Image by Salvatore Vuono /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We are really happy to announce that HomeForHome has reached 15,000 registered homes available for home exchange. We keep growing and growing and we are just thrilled!

Last March we announced the accomplishment of the 10,000 mark and just four months later we are announcing this new stunning mark of 15,000 homes registered in the website. Thank you all for making HomeForHome your preferred home exchange portal. Keep enjoying our free services and the many advantages of home exchange:

- Registration in HomeForHome is completely FREE.

- Home exchange is the cheapest way to travel, as the cost of accommodation is zero.

- Home exchange is simple: home owners agree on exchanging their homes during a certain period of time.

- The “golden rule”: treat the house or flat in your destination as your own and leave it exactly how you found it.

- Home exchange is very flexible, with the possibility for car exchange, travelling with pets, family travel, non-simultaneous exchange, long term exchanges, permanent exchanges, study exchanges, weekend exchanges, local exchanges, international exchanges, chained exchanges and many other options.

- The keystone: communication.

If you are new to home exchange, please visit our FAQ page or read some of our previous posts to learn more about this way of travel. If you want to give it a try, we would be glad to have you as a member of our swapper community.

Back in April we suggested Aquariums could be great places to list as nearby attractions to add to your HomeForHome home description, and we mentioned a few well known aquariums from around the globe. Well, as the 2010 FIFA World Cup is coming to an end, there’s an aquarium that has drawn the attention of the world to one of its inhabitants: Paul the “Psychic Octopus”.

Image by Allie_Caulfield (flickr)

Paul is a common octopus living in SEA LIFE Oberhausen (in April we mentioned SEA LIFE Berlin but we really didn’t know about this famous creature). Paul seems to have the ability to predict the winner of football matches. Yes, you read correctly, the octopus can tell ahead which team will be victorious. This is how it works: Two plastic containers are presented to Paul, both have food inside and the only difference between them is the flag shown in the front. The tentacled psychic takes a moment and then decides to go for one of the containers to have his lunch and the container’s flag is taken as the flag of the winner. If you are thinking “he’s probably trained to choose the German flag” you are not correct, his last prediction was that Spain would beat Germany in the semi-final and he got it right.

A few facts about Paul:

1. Paul is British, he was born in Weymouth SEA LIFE Park and moved to his current home in 2006.
2. He is also known as das Krakenorakel (German), el Pulpo Paul (Spanish) and the Oracle Octopus.
3. He became a celebrity after predicting correctly the result of all of Germany’s matches in the current edition of the FIFA World Cup.
4. He seems to have improved his “technique” because in 2008 during the UEFA European Championship he failed in two predictions out of the six he made, but during the 2010 FIFA World Cup he made no mistakes.
5. He is a media and Internet sensation, he has made it to appear in the BBC, CNN, and thousands of TV channels worldwide. He is in the top ten trends in Twitter and has both fan and enemy pages in Facebook, the last mainly from defeated teams.

Do you want to meet Paul?

If you are interested in meeting Paul during your next home exchange vacation, you should probably hurry because apparently there are a few offers to buy the tentacled sensation and a few threatening cooking recipes in the countries that he didn’t select. Paul resides now in Oberhausen, a city in Nordrhein-Westfalen, also known for having the largest shopping mall in Germany: CentrO.  If you prefer to wait till the media forgets about Paul to arrange your home exchange, then a good time to visit him would be 5 -10 May 2011, during the 57th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

During the weekend we will find out if his latest predictions were correct: he chose Germany as the winner of the third-place match and Spain as the World Cup winner in Sunday’s match against the Netherlands.

There are millions of people who practice naturism in the world and over 1000 tourist facilities and private events reserved exclusively for nudists. These include beaches, resorts, clubs, spas, camping sites and cruises. There are entire families (especially in Europe) who like to live without clothes on a daily basis. For those people, nudity is simply a way of being, a way to stay in touch with nature and get back to the basics in a relaxed way.

Nudist beaches first became popular in the 1950s along the French coastline and have since spread (slowly) all over the world. It is the main expression of social nudity. The countries that have taken the lead are mainly France and Spain, just as they have taken the lead in number of registered swappers in HomeForHome!

