Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I think it's about time we had a PPK couch surfing thread around here!

Couch surfing is a great way to save money while traveling, meet new people, and often have access to a local tour guide. In the case of a PPK couch surfing experience, how great to have the opportunity to pick a local's brain for the inside scoop on the best places to eat or visit? I hope that this thread will serve as one-stop shopping for all your travel needs.

The rules for posting in this thread:
1. Hosts and surfers must be members of http://www.couchsurfing.org
2. Or, if you're new to couchsurfing.org and don't have any references yet, you must have at least 100 PPK posts.

Hosts:To post about your available couch, link to your Couch Surfing page, and give a few details like location of the couch, your level of hosting ability (meet for lunch, host for a week...), and how close you are to vegan landmarks- you know, important stuff. Feel free to provide photos of your "couch" or your furry cuddle companion selection.

Surfers: If you would like to stay with a particular PPKer, PM them. To post about your need of a couch in a location other than those that have been posted, link to your Couch Surfing page and make your plea!

It's 100% up to the host and the surfer to make sure the connection is comfortable. Do your research! Visit your potential host's/guest's CS page and take a look at their references. You are encouraged to message them as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable. Read more about Couch Surfing safety here.

So tell me, PPK, where are you going to host/visit?

Okay, I'll start it off.

My CS profile: http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/andydufresne9/
Couch surf with me, my partner, and two dogs in Portland, OR.
I'm often available for meeting up for food, and occasionally available to host.

Here's a photo of the guest bedroom with a queen-sized bed.


Walking distance to Bye and Bye, Back to Eden, Dove Tail Bakery, about 10 Ethiopian restaurants, and many other vegan-friendly eateries.

Can I throw myself out there as a ppk-only couch option? I'm not on the site, but I am often willing to host internet vegans.

Hmmm... My making a CS membership mandatory was a safety precaution, letting the task of weeding out creeps fall to couchsurfing.org instead of the PPK. Is there anyway you'd be willing to create a profile and just not make it public (ie searchable)? If not, let's come up with another solution that safeguards PPK hosts/surfers. Some sort of reference chain where other PPK members vouch for the person? Or perhaps, along the lines of a swap, maybe post count and length of PPK membership could be sufficient?

Any other thoughts? I'd love to see this become a functional thread!

Ahem. Not that you're a creep, Boober. And, in fact, I'd vouch for you :)

I think the PPK does this without the structure. I hosted a lot of people in NYC. I would simply offer the futon to people who had started threads and said they were visiting, when I could do it. And I've crashed at many a PPK'ers place myself. I hadn't met jojo but I liked her here and knew others who had met her. I had a 24 hour Vantine watch this summer.
I don't want to be on couchsurfing but I try to offer people a place when I can.
I know there are some PPK official couchsurfers but I think for the most part we just try to help out when possible.

Yeah, I had a couch surfing account but let it lapse because I always found a place to stay through the PPK. We had a thread like this on the old boards where people would just post if they were willing to share their home.

I have a couch if anyone wants it.

I'd be ok hosting PPKers, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with complete strangers.

I have a guest room with a queen sized bed for anyone visiting Halifax.
Not as pretty as the OP's though.

Wow looking at Andy's place, I know where I'm going :)

I am willing to host ppkers with some advanced notice. Not keen on complete strangers. We have a guest room that has a daybed which pulls out to a king size bed. We also have 2 dogs and 2 cats. We live in Maryland (~20 miles from DC) and although convenient to bus routes, we are still a bit away from a metro line. Within 10 miles of at least 2 vegan Chinese restaurants, Pangea/veganstore.com and the Red line of the metro. About 40 minutes from Great Sage (another vegan restaurant)

Although we are closer to DC than Baltimore, we are also about an hour away from Baltimore via car.

