- free accommodation worldwide
- meet friendly people
- no cost at all
- intercultural understanding
- no obligations
- safety features
- non-commercial
...come onboard!
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Kristine from Germany, 25.11.2002
Experiencing the Hospitality Club: Rio and Buenos Aires
In September my friend Ana and I -both from Köln, Germany- were travelling in Brazil, and after being to Bahia - which we liked very much, especially Morro de Săo Paulo!- we arrived in Rio de Janeiro without really knowing what to expect. Definitely we didn´t expect so much rain there... So sitting in an internet café and being a bit fed up with the weather, we mailed with Andre, a hospitality club member from Rio.
What a surprise that he answered in fluent German and had been to Germany several times.
We met him and a friend of his at our hostel, went to a mirador and to a bar. For Ana and me speaking to brazilian students of our age was really interesting and a good opportunity to practice portuguese, talking about way more things than you do just as a "tourist".
He invited us to his appartment, and when we stepped out on the balcony we were impressed: we were standing just beyond the statue of Christ the Redomeer, Rio´s most famous symbol, and it looked mysterious in the dark, tranquille and half covered by the fog. That was very beautiful and definitely rewarded us for the rainy time which had hindered us from the beach and the sugar loaf!
Having made this nice experience in Rio, we decided to use the hospitality club when we continued our trip to Argentina: in Buenos Aires we got to know Laura (who had also been an AFS exchange student to Germany). She took us to the cinema and to enjoy typical argentinian food. She showed us lots of nice places, helped us to orientate in this big city and made us laugh a lot.
All in all I can say that meeting people from the club has made our trip something special!
Kristine, 21 years, Germany
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