5 things about CouchSurfing you should know

As a newbie traveler and fresh Erasmus student, I have been using Couchsurfing for 6 times so far and each time has been memorable and rewarding experiences. Yet not all of the journeys I have been through was as awesome as said by all famous bloggers and writers you have known. There were definitely boring, dramatic and even shocking times that I wished I have never experienced. The last trip to Belgium was a memorable example, which was why I decided to write this post about Couchsurfing. And I would definitely not forget to include the photos of such delicious food I had in Belgium with the CS hosts, and my travel-mates during this special trip. 

Mussels cooked by CS host in Brussels

1. Give time and patience to write and read the profiles

Write a rather long and detailed profile is always better than keeping it too short especially if you do not have much travelling or CS experiences. There might be things you need your host to know about your eating habit, religion or special requirement, which they may accept or dislike. Write to them directly in the message if this is important to you. But normally I just send a friendly request without any special requirement as I am quite easy-going person.

Read your potential host's profile carefully. Going through the reference is of course one of the most important thing. People always focus on the negative reference apparently, but read them carefully as not all of them are true. Some host may expect your cooking, some small gift or even was looking for sex! 

2. Prepare a good request to send at the right timing, and don't give up at the last minute!

Send your request as soon as you know which day you are going to arrive at the city you are travelling to. Show them that you have read your profile personally in the request and DO NOT COPY PASTE! I and my travel-friend did not plan our accommodation very well as we were paying too much focus on the transportation. On the last day before departing we still do not have place to stay in Antwerp and was gonna take a hostel as many hosts declined to us saying that they would be busy or already had other surfers. Fortunately at midnight we got accepted by a nice couple living 30 mins walking away from the city center. We could not be happier, and got even more acceptances when we arrive the city, as well as invitation to meet up and show us around the city by other CS users. 

Our tour-guide in Brussels contacting us on CS came though it was rainning 

3. Most hosts are amazing and friendly - so expect to be surprised

As mentioned, I was luckily hosted by a Belgian couple in Antwerp - Miek and Robin with their little 2-year-old daughter. It was a long tiring walk from the center with  our luggage to finally reach their place, which was worth it definitely! They were artistic people especially Robin who is a musician, warmly welcoming us with tea and dinner almost ready. We spent the whole night talking about our backgrounds, different cultures, places and experiences we have been through, music, and arts. They showed me things about the city I have never known before. This was one of the best thing of travelling - interacting with local people and learn from them!

The next day was almost even better! We woke up at late morning. I played with their daughter Lily who was adorable and very 'sociable' with surfers.  We went to have breakfast with cakes and hot chocolates in a small coffee place in the street corner near their house. Here I had the best hot chocolate ever in my life in an exotic way: hot milk poured from a pot mixed with chocolate candies! 

4. Be humble, respected and don't forget to bring a small gift

Though hosts are mostly open-minded and friendly, don't show them the bad sides of yours. And some hosts may say they do not expect any gift but everyone of them would be happy if you bring along a small gift from your home country to show some hospitality. And remember  not to eat their food as if their fridge is yours! Buy something and cook for them if you have tim, but never promise to do so because you never know if what would happen when travelling!

5. Expect the worst, hope for the best

CS host in Brussels had dinner with us and offered Belgian beer.
They were nice in the beginning but very impolite to me on the last day.

The last day in Brussels I had the worst CS experience ever. I got lost alone in the middle of nowhere in Brussels, was panic and found a random girl on the street, desperate asking for a phone call to a taxi as my phone was out of battery. She sent me to other 2 ladies who took me to a big station nearby where I can find taxi. Here I went with a Belgian girl who do not speak English at all but helped me talked to a driver. I was lucky that he agreed to drive me with lower price, and he could speak English. As soon as I arrive the host, they started to complain and criticise that I could not cook for them as promised and thus they had to wait for so long. I was speechless, waiting for my travel-mate to come  back! At some point I felt mentally attacked and isolated, which I could not imagine beforehand considering the first awesome nights we spent with the hosts. We were not communicating properly at some point as I wanted to leave to another host's place but forgot to inform them in the morning, which was properly one reason why everything went crazy. I could never forget the sarcastic laughter and evil look they give to me at that night...

Would I stop using Couchsurfing for travelling and rent hostels/hotels since then? The answer is definitely NO! I would want to continue my adventures filled with experiences made by local people everywhere in this world, though now a break is definitely needed. Belgium is not that sweet after all those chocolates, waffles and fruity beers I had :)

Our CS host rode us on his boat in Rotterdam

7 things I love about being a student in Groningen

It's been more than 1 month since I arrived the little town Groningen in the very North of Netherlands for my Erasmus exchange with two full luggage of curiosity, energy, and readiness for my new adventure. I can still remember the adrenalin and excitement rising throughout my mind as soon as my flight landed from Helsinki to Amsterdam, where I took my first NS train ever to Groningen station. I was luckily welcomed and picked up by 2 Romanian students from Hanze University, who went with me the whole way to my hostel where I stayed temporarily for few days before moving in to my official apartment. 

