Meeting the perfect stranger in Madrid
Couchsurfing.org is gaining a foothold in the “closed” Spanish social
sphere
El País
It's a special day just like
any other. In Cervecería la Sureña just off the Puerta del Sol, a dozen
twentysomethings crowd around a tiny table, singing, clapping and clinking beer
bottles just as the iPhone strikes midnight. The birthday girl blushes and
giggles, delighted to be celebrating with the good friends she met 30 minutes
ago.
Sarah Murray met this group
via Couchsurfing.org, a website that makes it easier than ever to organize
hangout sessions with total strangers. The so-called social travel network is
revolutionizing how Madrileños from all over the world socialize.
"I literally just moved
here and didn't have anyone to spend my birthday with," says Murray, a
Manchester native. "So I posted on Couchsurfing asking if anyone wanted to
go out." Within minutes, she'd received several responses from complete strangers
inviting her to come party.
But Couchsurfing.org wasn't
originally created to facilitate spontaneous birthday bashes. The San
Francisco-based site was launched in 2004 to help users find people to shack up
with; in the literal sense of the phrase.
Travelers all over the world can look for free lodging with other members,
living like locals while saving cash. It works a lot like a dating site: users
create profiles detailing their interests, allowing guests and their hosts to
find the perfect fit.
But these days, Couchsurfing
is a popular social networking tool for travelers and locals alike. "I
already had a place to stay," explains 20-year-old Murray, who is spending
the summer working as an au pair for a Spanish family. "But I wanted to
find people to go out with here in Madrid."
Couchsurfing users can join
groups that correspond to a city or geographic region. Madrid's page currently
boasts nearly 39,000 members and is always abuzz with activity.
In the end, Murray responded
to a invitation from Mayra del Pilar Quiñoz, a 22-year-old Colombian spending
the summer studying biochemistry in Madrid. Quiñoz joined the website in March
in anticipation of her trip to Europe. "A lot of the friends I've made
here, I met through Couchsurfing," she says.
Like Murray, Quiñoz already
had a place to stay, but she wanted to make new friends and found it difficult
to connect with Spaniards her age.
"People here are kind of
closed," she says, with a puzzled shrug. "They have their tight-knit
group of friends who they've known forever. They're not really interested in
meeting new people... at least not during the day."
So she decided to put up a flag on Couchsurfing, inviting people to see the
Dalí exhibition at the Reina Sofía musuem. Within a few hours, she'd received
several responses. "Six of us went, and we had a good time," says
Quiñoz, who began using the site more frequently to arrange meet-ups.
Couchsurfers looking for
something to do at any time, day or night, will be overwhelmed by a dizzying
array of options. To get an idea of the kinds of events and activities members
organize, try imagining... just about anything. From swing dancing workshops
and cooking classes, to movie marathons and road trips. One man even proposed a
ukulele jam session.
Some people just want to kill
time. One user recently posted that she had a layover in Madrid and wanted some
company for eight hours. People responded with offers to show her the city,
grab a drink or just chat.
But while the Madrid page
certainly gets a lot of traffic, even from non-travelers, the majority of its
users aren't Spanish. "I've noticed that it's mostly used by
foreigners," says Beatriz Hernández, a 19-year-old communications student
from Extremadura. "Not many of my friends know about the page. But without
a doubt, that will change."
The website is primarily used
by foreigners, either travelers passing through town or expats who've made the
city their home. Nonetheless, there are a handful of Madrileños who use the
site to tap into an international community.
"I use it to practice
English," says Pedro Ortíz, who attends weekly Couchsurfing language
exchanges. Every Monday evening, Ortíz goes to Atomic Café in Malasaña to grab
a beer, chat with folks from all over the world, and "find international
girls to hook up with," he says, only half-jokingly.
The site currently has some
six million users spread across 100,000 cities in every country in the world.
"If you don't have money to travel, it's a good way to meet people from
all over without leaving your city," says Ortíz.
That's precisely what differentiates Couchsurfing.org from other social
networking organizations. While sites such as Facebook and Twitter aim to
connect friends and acquaintances, Couchsurfing exists to unite total strangers
who have one thing in common: they're in the same place at the same time.
Users don't have to be
"friends" in order to communicate and view each other's profiles.
Anyone can post on public groups and invite other members to hang out.
The drawbacks to such easy
access are obvious. "It can definitely raise questions. Like, who is this
other person?" says Hernández. She believes the majority of users are
"benevolent" and "philanthropic" free spirits. But she
recognizes that a few might have ulterior motives.
Before getting together with a
new group of people, Quiñoz always checks the comments that couchsurfers can
leave on each other's profiles. "If someone has lots of bad references,
that's a bad sign," says Quiñoz.
For better or for worse,
Couchsurfing makes meeting strangers easier than ever. As Hernández sums up:
"It's a simple way to bring together people from different cultures, as
well as the same one." It can go wrong. But it can also go very right.
Like Murray's impromptu birthday party.
"I got lucky," she says with a smile, surveying the group that
came out to celebrate. They are an eclelctic bunch: Italians, Peruvians, Brits,
Americans and an Argentinean, all gearing up to paint the town red with a bunch
of total strangers.