Book Review: On the Couch – Fleur Britten

Subtitle: ‘Tales of Couchsurfing a Continent’

This book was first published in 2009 and in it Fleur Britten takes us on a couch surfing adventure that covers China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The adventurer travels from Moscow to these destinations via the Trans-Siberian railway.

Couchsurfing aka find a space for free to sleep for a night interests me, which is why I decided to read this book. However I soon discovered there was far more to couch surfing than a place to lay your head.

Fleur is British as I am, and it was interesting to read a Brits take on the couchsurfing community, to find out about the experiences, the logistics and really what could be expected. This book was quite addictive to read, as I was always wondering would the ad-hoc network of strangers hold up, would she find herself stranded, struggling to find safe haven, in the middle of nowhere?

The book was more about the individuals than the locations, indeed I didn’t realise quite how much time hosts spent with their guests. Unquestionable it was eye opening, and humbling to see people opening their doors, sharing their daily lives and welcoming strangers into their homes. At other times in the book, things didn’t go according to plan, which was covered as well.

This wasn’t a story of epic adventure, indeed many of the situations were quite dull, and often conversations reminded me of my youth down the local pubs! So yes on occasion I felt the experience was wasted, but then some gems would crop up, some insight into lives and views that were not to be had locally.

When Fleur was out exploring, I did find it quite interesting, including the lifestyle, food and locations. This wasn’t the tourist trail, this was a more humble and native experience, which is where this book excelled.

When reading this book, you can’t help but ask yourself, would I couch surf? Would I host couch surfers? Plus think ‘Blimey how brave is Fleur!’

If you are interested in the topics of couch surfing, cheap travel or more raw travel experiences, you should find this book a good read, I know I did.