Best of the net

Couchsurfing - the reality
Couch on a beach
Couchsurfing ... a good way to meet the locals. Photograph: Corbis lets you crash in someone's spare bed. It's got over 250,000 members, and last week Facebook launched a likeminded service, Couchswap. I've met a few people on my travels through Couchsurfing and can recommend it as an excellent way of getting to know a local culture. But it works two ways - you should be prepared to put people up at your house too.

So last week, I got an email from Anna, a 21-year-old student from Budapest. Her and her friend Dora were in Scotland but on their way down to Brighton, could they crash on my sofa bed for a couple of nights? It was a bit short notice but they seemed desperate and I felt I could do with a little travel karma. So I said yes.

A couple of days later, on a wet and drizzly Thursday evening, Anna and Dora arrived. They had been Couchsurfing in the UK for a fortnight, stayed a few days in London where Anna got sick, stayed on a boat in Scotland and had a nightmare in Bristol where the man they stayed with tried to get into bed with them both.

I went to bed on my own at midnight. They stayed up half the night talking. Come the morning - guess what - neither wanted to get up. I had work to do and just wished that they would go out and leave me to it. At midday, they finally left, leaving the front room a mess. At 6pm they were back, and as it was Friday night I invited them out for a drink only to learn that neither had any money. But I bought them a few beers and something to eat and we sat outside the Duke of Norfolk having a pleasant summer's evening. Later, Anna suddenly found a little money and went off clubbing on her own.

When I woke on Saturday morning, the sun was shining and I was keen to get down to the beach. But my guests didn't want to get up. I wasn't taking this, and politely ordered them to get up and to tidy the front room. Half an hour later Anna was still sitting on the floor and Dora was downloading Alanis Morissette songs on to my computer.

So would I do it again? Surprisingly, yes I would. Anna and Dora might have taken up a lot of my time, but they meant no harm and they were nice people really. And, as I sent them off for their coach to Dover, it made me think of all the times I'd been young and stranded in a foreign country and all the kind people who had helped me on my way. And that's a good feeling.