC and stayed at Richard and Alia's house with great views over Manhatan and lots of insights about America just before the trip started (there we survived Irene). We stayed in Anisa's Little Pond in Bethlehem, home of creativity and spiritual search. From there to Washington in David and Nicole's house, safe harbor for a shipwreck. Then Philadelphia, home of Anisa and Dan who sadly had to leave but made us feel at home even in their absence. From Philly we travelled to the West Coast and rented a car where we slept many nights in deserts, mountains and forests but in between that we met some people. In Las Vegas we stayed at Michael's house full of exotic women from all continents: drunk we were all like a happy family, shame that the daycame and work and sobriety made impossible more interaction. In Los Angeles we stayed with Jana and Oreti, mother and daughter who after the experiencing hospitality as guests, now returned the favor to the community: we laughed badly with their stories. In San Diego we stayed in a house in full refurbishing mode and slept in something strange like a cloth stool but to lay down... In New Orleans we stayed first at Patrick's house of cats and filth and then Louis Crispino, the hardcore couch surfer with three other guests at the same time in the house. In Ann Arbour we were with family, German and María, you can't ask for more. In Chicago we visited Suhapolis and where guided through quirky corners of the town. Finally we arrived back in New York and stayed with organic Keyvan and his home laboratory of sour cabbage.
Thanks to all, thanks for your trust and your kindness, you're always welcome to come to Murcia or wherever I happen to be.
