Couch Surfing is Awesome: Portugal and the Party of Scientists

I woke up feeling unadventurous. The meningitis jab and the cocktails at my leaving drinks hadn’t mixed very well.

I had a Skype meeting planned with the organisation’s founder and a lady who’d be coordinating my work. I was still wearing Emma’s pyjama top with pink horses dotted around the flannel fabric.

I made it to the airport without a trifle, although once there, the airport experience as usual gives the illusion of being late, administering guilt as you stare at signs knowing anything can go wrong any minute, triple checking you haven’t misread your ticket or the departure board. Wondering if you judged it right so you don’t have to sit in the waiting area for three hours twiddling thumbs or stand panic stricken and yellow in a queue to have your passport checked.

From the plane window England became more manageable as we rose higher and higher. Very green and lush as always; every spec of land accounted for, partitioned by hedges, stone walls or pavements, tarmac, drains and houses, but very little runs wild and unnoticed like in the plains of Kenya or valleys of Mongolia. I was pleasantly surprised to be given a sandwich on the TA Portugal flight; it felt like revisiting the 90s and I recalled how nice it was not to have been herded onto the aircraft by Ryanair’s blue and yellow baton. I didn’t have far to travel with a 24hr layover in Lisbon. At the airport I used a payphone to call my couch lender, Özhan.

You choose Couch Surfing because you know that when you arrive in a strange place you’re going to be met by a friend and you’re going to talk to that person as if you’ve known them for 20 years. You won’t find your way around with a map and look at galleries you’ll forget about. You probably won’t go to churches or marvel at statues but you will end up talking about Richard Dawkins, culture and molecular biology, which is exactly what we did.

I hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but after Luis suggested I try couch surfing I messaged the 4^th person on the list who was an obvious choice, because he was Turkish- I like people who have chosen to live in different countries who are from other countries- because he was studying a science PhD (like Paula, Daniel and Uncle David), because he had a boyish smile and was wearing a Jewish hat that said ‘definitely not a rapist’, but mostly because the last two references from other people read:

"I stayed with a friend at his place just for two nights, but it was enough to understand how great this guy is. He is always available for his surfers and you could discuss with him about any kind of subject. Incredible. Thanks for the great time:) Hope to see you again somewhere, someday;)"

"özhan was so generous to host us even though he already had two couchsurfers! we got to know some of his friends, and even though we could not spend much time together, my friend and i enjoyed getting to know him!"

His profile read ‘likes philosophy’…etc. something about eggplants... he also had about 90 photos of him enjoying life in different settings- hiking with friends… prancing in Venice...

He met me at his local train station. It was already about 10:00 at night. Luckily my suitcase was waiting in transit so I just had a little rucksack and we headed around the corner to the party at his institute. There was a loudspeaker playing outside with about 30 people standing around chatting or dancing. I was surprised to discover that English was the main language in use, but then again there were quite a few foreign students. I had noticed that quite a few Portuguese people around had spoken English too, which was surprising after experience in France and Spain. But Özhan said that they don’t dub movies etc. in Portugal, they use subtitles.

We had beer and played Pictionary with some kids in the courtyard. Despite the mild soft miniature dreds, Özhan explained, “I’m not a hippy. I like to live a logical life’. I learned that bacteria are very sociable. They don’t drink beer or have parties but game theory can be applied to them very well.  I chatted to some more people about their research, played table football and later tried to get my mind around- or at least, feet around- the Portuguese take on salsa.

I told Özhan that when I stayed in Istanbul my impression had been that Turkey seemed very conservative. He said he hated this about Istanbul because it’s the main thing tourists see. But interestingly the carpet sellers and street vendors are due to a lot of migration and immigration that Kurds and Armenians come selling things and turn this city away from being a modern hub. As soon as you move away from the old city Istanbul has he appearance of a modern cosmopolitan centre. He just said Istanbul didn’t give an accurate impression, he’d never seen anyone in a burka until he moved there.

Özhan said he’d hosted a lot in Istanbul. Sometimes he would have several different people at once. One time an Australian girl cam and they got on so well that she cancelled her flights and stayed in Istanbul 2 months. It just so happened that the Australian girl was a lesbian. One time Özhan took her with him when he went to visit his family, and her sexual preference came up in conversation. Apparently far from being traditional about the matter, his mother was really ‘excited’. They talked long into the night after Özhan had gone to bed until it made him worried and question his whole existence.

When we got to the apartment Özhan said I must help myself to fruits and whatever I wanted in the kitchen. Inside the living room was a mattress and on a coffee table was a Portugal Lonely Planet and a selection of Lisbon leaflets. As I settled down with a sheet and two blankets and stretched out on the double mattress I thought, “Couch Surfing is awesome”…

The next day when I left, on the steps steeped in sunshine, I realised overall that my only impression of Lisbon, and to be fair Portugal, was a scientists’ party. With a punnet of grapes given by Özhan in hand, I made my way to Ghana.