Thursday. The first day with BBQs, games and lying in the sun at Danube Island. As every year, there was a BBQ place reserved for us. Usually there are only up to 50 people allowed at one BBQ place – we reached this number within 3 hours after opening the Base 🙂

As Georg was an organizer he had to be at the Base (=BBQ) around 11 already. The rest of us followed and arrived at 12something. The weather was not too nice in the beginning – clouded over and pretty windy. I was working for some hours, first selling the wristbands that allow the VC attendees to get to the parties without extra cost, later selling beer to the thirsty.

The night before, I had met Shawn, a couchsurfer from San Diego. He’s currently traveling the world – for almost 2 years already. He did not manage to find a couch in Vienna, so at the party he was till looking for a host. We had a short chat, and I agreed on hosting him for the rest of the event. Somehow he managed to be at the base way too early, so nobody was there. After returning back to the city center, he called me – when I was already on my way to Danube Island 🙂 He’s of the chaotic kind, but a really nice guy!

Around 6 pm, I, Georg, Carlos and Shawn left homewards. Nearly everybody at the BBQ wanted to go to the Philharmonics Concert at Schlosspark Schönbrunn later, and we wanted to drop off our stuff before. Georg and I had plans to meet friends, relaxing with some music at the upper parts of the park, nearby Gloriette. The acoustics there are pretty bad, but the view is amazing. During the concert, Carlos and Shawn discovered other CSers not far from our spot and joined them. They would come home later, calling us so we could let them in. Mitie had left from the BBQ to the concert directly with other CSers, but her cell ran out of credit. She asked another CSer for his cell in order to call us to check where and when to meet. Of course, as Schönbrunn is a huge place and there were tons of people, we didn’t manage to find her. Georg and I were already concerned, but then I received a text from Carlos: “We found Mitie. Where shall we meet?” Hell, was I happy.

We met at the subway stop where we had to change to the bus, went home, talked, and went to bed.

Wednesday. This would be the first actual day of Vienna Calling, with the Kick Off Party at Weberknecht. I had to get up damn early, as I had an appointment with the doctor, and afterwards was working until 5 pm.

In the late afternoon, Kira, CSer number 3, and her dog Tulku, arrived at my place. After everybody was ready (not too easy – one bathroom, 4 persons!), we walked to the party. As Carlos and Mitie were hungry from all the sight seeing they had done, we stopped by to have some typical Viennese food: Kebap.

The party was good, though I was really tired because of getting up so early. There were lots of people I got to know during the last years, at Vienna Calling, or the Wintercamps in Budapest and Targu Mures. And of course there were new people to connect with 🙂

I was really looking forward to Vienna Calling. And I was RIGHT!

It was great. Lots of hanging around with friends, enjoying sun, being caught by rain, having drinks and dinner. But let’s start at the beginning.

Mitie arrived first. It was Tuesday around noon, and Georg and I met for lunch at my place to receive our first guest. She had nearly no problems in finding the spot – whew! After some food, we talked a bit about Vienna, about Vienna Calling, and what she could do during the afternoon, as we were both busy. She decided to go to Belvedere to see the Klimt collection.

Carlos arrived in the evening, coming by bus. We cooked Wiener Schnitzel with Potatoe Salad and Rice, had a nice dinner, and afterwards went for some ice cream in the surrounding. For the next day, Georg offered to take the two for a city walk.

Day 1 – a relaxed, nice way to start the craziness of Vienna Calling.

Thanks to one of my flatmates, Stefan, who spends most of his time not in Vienna, but back home in Upper Austria, my CouchSurfers will have their own room, including a real bed. Isn’t that great?!

And I’m already excited, as Mitie will be arriving in only a few hours. Carlos will take a bus from Budapest to arrive in the early evening. And Kira – well, we’ll see about Kira, I don’t know about her exact plans yet.

Vienna Calling: the insanity starts in 24 hours and something!

It’s towel day. I brought mine. Did you bring yours?

Actually, I was the only one on the subway carrying a towel. And I was the only one in my office. What a pity.

Sounds crazy. But it’s great!

Couchsurfing doesn’t stop when you found a host, arrived there and slept on the couch/mattress/whatever.

It goes further. Even further than going out to restaurants/bars/pubs with your host.

Couchsurfing even gives locals the chance to find others sharing their ideas, interests and hobbies. One great example is the Vienna Taekwondo Group. You might encounter problems when trying to read this article. The CS tech team is working on it. However, this is an alternative link, the article is on page 5.

Another nice group is the Vienna Kickball Team. I went to one of the games yesterday, and we spent 4 hours (!) playing kickball. It was amazing! So much fun! And the weather was just perfect 🙂

So, whenever you come to a city, be it traveling or moving there, also if you don’t need a couch – check the local Couchsurfing community. It might have something to offer to you.

