Discover Estonia during Pärnu beach camp

Estonia, as a small country alongside the Baltic Sea does not very often stay on the routes of travelers. However, there’s a special reason to visit this little country very soon now, because of the big HC/CS camp held from 28. June until 1. July.

The camp is organised by a little group of enthusiastic Estonians who want to bring together many like-minded people, share the cultures and friendship. The dates for the camp have been chosen carefully, because when the camp is over, there’s a brilliant opportunity for the campers to head to Tallinn and see estonian traditional Song and Dance Celebration.

Camp itself have two full-days, from which one is concentrated on Estonian culture, other day on all the other cultures that meet up in the camp. Program contains little concerts, movie-night, folk-dancing and much more.

Probably the most enchanting about this camp is the place – isolated beach and naturally beautiful camping area in the middle of the pines. People fond of hiking can find much to discover in the surroundings of the camp place.

Even though the camp starts in less then a week, it’s still not late to register. More information is provided on the webpage www.hceesti.ee

Katrin Niisuke

The urban adventure: 17 days of hospitality exchange

During the second half of August, the worldwide hospex community will participate in a unique cultural project in Bremen/Germany. For the duration of 17 days our bunch of friendly people reaches out its helping hands to redesign an entire seven storey building and to foster internationality among the participants. The living complex consists of 110 accommodation units that will be teared down after the project. This in turn means that there are simply no limits to imagination and creativity. Members can sign up under: hc-goes-sproutbau.piranho.de The only restrictions are that members have to stay for at least 5 days and that there is only place for 10 members per day, so be quick!!!

- polarfox

Mexico Couchsurfers open doors (and couches) to the world

As the biggest event worldwide for the celebration of cultural diversity and international dialogue nears its opening day, the local Couchsurfing community of Monterrey, Mexico is ready to receive all the CSers that will take part in the activities of the 2nd Universal Forum of Cultures.

The Forum is a non-profit, global, civil society event that seeks to promote cultural diversity, cooperation, dialogue and celebration of the richness of our modern world. Local CSers have been deeply involved in the organization of this event, the follow up to the Universal Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004, and have begun to organize a series of CS events and meetings for all the travelers that will visit the city during the 80-day event.

This event is free, and is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to present inniciatives to make this world a better place and Couchsurfing is an important part of this project. We want also to take the opportunity of this event to present CS to the almost 1.5 million attendents to the Forum, and will be organizing events sponsored by the local CS community.

For more info on the event click on www.monterreyforum2007.org

- Adrian Monfort

Bula Fiji first major event a success!!

Bula Fiji, which is the Fiji CS Collective, had our first major get together last weekend. We were excited and honored to be joined by fellow German CS, Jörg Wimper and Lene Juergens. On Friday, July 6th everyone who is based in the capital of Suva traveled down to the jet set town of Nadi for what was the beginning of a weekend filled with, sun, sand, laughter and a great cultural exchanged. The tiny room that we all bunked in didn’t dampen the spirit (in fact this made it more fun) as we shared jokes, stories, ideas and laughter. The highlight was the day cruise to the popular Beachcomber Island where we all indulged in a cocktail of swimming, kayaking, parasailing, beach volleyball and exchanging more stories & ideas on how we could improve CS in Fiji. Bula Fiji member Fenton Lutun organised this first major get together and more exciting ones are already planned for the upcoming months.

Losana & Simon McGowan-Greaves

europAlive : A documentary about today's and tomorrow's Europeans

A project is taking shape in Europe, aiming at connecting people with each others through a documentary taking place in all the 27 EU countries.

The challenge here is to travel to all European capitals (or main cities) in order to make filmed interviews from different categories of people, who represent most of each country's population : students, workers, housewives, jobless, homeless, artists, businessmen and retired persons, for the most general panel.

The idea is to go and meet these people and ask them the same questions,so that it's possible to compare our answers and share our visions with everyone else in the EU and abroad. No budget, only volunteering work, as Couchsurfing demonstrates through its members it can be a reality in a cynical, money-driven world.

aRno Jullien

Mongol Rally 2007

On 21 July 2007 I Sam Brettingham, 21, a Sustainable Design student at Falmouth University College and my team mate James Binning, 20, an architecture student at Cambridge University, will travel from Hyde Park in London, to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar as participants of the 2007 Mongol rally. The Mongol Rally will take us and another 199 teams on a journey of nearly 10,000 miles – a third of the way across the world. Participants will be driving on the worst roads imaginable, pass through five mountain ranges and cross three deserts on the way, all in cars with one litre engines or less. The mighty steed in which we have decided to drive in is a Suzuki SJ410.

We will be leaving London on the 21st July and driving to Prague for the 22nd where there will be a fantastic party and gathering of all those taking part. Our route will take us south through Turkey, hugging the Black sea, into Georgia, Azerbaijan, across the Caspian sea in to Turkmenistan and then north through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and finely into Mongolia. If there is anyone along the way who would be willing to put two smelly yet charming travelers up for a night we would be greatly appreciated, otherwise it will be sleeping in the jeep! Do get in touch.(jb561@cam.ac.uk)

The Mongol Rally isn’t only about the adventure and having a memorable experience though. Last year’s event raised over £200,000 for its partner charities and in 2007 the Rally is expected to hit the target of a quarter of a million pounds. The principle charity is Mercy Corps, an international development organisation, which supports rural communities and herding families in Mongolia through a range of economic, educational and agricultural programmes.

With help we hope to raise £1000 for Mercy Corps and any contribution to the cause has been greatly appreciated. There is also an opportunity for team sponsorship, if anyone is interested don’t hesitate to get in touch.

For online donations to Mercy Corps go to www.justgiving.com/samboandjimbo and for more information about the Mongol Rally visit www.mongolrally.com (here you can also find a list of all participating teams) and for our team web site take a look at www.rally.microbros.com.

Sam Brettingham

New Couchsurfing documentary

Filmmaker Derek Antonio Serra plans to shoot a documentary on the couchsurfing phenonema over the next two years. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Serra will host travellers in his hometown as well as couchsurf himself, and capture these experience on HD video.

In July he will be hosting surfers in Cape Town, as well as meeting up with other surfers being hosted by CS2 members in the city. Serra's first couchsurfing trip will take him to Malaysia, Phillipines and Indonesia in August/September this year, where he hopes to be hosted by couchsurfing enthusiasts. The documentary will thus carry the perspectives of both hosts and surfers,

So, if you live in South Africa, Malaysia, Phillipines or Indonesia, or plan to visit Cape Town, and would like to participate in this documentary, please check out Derek Serra's profile at www.couchsurfing.com/people/DEREKSERRA and get in touch him to discuss the matter further.

Derek Serra