I want to put a shout out for
The Hospitality Club, a website that has restored my faith in humanity. It’s an amazing site where people around the world can contact one another, make new friends and find people to stay with when on their travels. I’ve been amazed by the generosity and trusting nature of people I’ve never even met. I’ve been offered somewhere to stay in Washington DC, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Eugene, Portland, and others. I’ve had someone contact me out of the blue to ask if I would like to house sit for him for two weeks in New Mexico (sadly I couldn’t take him up on his offer). I’ve arranged to meet a number of people in Chicago, go for drinks with people in San Francisco. Checking my email account is always a pleasure now as I can pretty much guarantee that I will have a friendly message either offering me somewhere to sleep, recommending areas to visit or asking me how my plans are going. Even people I won’t get to meet this time round have wished me all the best for my trip and asked me to keep them up to date with my adventures. I now consider myself an active member of the ‘global community’! It’s a wonderful thing and this combined with actually making my first big trip a reality has made me realise just how much is out there and just how much of it I want to explore.
I’m as excited about meeting all my Hospitality Club hosts and getting to know them as I am about exploring the cities I’ll be visiting. A few cynics have made comments along the lines of ‘be careful, how do you know you won’t be staying with an axe wielding psycho’. It’s sad that we live in a world where people’s first thoughts turn to scare stories about the potential threat posed by our fellow wo/man. The kind of generosity I’m at the receiving end of seems to be, sadly, viewed as a suspicious rarity. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to host people here in the UK, and the only threat I pose is making them sit through all 5 series of ‘Will and Grace’ ! Painful for some maybe, but certainly not a reason for friends and family to be worried about the safety of their loved one while they stay in my home.
3 Comments:
hurry up, make it happen now now NOW!!!!! Shangrila is waiting to host you first. Get excited lady, it's going to be a hoot of extreme proportions. that makes it a hooooooooot.
see you at Margies for a super huge sundae
gxxx
Can't wait to meet her in Dallas!I tried to hook Kate up with my partner's sister in Upper Alabama but I don't think their plans will mesh. I got an email from her(Dave's sister) who said at first she thought it was an insane idea hosting a complete stranger but the more she thought of it the more the idea intrigued her. What better way to meet cool people. I think we have another hospitalityclub.org convert. Other cool websites include globalfreeloaders.com and couchsurfing.com. Maybe if we can make the world smaller we might make it more hospitable? Kinder? One can hope...
Happy Travels!
John
Hey John, ye of little faith !!!! Laurie made me a fabulous offer, not had chance to reply yet but will bein Upper Alabama before I head out to your neck of the woods - the world just keeps getting smaller !
All the best
KP xxx
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