I decided to take the chance and host some people during Vienna Calling. There won’t be much sleeping taking place anyways 😉

The first to send me a reqeust was Silvio from Poland. I checked his profile and got pretty excited, as he seems to be a pretty active member of Wroclaw CS Community. Unfortunately, he cancelled again, as he found a friend of his living in Vienna who can host him.

Second was Carlos from Portugal, who seems to be much like me, considering his style of life. Working person, likes cats, lives in a shared flat … I think, we’ll be getting along pretty good. I’m really excited now I sent him a positive reply, too.

Also, Georg told me that Kira and her dog Tulku were looking for a host. I already hosted them for a Vienna Stammtisch, and we spent some time together before, and it was great 🙂

Only yesterday I received the last request, from Mitie, Brasil. I think I got nice mixture of people, and consider my couch/flat being full now. Of course, last minute requests may also be answered positively 😉

For example, if I may again have the honors of hosting Imre, I would be glad to do so 😉

CouchSurfing is more than having a free place to sleep in a foreign city, that should be clear. It’s also a possibility of meeting awesome people and having a good time with them.

CS Vienna offers different regular events in order to give travelers, newbies and regulars the chance of meeting up:

The weekly meeting was introduced about one month ago. It takes place every Thursday, 8 pm, at “The Flying Pig” in Vienna’s 7th district.

The monthly meeting, called “Stammtisch”, is taking place on a fixed date once every month. It started 4 years ago and has attracted several thousand people already (according to meeting pages). In 2011, it takes place on the 11th of every month. 2012, it will be 12th, and so on.

And then there’s Vienna Calling. It was introduced 2 years ago, as part of the world wide festivities to celebrate CouchSurfing’s 10th birthday. It was such a success that it was repeated the year after. And immediately after arriving back home, people asked to repeat it again in 2011. You can find further information on the website, which also links to all meeting pages (yes, there is more than one meeting/event during Vienna Calling!).

I’ll be doing the Central Cemetery Tour (again). Feel free to join! Newbies, travelers and locals – everybody’s welcome!

CouchSurfing Vienna started a weekly meeting. Until now, there was only one regular meeting: the monthly Stammtisch. It’s great fun, but if you miss the one day (11th of every month, for this year), you’ll have to wait another 4 weeks until the next meeting.

To give newbies, travelers and all the muddle-headed people more chances of meeting up with people like themselves, some dedicated members of the community arranged for a weekly meeting, including free table soccer and cheap beer.

So, if you want to learn more about CouchSurfing and CouchSurfers, get going: every Thursday (so, also today!), we meet at the Flying Pig, just around the corner of MQ, Spittelberg, and whatnot.

See you there!

Whoever I told about this, would not believe me. They would be totally astonished. To be honest, this was my first reaction, too. This reaction lasted for some 20 minutes, and then I decided to put my energy elsewhere. For example, write a good feedback on this one. Unfortunately, Couchsurfing only allows up to 1,000 characters on references. My comeback hat 2,255. After some thinking, I decided to put a short version on Couchsurfing and the “director’s cut” on here. To make sure everybody had the possibility of reading both, there’s links going to and fro.

Long story even longer – here’s my full reference for Hope.

Thanks for the feedback and sorry for not providing you with the services you were expecting. Speaking up during your stay would have avoided it being not as nice as it could have been.

My side of the story:
Georg and I took Hope on a city walk on Sunday night, showed her most of the Inner City and gave her some background information on less famous sights. Monday morning, though my profile states that I leave the flat by 7.30 am, Georg stayed home longer as Hope slept in. We indeed provided Hope with a map, and I’m pretty sure Georg also told her a thing or two about Vienna. During Monday, I found some people who could spend some time with Hope, by posting the fact that I did not have time on the Vienna Group. I indeed forwarded Hope’s number to one person, and I know I should have asked before. Of all the other people who sent me messages saying they would like to meet her, I sent the numbers to her Austrian prepaid number. I never said they all were friends. In fact, two of them are, and they spent nearly the whole of Monday together. In the evening, we met Hope and the others at a nice restaurant tourists would not find too easy – kind of an insider tipp. Both evenings, it was nearly impossible to start a conversation that would take longer than 5 minutes. Georg and I had the feeling that we did not really connect – but that’s one risk in Couchsurfing. This is why after trying some times we gave up trying to start a conversation. Also, there did not seem to be any effort coming from Hope.

Still, this is NOT a negative reference – because Hope was a nice, clean, quiet couchsurfer and did not cause any problems (apart from this reference which caused quiet a fuzz).

**Dear Hope, just let me tell you: I’m sorry that things did not work out the way you expected it. Still, it would be great if you could change the “overall experience” from negative to at least neutral. Only because you did not get a connection to somebody, is not a reason to give them a negative reference. Negative references should be a WARNING of strange, creepy, even dangerous people – and I honestly do not know of anyone who would consider me being even one of those things.

Thanks a lot and take care on your future travels.**

The part which is not displayed on Couchsurfing starts and ends at the **-markings. You can find the short version on Hope’s profile.