some day, i'll make a subsection on veganroadtrips.com for vegan couchsurfing set up like couchsurfing.com. (but seeing as veganroadtrips.com doesn't exist outside of a purchased website, it likely won't happen soon. (unfortunately my live-in computer nerd has a full time job, volunteers at the town firehouse (in addition to being their recording secretary), records and edits a bi-weekly video-game podcast, organizes yearly charity raffles etc, etc. so my dreams probably will never materialize unless i hire a webdesigner or whatever, and the house/credit cards have to be paid down before that happens.)


anyway, i live 5 miles east of philly in oaklyn NJ (relatively close to 295 and the NJ turnpike, exit 4. much closer to 676, route 130 and 30). the house is a mess, and we have a futon in the retro gaming room/pantry room. (plus 2 couches in case there are more than 2 guests) i am more than willing to host. i just need to alert the town that a car will be parking on the street, so let me know your make, model and license plate number, so i can call the cops ahead of time. (stupid town rule. there is plenty of space for street parking. i think this is just an extra way for them to make money or something.) if you are taking the train, we're 1 mile from the collingswood PATCO station. (no elevators, one up escalator)
we have a pit bull, but she is super friendly. she jumps up when she first meets you, but settles down pretty quickly. (i do try to correct her before it happens, but sometimes she succeeds)
the dining room table is usually cluttered, but we're more than happy to provide meals. they just might have to be eaten in the living room.

(i just missed my edit window) if you are taking the train, we're 1 mile from the collingswood PATCO station. (no elevators, one up escalator) otherwise, the walter rand station in camden is a few miles away, and i'd be happy to pick you up. that one has elevators and is also where the riverline from trenton ends up. also, NJ transit's (and amtrak's) cherry hill station is a few miles away.

as for neaby foods, collingswood is 1 mile away. the pop shop & greenhouse vegetarian.
viewtopic.php?p=129216#p129216

over the bridge in philly, there is plenty of vegan stuff to eat.
viewforum.php?f=43

This just reminded me that I needed up update my profile. It's here.

I would totally host any PPKers that find themselves in Canberra, although I honestly don't know why they would come here. Canberra doesn't have vegan 'landmarks', but the decent restaurants are at absolute most a half hour drive away (while some are only ten minutes away) and I would definitely take people there, mainly because I don't pass up the opportunity to eat. The bus also stops pretty much on my front lawn, and you can use that to go see the nerd things like Parliament House.

I had some awesome experiences couchsurfing in the US in July. We stayed in a hostel in New York but a friend who was travelling at the same time was couchsurfing with a vegan couple in Brooklyn, they were super nice and invited us to their 4th of July BBQ and took us to Foodswings. Their said that they're on the PPK but I don't know their usernames, and this makes me sad.

I was in Canberra last year and would have loved a couch! Next time I'm in Australia, for sure; Canberra's the closest airport to my grandparents' house so I usually fly through on my way in and out.

Housemate and I were talking awhile ago about making a profile for our house but never got around to it. If anyone's in Olympia, though, and needs a place to stay, we're here and you're welcome to crash.

Hurrah! Keep the responses coming. I'm hoping to have a mod fix my "rules" from the first post. (CS account with references OR a certain number of PPK posts required?)

Linanil, you're welcome to visit!

Supercarrot, veganroadtrips sounds great! What a wonderful idea!

My couchsurfing profile is here. I'm not really open to hosting random people from CS right now... but PPKers would be fun!

I have a couch in my living room that does not pull out... I could easily fit one person and could probably figure out how to accommodate 2-3 if people aren't fussy. I'm in the middle of Boston, near all the touristy stuff. I could maybe meet for lunch/dinner/coffee weekday evenings or weekends, depending on school/work schedules and could host for short amounts of time (a night or 2) but likely won't have a ton of free time to play tour guide. More like grab coffee and I can point you in good directions then you can go play while I work/study, and then catch up for dinner/beer at the end of the day type. I'm a 10-15 minute walk to all lines on the T (the subway), which puts you within 45 minutes of most of the vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in Boston (Buddha's Delight, The Other Side), Cambridge (Veggie Planet), Somerville (Pulse, True Bistro) and Brighton (Grasshopper, Peace o'Pie). I do have 2 fluffy cats who eat fishy-cat-food and I live with a pescetarian who occasionally will eat fishy-human-food, her food very rarely smells more than the cats' food though. Also, we're 2 flights up in a no-elevator building.

