I set off to Vienna, from Hamburg, at 10am with a rather small backpack and 1000km of hitchhiking ahead of me. That I completed in an astoundingly short 12h time and thus arrived in time for the first event of the gathering: a warmup party. We were Wednesday, around 10:30pm.
 
I was really surprised to find already around 50 people there. It was set up in the Museumquartier, in the centre of Vienna. A sort of big paved court surrounded by museums. Probably swarming with tourists at day.
The weather was uncertain but it didn't rain, which is a good thing for an outdoor party.
I walked through the little crowd to put down my bag when a guy that I didn't recognise immediately waived at me. I joined his little group and gave him a hug, since he seemed friendly. Then I turned to the group and introduced myself as noisily as usual. There was a short guy that I recognised instantly for the founder, owner and visionary (that's ironic) leader of the CouchSurfing company.
A friend of mine that is a former volunteer for the website and heard that I was going down to Vienna asked me to kick him in the balls for her. I told her that I would do my best, but he was smiling in such a friendly way that I just had to shake his hand. I finally put down my bag and started looking for my buddies. I found one of them in the person of Ulf, one of the most outrageous CouchSurfing whores that I ever met. Another hug later, I found myself hoping around from group to group, doing some basic socializing.
 
Somehow I was a bit disappointed by that. One particular thing that I used as an ice-breaker failed lamentably. I went around with a little vial of cognac, walking into random groups and asking loud enough for everyone to hear: "Hey! Who wants some love?". My intention was to give the drink or the food to the first one to scream: "me me me!". But so far, no one did. They just looked at me like if I was from Mars and I had just spoken Martian to them. At the 3rd group, a girl shyly raised her hand. I passed the vial over to her and she looked at it like an hen would look at a swiss army knife. The fifth group had one guy that was unautistic enough to want some love and actually drink it. Couchsurfers suck...
 
Then arrived some friends from Berlin beach camp. They were at the end of an apparently exhausting hitch-hiking journey and were yearning for a bed. They were staying at the same place as Ulf. I had no host but Ulf had told me that there was enough space where he was staying for me as well. We set off with another girl as well to that prodigy host, at whom's they told me more people were already sleeping and even more were due. The name is Fabian, but it sounded unfinished. We'll call him Fabian-the-Great if that's ok with you.
 
I took a much deserved shower and went to sleep on a camping mattress under the table-soccer table.