Couchsurfing

I love hiking. There is a Couchsurfing event called “Hiking around Düsseldorf” which takes place every Sunday. The organiser is Sam and every week we hike within the Ruhr region to spend time in nature and with other cool people. I found this event coincidentally, I had very less time for hiking during my Master thesis and was happy to have found this event. At my first hike in August 2017, I was hopelessly over prepared, cause I expected a physical challenge, but it was not like this. There were at least 20 people from all over the world and it was an amazing experience. It felt like travelling and it made me feel happy afterwards all the time. Each time there are between 20 and 60 people from all over the world, some people are coming regularly, but there is still a high number of people coming for the first time each time. I joined almost every weekend and started to spend more and more time with the people besides the hikes. With most of them I became really close friends. After a while Sam started planing weekend hiking trips with sleepovers in Youth hostels. In summer we even planned some trips including camping together. Organising this trips with Sam was a really special experience and let me grow a lot. I love organising and this was also a chance to give something back to a community, to people, who gave me so much at least. It was amazing to see how people who hardly know each other form a dynamic group in which everybody cares for everybody without complaining. I’m really looking forward to continue organising events in future.

Here are some impressions of the hikes during last year. Thanks to all of you for these wonderful moments. To read more about our weekend trips click here.