British Naturism is an organisation that offers information about naturism in the UK, including a list of the “officially” designated beaches for nude use in the UK, which we are going to share with you now in case you want to ensure an even suntan during your next home exchange. But nudism is also acceptable in “unofficial” beaches if there is respect for one another’s preferences and privacy. If someone is asked to cover-up on an unofficial beach in the UK, they must do so. Here is the list of “official” beaches according to British Naturism:

- Cleat’s Shore (Lagg, Isle of Arran)
- Morfa Dyffryn (Gwynedd)
- St Osyth (Clacton, Essex)
- Holkham Beach (Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk)
- Budleigh Salterton - West End (Budleigh Salterton)
- Studland Bay (Near Swanage, Dorset)
- Brighton East Beach (Brighton, East Sussex)
- Fairlight Glen (Hastings, East Sussex)
- Leysdown East (Isle of Sheppey, Kent)

If one of these beaches is near your home, you may even consider adding it as a nearby attraction to your home description! Or if you are tempted to try nudism in your next home exchange vacation, here are some resources for you to learn more about it (these websites may include images of adult nudity of a non-sexual nature):

- International Naturist Federation (http://www.inf-fni.org/)
- British Naturism (http://www.british-naturism.org.uk/)
- Naturist UK Fact File (http://nuff.org.uk/)

Germany is everywhere these days! Their football players keep scoring too many goals in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, they keep advancing in the tournament and somehow they managed to be present in this new travel destination review in our blog. Why? Because we thought that even though you may not be in the mood to think about partying in Oktoberfest, there are still other great possibilities for you to take advantage of the large amount of German users registered in HomeForHome. For example, if you were unable to schedule your vacation days to travel during the Summer, you may reach October in a rest-only-no-party mood and Germany could still be the destination of choice. While beer and party fans head to Munich, there are other places to enjoy a more quiet home exchange:

Hamburg - Architecturally, Hamburg has a lot to offer, like the five high spires of its main churches that dominate its skyline: St. Peter’s Church, St. Jacobi Church, St. Catherine’s Church, St. Michaelis Church and St. Nicholas’s Church (which was the tallest building in the world from 1874 to 1876). Also, there’s the Reeperbahn which is Hamburg’s most famous street for being located in the city’s red light district, where there are countless nightclubs and bars. Hamburg receives millions of visitors every year, many attracted by the varied cultural offer, with music performances leading the way.

Leipzig - Another cultural pearl which we reviewed a couple of months ago: http://www.homeforhome.co.uk/destinations-leipzig/

Oberammergau and its Passion Play - In the seventeenth century, the villagers of Oberammergau pledged to perform a Passion Play every ten years. Why? A pandemic outbreak had killed one-fifth of the population and they wanted to prevent that from happening again. To this day, residents who were born or have lived in Oberammergau for more than 20 years participate in the Passion Play to keep their ancestor’s promise. Oberammergau’s Passion Play is taking place now and will last till October 3rd. If you are around, you should not miss it. It takes place only every ten years! For more information, visit the Oberammergau’s Passion Play Website.

To learn about the many attractions waiting for you in Germany you may visit the Official Tourism Website of Germany at http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/

After all the time we waited for the Summer to arrive, it is probably not the best idea to discuss anything related to the coming Autumn. But, since to be successful in the home exchange world you have to think ahead, it is always a good thing to remind you of the activities to come. Something like the HomeForHome coming attractions

If you are a regular visitor of HomeForHome, you probably noticed at our homepage that Germany is one of the countries with the most registered swappers. If you hadn’t noticed this, you should take advantage of this wake up call and start making plans to spend the coming Oktoberfest in Germany!

Starting September 18th (a few events will take place on the 17th, but the traditional official tapping of the first beer barrel will be celebrated on the 18th at noon), this year the party will last till October 4th and it seems like they have planned it “Longer, bigger and with more attractions than ever before!” to celebrate the festival’s 200th anniversary. This may be worth a home swap, don’t you think?

Besides, if you are not much into beer, you may be into Munich and its cultural side. Or in case you were wondering, there are several attractions that will make Oktoberfest appealing for families with children, like the different rides, and also the tents which are not only about beer… Just check out the past years’ Oktoberfest posts and you’ll see.

The countdown is on in the Oktoberfest.de website so make your move and find your swap. If you already made plans to visit another country while Oktoberfest takes place in Munich, you should know you can find Oktoberfest elsewhere as well, since there are several cities worldwide that host their own beer parties in October, and some are just as legendary:

- Blumenau, Brazil http://www.oktoberfestblumenau.com.br/ (in Portuguese)

- Cincinnati (Ohio), United States http://www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com/okt.aspx

- Belgrano, Argentina http://www.elsitiodelavilla.com/oktoberfest/(in Spanish)