The first month was like in a rollercoaster for me as I can neither remember how many papers I have filled nor how many people I have talked to. So far the experience has been amazing! It would take forever to talk about it but here are the main nice things I want to list down about student life in Groningen:

1. The people

Its not where you go that matters, it’s the people around you!

Having lived in Vietnam-Finland-Poland, been to many places and met different kinds of people worldwide, yet I could not have been less surprised by Dutch people. They are amazingly open-minded and straightforward. People come talk to you and to make friends without hesitation as if they have known you before. I think is it not only because the Duchies speak almost perfect English but also because of the openness in their personality that you can recognize at the first moments. Yet they are too loud and intimidating sometimes J At school I can freely talk to my teacher or ask personal questions as a friend, which I would have never done in Vietnam or Finland, where people are more reserved.

I never expected to find these people who study, share a room, travel, work with me and hopefully would become friends of my life for long time onwards. The more I go around, talk to people and learn from different cultures, the littler but richer I feel.

2. Travelling – from Groningen to the Netherlands

Small city as Groningen may seem, I believe I did not see all of it. Must-visit places have been to are Grote Markt, Martini Tower, Vismarkts, Groningen Museum, Chinese Garden, Prinsentuin, Color Building near our campus, etc. I am especially in love with the small canals here and there, which reminds me of beautiful Amsterdam.

It is easy to travel from Groningen to other cities of Netherlands such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, Maastricht, etc. Last week was my very first Couchsurfing experience with a Dutch host in Rotterdam, which was amazing! Don’t forget to try this J ESN also organize many trips to nearby countries such as Germany (hitchikising) and Belgium, which I found attractive but expensive. So I went on my own to Belgium and France with train, car-pooling, and hitchhiking.

ERAMUS BRIDGE IN ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

3. The parties – Groningen is the city of bars and clubs

In Groningen, people party 2-4 times a week. ESN usually organize fun theme parties, which I usually do not miss because I love dressing up and face painting. It is not hard to look for good parties and find friends you have not met for ages on what we call ‘The Bar-street’.  I am not the kind of person who is into getting wasted or high, but meeting friends of friends and sharing good conversations with them. I am happy here I can afford doing pub-crawls and drinking cocktails when I am in the mood every now and then. Everything in Groningen seems to be student-friendly charged, which is hard to find in Helsinki.

4. Food, markets and restaurants

Simple but excellent! This is how I would describe Dutch people as well as Dutch cuisine. My first few weeks were spared for trying so many Dutch foods for the first time in my life: kroket. stroofwaflle, poffertjes, frikandel, cheese waffle, hering, gouda cheese, etc. These can be easily found in the street markets (Grote Markt and Vismarkt) or super markets (Albert Hejn, Jumbo, Lidle, Spar). For bigger meals I have tried Andijviestamppot met spekjes and slavink made by my Dutch-Chinese girl in Amsterdam, which is simple to make and taste satisfactory. It is also not so hard to have a nice dinner in a restaurant in Groningen, as many of them are served with good quality and reasonable price or discounts for students. All you need to do is ask a Dutch student for suggestion!

5. Accommodation - student house

I live in Kraneweg 4, one of the smallest but not less crazy and fun student house near the city center, compared to other bigger residences with hundreds of student living there. I found it easy to get along with my lovely roommate from Hungary and neighbors from Czech, Poland, China, Germany, Belgium, etc. Although studying in different programs, we would often party, cooking dinner or simply chill out together after hangover days. I feel like a family here!

6. School

I may sound like a nerd when mentioning that I love school, but I can’t deny the fact that we have awesome teachers and classmates. The marketing program I am pursuing is practical for my future work as a marketer or blogger. We work in international team for a big project researching on a Dutch product in foreign market. I enjoy sometimes just having a chat with my teacher and schoolmates about different cultures and places in the Netherlands.

7. Sports and other

With only 59 Euros per year or 39 euros per semester you can afford ACLO student membership and join different types of sports (Basketball, Tennis, Squash, Soccer, Climbing, Martial Art, body training, all kinds of dancing, etc) to keep your head less stressful and active enough for the parties after long classes. I am enrolling for hip-hop dance and pole-dancing classes this coming period as I have always been addicted to dancing meanwhile living in Vietnam and Finland.

That’s my story so far. What do you like most as a student in Groningen, (if not alcohol)?

Food you would not wanna miss in Rotterdam

The number one food I had in Rotterdam as well as Netherlands so far was Kroket. I am addicted to them!!! After long day visiting all the sightseeings including the windmills, Erasmus bridge, De Rotterdam and other spectacular architecture of a very modern Rotterdam, nothing could have been better for us than having lunch in RODIN. Compared to what we had to pay, the food was amazing, especially those huge fries which we had to order more. 

Sandwich with smoked salmon is also a good choice

 If you are a crazy foodie crawling for street food and casual street markets like me, you can't miss Binnenrotte markt - one of the longest street market of Rotterdam next to the Cubes house. The best things I tried here were cheese (apparently), Loempia or Spring Rolls as we usually call, rolled veges and dried fruits which are awesome because they reminded me so much of my childhood new year eves when we have a lot of them to fill in our stomach besides spring rolls and other so-called 'spring-foods'. 

