Song of Praise to Couch Surfing.

So I've noticed a trend, that I tend to post things with a low slant, as if to give the impression that my mood is generally low. I hypothesize that this is because it is usually when I'm feeling particularly lonely and homesick that I have the urge to sit and type a blog entry, because it's a form of therapy for me, in a sense; a way of reaching out to home. The consequence of only writing while in this mindset is that the mood is generally low, as I have said. This, of course, is a misrepresentation. Homesickness is there, but it is not consistently and continuously there; it is there when I am alone and wanting to talk to someone, because that's when I start to think about my friends and family at home, who I miss. I don't usually relate with the feeling of "missing" people. People sometimes say that they "miss" me, and I generally can't relate. On this trip, however, more than ever before, I can genuinely say I know what it feels like to miss people.

But anyway, there I go again, giving the impression that I'm down.

Well, today, I am up, in general. So I felt I should tilt the scales and post while the high lasts. This will be a short entry, but I want to say that so far, the last two weeks in mainland Europe have been made great thanks to Couch Surfing. I've made brief allusions to my Couch Surfing hosts in previous entries (even going as far as suggesting that I was afraid one was racist - I want to be clear that this was not an accusation, but just an expression of a worry I had, and that he was absolutely not such a thing). All of my hosts and meet-ups have been happy and warm. To the Madman in Montreal, I admire the effort he puts in to showing travellers a good time. The Cop in Rotterdam, Humble in Hamburg, Soldier in Aalborg, the Captain in Kristiansand and now Silkybeard in Stockholm (as well as the people I've travelled with during the days and met with at the evening meets (coming up with nicknames takes time, and I don't wanna use people's real names, but I separately remember them all)) have all been great hosts, great friends, and have made me, a shy Canadian, feel that much better about my place in the International Community. So I want to, for now, sing a praise for the usefulness and good-spiritedness of Couch Surfing and those individuals who gravitate towards it.

Anyway, I'm being rude at a party at Silkybeard's place right now, so I'll wrap this up for now and recount my days in Kristiansand, Oslo and Stockholm a little later - maybe a few days.

Happiness is the state of not wanting anything.

Photos!

Nov3

Stockholm-Vauxholm