Abstract

The experience of my trip to Eastern Europe, so rich in human nteraction, was also in many ways a function of the Internet at its best. The Internet here was a tool to facilitate life and not to provide a shadow in its stead. It offered a widely accessible route around that consumerist orgy, the travel industry. CouchSurfing made us more humane tourists. When we enjoyed hospitality without paying for it, we instinctively tried to pay in other ways—cooking, little gifts, spending time with the host—that of course necessitated a more involved relationship than the exchange of payment for service. Each of the people we stayed with has now become a part of our visible, lasting history.

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