I'm Naked. What Now?: 1 year. 7 continents. 1 crazy story surfing couches.

"Alexandra’s journey inspires us to get out there and explore our incredible world"
- Casey Fenton, Couchsurfing Co-founder

Have you ever woken up in the morning and wish you had the guts to leave your micro wave dinner, your mediocre relationship, and the job you hate?

Alex, a New Yorker, finishes college in San Francisco and is about to return to New York to work at a law firm. An epic party makes her miss her plane and instead, she ends up in Burning Man, an annual event that takes place in the middle of the desert. There, she finds the man of her dreams and marries him on a gigantic Spanish galleon surrounded by 50.000 people dressed as astronauts, pirates and rabbits.

He just wanted to fuck. He breaks up with her. To overcome her grief, Alex travels with her best friend to Thailand. As soon as they arrive they are mugged and all their things get stolen. That’s when they meet Bobby, an American guy who introduces them to Couchsurfing. Sleeping in strangers' houses. For free.

Gradually Alex discovers that her life in New York makes no sense and she wants to continue to experience the freedom of traveling around Asia as a Couchsurfer. She also starts to develop feelings for Bobby, while her best friend Jen heads back to NY.

As they continue to Couchsurf, Alex and Bobby become very close until in a very abrupt way, she discovers that he has his own unresolved demons.

Throughout twelve months Alex travels with almost no money through the seven continents, experiencing life. All of its happiness, terror and everything in between.

She meets incredible people like Nelson Mandela, teaches little children at a school, discovers hidden islands in the Indian Ocean, surfs a couch dragged by a tractor, overcomes her fear of cliffdiving, becomes the first person in the world to Couchsurf at an Occupy rally, befriends Couchsurfing’s founder, and meets me, the person who ended up writing this book.

Life is like traveling. Some people live like passengers, while others steer and drive themselves forward. Which one are you? Do you have the courage to follow your heart and intuition?


A coming of age book for the digital generation. Inspired by real events, with actual photographs from Alex’s travels.