I don't have a ton of PPK posts on the new boards... but the postcount keeps inching up as I find time to hang out here (I was on the old boards for years, so I don't feel like I'm a stranger to anyone).

okay, cool, I'm just going to hit your guys with information, I don't have a CS account, but if you feel comfortable staying with an internet vegan and have the approved post count or whatnot feel free to contact me for info/staying time.

I have a pull-out Ikea couch and 2 air mattresses, so I am able to comfortably stay up to 3 people (more, if you are willing to share a mattress) I'm in the historic west end of Portland, Maine. A short walk to pretty much anywhere in the city, about 6 blocks from the main drag and a 20-30min walk away from the city beach. During the week i've got classes for most of the day, so exploring would pretty much be up to you, with potential hangouts in the evenings or mornings. On the weekends I could play proper host and I have a car and subsequent easy access to many beaches/wilderness/LLBean outlets. I am willing to do some driving on weekends if you are looking to see any of those things in Maine and/or if I have time. I am also about a 1.5 hour bus ride away from boston. I have no pets, but I do live in a cat-friendly building where one of the cats roams the hallways, so if you have an extreme allergy you may not want to stay here. oh, time-wise I can host for up to a week.

this thread is kind of making me want to do a tour del ppk this summer and take advantage of all of the ppk's couches.

I have a guest room! That hasn't had any guests yet! I like this idea but I'm not excited about signing up for couchsurfing or hosting complete strangers. I've been on the PPK for 3+ years and would love to host known PPKers when I can.

Seattle has lots to do and see and, most importantly of course, tons of vegan food. We have lots of vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants, a vegan grocery, a vegan shoe store/chocolate shop and even vegan donuts. Plus lots of cultural stuff, touristy stuff, and outdoor recreation opportunities. Come and hang out with the Seattle PPKers (FootFace is interesting! and has a blog!)

Here is the room. It has a full size bed and the dog may or may not want to sleep with you (hey, doors are always closeable if you don't like canine sleeping companions, right?) There's a queen in my room, and I can take the guest room if a couple wants to come visit since a full is kind of tight quarters for two. I also have a misanthropic cockatiel which would probably only be a concern if you're allergic.

i've successfully guilted the much better half into experimenting with the website, so there might be a vegan-only couchsurfing website in the near future. (hooray!)

if at all possible, i would have sections where when people sign up, they can fill in their usernames on the different vegan forums and stuff, and then they will be able to check a box to allow themselves to be found via search to only the forums that they participate in, or to the whole community. ooooh! *fingers crossed that it's doable*

Here's my profile. It's not entirely up to date, but I'm still able to host in the highly unlikely situation that any of you come to Edmonton.

Friends!

This thread has been forgotten, so :::bump:::.

And also, I'm looking for a place to stay in San Fransisco for four nights (March 11-14) with three friends!! I can bring many delicious goodies from Portland!!

ha, tofuligans :) you'll be sad to hear that I've moved on from that couch that-one-time-you-stayed-for-the-bike-polo-tourney

Does anyone in Atlanta have a couch? I'm going to be around May 27th and 28th and was thinking it might be nice to avoid another $80 a night hotel room

i'm squanderlust.

my profile's pretty sparse, but i'm hoping to get more involved post-relocation.

Andy, I'm so excited that I found this thread! My husband and I are just started to plan two vacations. One is for a week in Portland this year over Labor Day, well the week before. And the second is for two weeks in Europe around April of 2012. We have not traveled much at all but are def looking to save money anyway we can.

Thank you for starting this thread and sharing your space! I am going to sign up on the CS site.

Cool! Glad you found the thread!

As far as I know, we'll be available to host in September!