Diario di un canalone (Leuca15…for italians only)

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#Leuca15
15 cose che inevitabilmente succedono quando abiti al canalone – breve rassegna per avidi ascoltatori di sciocchezze

  1. tutto quello che non serve finisce nel canalone, anche la differenziata di Alli11909790_10207466266995534_1311311199_n
  2. c’ e’ uno scaffale x le creme abbronzanti, a cui è stato aggiunto olio di tonno (papa è nerissimo) 11909865_10207454579863363_53647000_n
  3. il canalone viene occasionalmente abbandonato per raggiungere spiagge oltre le colonne d’Ercole del compasso papesco, e Hic sunt leones (et scoglis). 
  4. si cede all’ irrefrenabile desiderio di visitare i trulli di alberobello, deviando di 200 km dal tragitto stabilito 11911836_10207454665785511_1729764599_n-2
  5. quando si aprono gli sportelli della dispensa, dentro ci trovi Re Tritone 11868669_10207466339317342_1118096206_n
  6. quando ci si vuole appoggiare alla spalla di qualcuno si scivola rovinosamente per mancanza di superficie
  7. si dichiara volontà di fare puntatine ad Alghero, a patto che la propria madre non ne venga al corrente 
  8. si rockeggia da soli perduti tra i fumi dell alcol per festeggiare la fine dell antibiotico e si viene definiti “uomo per tutte le occasioni stile TARALLO”
  9. si presenzia al salotto della Presicce bene sotto mentite spoglie US 11868884_10207454599303849_1934973814_n
  10. durante la serata si regolano le valvole sulle schiene delle donne del canalone. Quella della Linda si è rotta mentre era impostata a livello 10. 
  11. gli uomini del canalone smarriscono la componente femminile per imbastire serate danbilzeriane con un numero di escort tendente a + infinito, tanto da “non riuscire a passare” 
  12. Si manifesta avversione per i cibi piccanti, croccanti, fumanti, che hanno un sapore o proiettano ombra
  13. e’ stata stabilita da un team di esperti una rigida RDA giornaliera di taralli con salsine che deve essere assunta da tutti dagli abitanti di via Forli, la quale è stata triplicata per il dottor M. 11907994_10207454580823387_579470387_n
  14. se una canzone non è remixata da gabri ponte non la si ascolta, e per aumentare la tauranza, ricopriamoci di Bohotats come se non ci fosse un domani 
  15. c è chi impara a metter su un caffè e a lavare pentole e c è chi impara a essere social.

Ecco cio’ che resta di una vacanza in un canalone…

Come direbbe la Megi “Grazie Bellezze” (e grazie Eli per questo diario!!)

ya te extraño..Mexico

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I just came back from Mexico and it was the best vacation I could have ever imagined. It was only me, my mom and a friend of her, but this actually allowed me to make a lot of friends and meet incredible people from many different countries.

We planned our trip without travel agencies, booked a flight online to Cancun where we spent the first 4 nights and then stayed in a resort in Playacar, Playa del Carmen for the other 8 nights.
Concerning Cancun, I recommend the hotel Beachscape Kin Ha in “zone hotelera“, which is not as big as the others, has decent prices and it’s located on the most beautiful beach in the area; also, it’s 10 minutes walking to the main attractions such as Coco Bongo, Señor Frogs and the other clubs and bars.
If you wanna do shopping, you can also take a local bus (R-1 or R-2) and get to a very nice open-air mall, La Isla, which looks very american and where you can find pretty much all american brands and various restaurants.

On our second day, we decided to take a tour to Chichen Itza (i totally recommend not to buy any tour inside hotels or resorts because the prices can be even double) and they drove us also to Valladolid, a little town in the middle of the Yucatan and to the Cenote IK KIL. I honestly found all this way too tourist, too many people, shops, bars, and constructions around something that I expected to be just about nature and history.

The next day, being already in Cancun, we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres and spent the day there; it’s only 19$ both ways and the beach Playa Norte is absolutely worth to visit.

