I spent the weekend in Santa Cruz, Portugal,  a second-home community for the wealthy of Lisbon. It features aqua blue waters and enormous surf. During my visit, the beautiful sands were empty. The second-home dwellers all stayed at home in Lisbon because the weather was supposedly “cold.” (The Portugese seem to have a very liberal definition of the word “cold,” perhaps because they border Africa).
I was there with a pack of about 30 people, all united though Lisbon´s active local Couchsurfing.com group. These people aren’t couchsurfers themselves — they’re serial hosts for travelers dropping by Lisbon. These Lisbon locals met each other though Couchsurfing.com and engage with the Web site as though its their hobby. Some people play sports, some paint, these guys host couchsurfers.

Many of them host couchsurfers in order to meet people from around the world. They see it as a way to traveling abroad vicariously, by bringing the world to their couch. Others are hosts because they take immense pride in Lisbon. The spirit of the hosts is one of patriotic pride mixed with a strong hospitality ethos.

In Santa Cruz, we enjoyed the quintessential “weekend in a beach house” — we hung out by the beach during the day, danced though the night, and ate a group meal at 3 a.m. that consisted of more than two dozen people speaking various languages living in a four-bedroom townhouse.

Now I´m back in Lisbon and couchsurfing with a new couple, a police officer named Jorge and his Brazilian wife, who have a spotless, minimalist apartment and a tame, placid existance. They´re a stark contrast to the energetic youth culture I´ve been around for the last week, and a welcome reprieve. They go to bed by 10:30 p.m., serve me breakfast in the mornings and dinner in the evenings, and like to engage in conversations about wine and global warming. I’m going to spend the next few days with this quiet couple, and then Kim, Matt and I will fly to Rome.

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