I want to add bubble tea as well because I love them. 

You can only find bubble tea in YoYo Fresh Tea Bar or some Asian shops in Netherlands. 

The whole trip was ideally and spontaneously amazing in a unexpected way party because of our host, who gave us such a nice treat with Broodies and more Croquette (shrimp) as if they knew these were my favourite dishes. I could not know how to thank them more than writing on this blog, since the host even drove us on his boat to another city so that we could see the windmills. What an experience!

More about our trip can be found here:

#1 Thing I love about living in Groningen - Vismarkt

Young people would normally seek Groningen as a student town for crazy nightlife, parties and coffee-shops or as a touristic destination for martini tower, museums and beautiful gardens. However, the best experience I had so far about living in Groningen is shopping in Vismarkt.

I would love to go to Vismarkt every Friday to buy all the fresh cheap vegetables and fruits as if I am still in the middle of the summer in a tropical country. And since I have started to love cooking more and more, I would rather go to the middle of the town with my bike for 5 minutes to grab the ingredients from Vismarkt instead of eating high-calories food in a fancy restaurant.

And if you are looking for a bit more meat then toasted chicken and deep fried fish are definitely  great choices. I have been trying so much food and cooking for international evenings so many times this month that I should reorganise my eating habit next week and doing sport more often instead of making excuse that I cycle every day.

Or if you wish to be a more healthy traveller!

 One of the brightest things about Netherlands is that it is rich in culture and is colourful literally. You can easily look for nice flowers with good deals easily in front of Vismarkt.

Groningen coffee bike

Short trip to Zwolle - my first time with Blabla Car

Whenever it comes to travelling in Holland mostly everyone is always so excited about Amsterdam, coffeeshops or  red light districts but I was quite not of them. I wanted to see the whole picture of Netherlands; to learn the Dutch culture, language and cuisine from local people, and even to visit smaller towns which no-one cares perhaps.

After our crazy Beach party on Wednesday at which I was completely out of my mind, we (me and a lovely new friend from Morocco but live in France) woke up quite early and went to Zwolle, a city nearby Groningen to pick up some important documents and do a little bit of travelling. I did not expect it was such a lovely city where we would genuinely relax after our mad nightlife.

Statue of Archangel Michaël in front of the Church of St. Michaël.

By Herman Lamers

We came across lots of interesting architecture and statues which I believe was one of the most remarkable feature of the city. 

Museum De Fundatie Zwolle

After wandering around the small town with no map and already feeling like we have seen almost everything, we decided to eat in Tosti World . The price was amazing compared to the fact that I could have chosen the fillings. We both take salmon burgers which were pretty tasty!

And do not forget to fill your stomach with dessert bought from a local ice-cream store.

La Dolce Ice-Cream

Our trip did not end in a boring way here. The best thing about Zwolle was to go back to Groningen with a Dutch guy we found on Blabla Car - a site which connects travellers with drivers who have empty seats. Herman was a very funny, talkative and caring driver who seem very smart and strong-minded. We shared a lot, laughed a lot during the short drive and I learnt lots of new things about him, who has been living in many places around different continents like us. 

It's the people that matter, not the place!

The Finnish girl who lives in Korea

It was random and fun to meet Laura last year during one international event held by exchange students of our school in Helsinki. Laura is a 23-year-old lovely Finnish girl and a business administration student who loves Korean music and culture. I was partly surprised and happy to hear that she has just moved to Seoul to continue her bachelor at Hanyang University.

So we did some chatty and skyping about our lives in Netherlands, Finland and Korea to compare and share our stories. I enjoyed our conversation a lot perhaps because we both are open-minded females who are interested in travelling not only to Asian countries but also in general. Laura has been to Japan, Hongkong, Vietnam, Singapore, but only in Korea did she feel like at home!

What Laura loves about Korea

Korean music

Popular culture

Cute people

Nightlife (everything is open late)

Student life

Cheap prices

Beautiful mountains to hike

Busy city life

What the challenges were

Money, little saving

Expensive and hard-to-find places to live

Language barrier

Straightforwardness

(Korean are indirect)

Of course I must not forget to ask about my favourite topic: Korean food. 

*They have rich food culture here. Most of the restaurants serve dishes with lots of meat such as pork, chicken and beef, which is not vegetarian-friendly. They usually bring the raw ingredients and you make it yourself or they make the food for you. Korean cuisine is sweet and spicy compared to Finnish cuisine*, said Laura

I got couples of photos of Korean dishes Laura tried and favored

ddeokbokki

dakgalbi

Icy noodles Naengmyeon

kimchijjigae

Fried chicken

What do you advise to people who would want to do the same kind of travelling as you?

*In case of Korea, there are many people who want to go. If you are coming from a Western country, you should research, learn the language, and be familiar with customs before moving to Korea. Coming here for a short trip to see how the place is like would be good. It is possible to move alone.*