Hi fellow traveller!

//if you're stranded, even before mid December (2024), please message me and I can try to help out despite having a busier time//

My name's Elke and I'm a German-Swedish translator, dance teacher and art model. My partner Sam and I live in the beautiful southside of Glasgow and would love to host a bit more again from mid December (2024) on!
I moved to Scotland in 2017 and have lived in Germany, Switzerland, France and England. I've always travelled the world and sought to experience travel in a more engaging and engaged way, whether it's through community projects like couchsurfing, Be Welcome, volunteering (Workaway, Woofing) or hitchhiking and backyard camping. Overall I hitchhiked about 20000km in North America and Europe (yep, that's a lot of cars).
Sam and I love meeting new people and hosting friends and strangers alike, many of which become dear friends. Get in touch!

some random things we can talk about:
Dance. Aerial arts. Hair hanging. Mountains. Fjords. Lakes. Heritage conservation. Hiking. Nickelharpa. German and Austrian Romantic poetry. Psychedelic 60-70's rock and neo-psychedelia. The Grateful Dead. Experimental black metal. Folk music, both modern and trad. Scottish nature, both the mountains and the islands but also beautiful places near Glasgow. Hot chocolate with hazelnut milk. Glam rock. Palladian-style architecture. Preraphaelite paintings. Concerts and festivals. Nature and landscape photography. Poetry. French medieval literature. Craft beer. Scottish whisky. Permaculture. Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns). Wild camping. Tea, especially oolong, karigane and puerh. Old Russian movies. Remote destinations. Moths. Dark skies.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meeting locals, sharing stories, discovering nature through locals' eyes and learning more about this world and its people.

Interests

• poetry
• singing
• architecture
• photography
• cooking
• painting
• live music
• rock music
• piano
• metal music
• hiking
• archeology
• ecology
• history
• hitchhiking
• ecotourism
• linguistics
• ballet
• permaculture
• vegetarianism
• craft beer
• poetry slam
• veganism
• translation
• heritage
• pole dancing
• astrobiology
• dark sky conservation

Music, Movies, and Books

A few authors I like are Rupi Kaur, Rilke, Christian Morgenstern, Küss, Ritsos, von Rewentlow, Labbé, Gide, Leav

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

hitchhiked 12000km in North America
got lost in a canyon in Kazakhstan
climbing the Roque Nublo (Canary Islands) under the burning sun at midday
slept on a roof terrace in Malta under the stars, on top of the garage of my friends' granpa
Faeroe Islands in December: hail, sun and slippery cliffs
wild camped in northern Scotland under the pouring rain and still managed to make a fire
more stories if we meet!

Teach, Learn, Share

Interested in learning whatever skills or facts you can teach me. Bonus if it's animal facts

Do you want to share and spend time with us? Use this magical word in your request:
'liger'

What I Can Share with Hosts

Vegan food, over 20 kinds of loose leaf tea and recommendations for Scotland

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, France, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland