Misha Chinkov Couch

Annotation

"couch" is a travelogue of one hundred stories about people from Couchsurfing - a global community of travelers, facilitating stays with locals or opening your home to visitors. The book captures the author's backpacking trips from 2014 to 2022 in different countries, such as the U.S., India, Thailand, Gulf Countries, and various parts of Europe, from Lisbon to Saratov. About a third of the stories in the book recount how the author himself hosted travelers, both in Penza - his native Russian province - and in Berlin, a city in which the author found a sense of home. The focus of the book is on people and their cultural diversity. Ultimately, the reader will learn from this book not only how travelers interact with their hosts and how both hosting and surfing work – but also the endless permutations, from camaraderie to conflict.