Just to clear things up in case you’re wondering: no, I’m not gay. I’m straight, and I’m in a committed relationship. Still – equal rights for everybody are an important thing to me. In my opinion, LGBTs should have the same rights as everybody else. They should have the right to marry (not to just have a “ceremony” at the registry office), they should have the right to adopt children, they should have the right for IVF.

Since 1996, there is a demonstration taking place in Vienna every year. It’s a big demonstration, but also an aweseome parade, a great party and all in all a lot of fun. This year it took place on June 16, and I met up with some girls from couchsurfing to go see the parade and give away free hugs. It’s always a lot of fun to give free hugs. Usually the funniest parts are the faces of the people who just can’t believe anybody could be so crazy and just hug strangers because it’s fun and gives you a positive feeling.

But at the Vienna Pride Parade, it’s different: people are in a great mood and are having a good time, and they also like to hug strangers. Of course, there’s the occasional ass-grab (without and with the parade, but at the parade, more women are grabbing 😉 ), but this time, there was a first-time: somebody tried to set me up with a friend of theirs.

Big fun.

Looking forward to next year 🙂

free hugs including a “try to match”, and some grabs at my ass

So, finally, nearly 2 weeks late, here is my personal recap of Couchsurfing Vienna Calling 2012 🙂

On Wednesday, our first Couchsurfer for the weekend, Verena from Berlin, arrived. She even brought presents: self-made jam made of rhubarb, combined with banana and strawberry. YUMMY 🙂  In the evening, there was the Welcome Party close to my place. 3 different live bands were playing, and it was just great – a lot of people whom I met via Couchsurfing and who have become good friends, arrived in time for the party. It felt a little like a class reunion 🙂

Also, this time, I finally really hosted Imre, not only his bags 🙂  2 years ago, I last-minute hosted him on Sunday night and gave him my keys so he could go to the afterparty while I had to sleep because I had to work on Monday. When I got up Monday morning, he was lying on the couch, still dressed. His answer to my “When did you get home?” was – “Ahm… 10 minutes ago 🙂 “. This time was different, he accepted my last-minute offer, came home a bit later than we did, and really did sleep on my couch 🙂

On Thursday, after a short visit to the Base on Donauinsel, I last-minute decided on participating in the underground walk, which was REALLY cool. We even ran into another group taking a tour down there – only they did pay and only saw a little bit of the tunnels, and we got the tour for free and saw the whole thing. A little after lunch, Manu & Iris from Augsburg, a couple we met at last year’s “Sounds of Salzburg” meeting, and also at “Couchburg in Augsburg”, arrived. They also brought lovely gifts: 4 bottles of awesome bavarian beer. Also VERY yummy 🙂

Manu and Iris went off for the Heurigen Tour (which was not that good, from what I heard), and we only met again during the free Sommernachtskonzert (Summer Nights concert) of the Vienna Philharmonics. We did not hear too much, because we were at the back of the stage, but we had an awesome view and a lot of fun with Stefan and Nathy.

On Friday, it was time for my Cemetery Tour. After touring Zentralfriedhof for over a dozen times in the last 2 years (and also twice during Vienna Calling ’10 and ’11), I had decided to go to another cemetery this year: St. Marx in Vienna’s 3rd district. It’s a lovely small, romantic and overgrown cemetery that hasn’t been in use for over 130 years. I didn’t have as many attendants as last year, but that might be because there was a city tour that ended just a little too late for some to make it to my meeting point. After the planned tour at St. Marx, I spontaneously decided to accompany some couchsurfers to Zentralfriedhof and give them a short tour there. Well – there is no such thing as a short trip to Zentralfriedhof, and we walked through there for about 2 hours.

On Friday evening, the plan was to stay at the Base, maybe go to Prater for some rides, and just relax. Unfortunately, the Prater plans had to be abandoned due to torrential rain that also doused the BBQ. We had to relocate that night’s meeting to Flying Pig, and also the next day’s location for the general meetings.

After a relaxing day and the Main Party on Saturday, I met with some couchsurfers on Sunday to go and give Free Hugs in the first district. All in all, it was a really exhausting weekend, and good fun 🙂

Here comes a short update of the preparations for Vienna Calling (it starts TOMORROW, people!!):

• clean the flat: done.
• get my room organised and less chaotic: done.
• update my meeting status to “no couch left”: done.

Please remember, everybody, to update your status according to if you need/can offer a couch or if you don’t any more! There are still a lot of people on the “looking for a couch”-list, but I’m not sure who still belongs there and who doesn’t ^^

I’m so much looking forward to my couchsurfers arriving on Wednesday and Thursday, and to great parties and lovely BBQs throughout the whole weekend!

The couches in our flat are filled!

Only about 10 days ago, I received a couch request from Manuel, a couchsurfer from Augsburg whom Georg and I met at Salzburg’s “Sounds of Salzburg” last year. He and his girlfriend Iris asked if they could stay at our place during Vienna Calling – and of course they can!

So, we’ll have Verena from Berlin and Manuel and Iris from Augsburg staying here in less than 4 weeks – yay!

So a few days ago the annual, obligatory “Update your status!”-message popped up in my mail inbox. It is good to have these messages, both for organizers and attendees.

Why?

Attendees will be reminded that the event is drawing closer. They might not yet – about one month before the event – have a couch, which is not that big a problem. They might not yet have booked or organized their transport, which might be a little problem. And they might just have forgotten about the event taking place, which would be really embarassing if they had already arranged for one or both of the things mentioned above 🙂 If you’re not a local, it is also very important to keep your “Can host [] people”-information up to date.

Organizers on the other hand will  become a better overview of the number of people who will be attending, of the number of people who will be in need of couches and so on. Two weeks prior to the event, locals will be asked to open their couches. The intensity of the message ( = number of exclamation marks used 😉 ) will of course depend on the number of people who have stated “Need a couch!” in their meeting status.

Less than thirty days to go, people, so update your status and prepare for a great weekend!

If you love to try out new stuff, check out Corn n’Pops at Gumpendorfer Strasse in Vienna’s 6th district!

Not only is there a big variation of cereal ingredients to mix your own muesli (during the whole day!!), there are also several pre-mixed specialties you can try.

If you’re not that much into muesli, try the waffles, cakes, cookies or – if you’re not  sweet tooth like me – go for the bagels. Or the pasta (weeks’ special only). Or the couscous, the soup of the day, the salad (also weeks’ special only)…

The staff are lovely, speak english and can give you great tips about the area.

Enjoy!