The best way to go from Cancun to Playa del Carmen if you are carrying suitcases like us, is to take a cab (ask the hotel to call it for you in order to avoid any risk) and the cost is around 50$ for about an hour drive.
The resort we stayed is called Viva Wyndham Maya and I can say I had a really positive experience there. You get to have all inclusive food and alcohol 24h, rooms are modern and spacious, and the entertainment staff is friendly and a lot of fun. I joined them several nights after they took off, to go party in Playa del Carmen; I liked very much clubs such as Tribeca and Blue Parrot, this last one on the beach, while I found a little bit too trashy La Vaquita, even though it was still fun because I had never watched a wet t-shirt contest for real before lol.
I think the best way to go places from Playa del Carmen is to take a collectivo, which is a big taxi that carries up to maybe 15 people; get it from Calle 2 and you can stop anywhere on the coast for something like 2$/person. In fact we decided to do everything by ourselves after having seen how excessively tourist all the organized tours were.
We went to Tulum and Akumal (the beach where you can swim with turtles) on the same day, since they are only 20 minutes away from each other, but unfortunately we had to skip Playa Paraiso because the water condition wasn’t that great.
Finally, on one of our last days, we decided it was worth to take a look at one of the best open-air cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cenote Azul, in the middle of the jungle; it actually reminded me so much of the springs in Florida, even though the water is not as cold.
To finish, I d like to thank my mexican friends for all the tips they gave me, and my mom for bringing me with her to this awesome place ❤
Hasta luego Mexico!
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From Cali with love

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Exactly one year ago I was taking a week off to fly to California and visit my second family, the one that hosted me in 2008 during the exchange program that changed my life.

My host parents picked me up in LA and we drove to Orange County to see my little sister Liana, that goes to Vanguard University. We spent the afternoon in my favorite place, Newport Beach, that makes me find happiness and a little piece of paradise every single time I’m there…..there’s no other place that brings me back to my 16, when I was obsessed with The Oc. Its sunsets, its amazing views and looking at young people hanging out around bonfires on the beach or going to Prom on a boat, make you feel like you are in a real tv show.
Later on, Alicia, my other host sister, joined us and she took me to a friend’s party in Long Beach, where I met a lot of high school friends that I hadn’t met in 6 years. We spent the night at a friend’s place in Huntington Beach, before another awesome day on the beach. We had lunch at Ruby’s and watched surfers from the pier.
We spent the rest of the week in Spring Valley Lake, Victorville, that I still consider my home after such a long time…even though it is in the desert, half way between LA and Las Vegas, it was the most peaceful place I could ask for, after months of no-stop working. I really enjoyed my morning walks around the lake and the golf course and it brought me back to a lot of memories.
At some point me and Alicia decided to spend the day in Los Angeles; we hiked up to the Holliwood Hill, went shopping around the TCL Chinese Theatre area, had dinner at In-N-Out, and visited The Last Bookstore, the largest used and new book and record store in California. This was probably the coolest bookshop I’ve ever been and I totally recommend to stop there if you happen to be in LA.
Before heading back we went back to west Holliwood to take a look at the LA Ink tattoo store “High Voltage Tattoo“, which was so inspiring that we immediately decided we were going to get a tattoo on my last day there!
Thanks Alicia and Liana, best american sisters I could ask for…
Hope to come back to Cali soon!
Linda

Strasbourg & Colmar

The perfect place to get into the Christmas spirit is Strasbourg! I went there this weekend with my boyfriend that came in France to visit me for three days. It’s a super cute little city full of Christmas decorations and little stands everywhere, where we spent hours eating local specialities. There was so much food that I felt like Alice in Wonderland: waffles, crepes, all kind of chocolates (I tried them all), choucroute, a plate with different kind of sausages and krauti, potatoes with cheese etc.., all accompanied with an awesome “vin chaud” (a spiced hot wine) that helped us survive the freezing weather.

The last day we had together we used blabla car to get to Colmar, also called “little Venice” of France. I loved this little town, so characteristic and less crowded and tourist than Strasbourg. The atmosphere there is unique so if you ever find yourself driving close to this place, it is totally worth a visit.

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Giulia

Swiss trip

Last weekend I went on a road trip to Switzerland with a few friends that I met here in Nancy. We did it the “American way”, at least that’s how I would call it. Americans usually want to spend only a few hours in a new place, just to say they’ve seen it, and then visit as many places as they can.

We left on Sunday afternoon, got in Bern at night, where we had an amazing dinner at a place called Altes Tramdepot, which offers an amazing view in front of the river and the famous Bears of Bern!

The next day, after walking around with daylight, we left and on our way to Zurich we decided to drive through Interlaken, were Justin and Lars got crazy and jumped in a freezing lake. Back in the car, we arrived in Zurich where we walked till night before another very Swiss dinner with rosti and spatzle and a stop at the Casino (not too lucky).

On tuesday, after waking up at 7 am, they convinced me to go hike in the Alps…
You can tell from my pictures how cold it was and how soaked our shoes got for walking in the snow. It was a lot of fun though and a lot of play with snow balls lol.

Of course we couldn’t end our trip without a kebab on the road and a bunch of whatsapp texts with giulia (that btw was in Berlin the same weekend) to tell all our stories.

Linda

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