On July 19th the event “Sunshine on the land of love-Calabria coast to coast” startedin the wonderful village of San Lucido, Calabria (Italy), an event lasting for ten fantastic days of sun and fun for the 45 AEGEE members that participated. These participants were able to enjoy more than sand, sun and fun. Different trips as the visit of the Monastery of San Francisco de Paola and the touristic places of Diamante, Reggio Calabria or Fuscaldo were done during this fantastic event.
The different workshops that were done during the event were related to the languages of Europe, the different dialects of the region of Calabria, Italian gestures, Mafia, or the most useful one about “Typical homemade Italian Pasta and Pizza” how to cook your own pizza. After learning the Italian gestures most of the participants decided not to speak more English and to just use their newfound knowledge to communicate with their hands, saying things such as “I am hungry”, “What the fuck?” or “I will make your ass like this if you continue with your behaviour”. During this workshop the participants also learned the different gestures used along Europe to communicate in the different countries. In the Mafia workshop the historical reasons behind the rise of this kind of organisations was explained; concerning the aspects that the Mafia organisations are conservative, related to the religion and the control of the different economical sources of the regions of the south of Italy as well as the control of the harbours, the agriculture or other more dangerous issues such as drugs and prostitution.
During the city tour in San Lucido the invasion of the city by the Turkish pirates in old centuries was mentioned many times, but our friend Hasan Özcan from Ankara (Turkey) did not really get it until the end of the city tour, as he was talking on the phone the entire time, maybe planning a new invasion for the future. That night as well as the following nights of the event, our Czech participant Pavel Jíša started to sing his name after some cocktails. At the end of the event his song was used as war song for each day of party. During the first days also Annabell (Belgium), Zsofi (Hungary), Paula (Spain) and Patrícia (Spain), also started to arrive to each palace singing “Bara Bara Bara, Bere Bere Bere, Bara Bara Bara….” That also became another song signed everywhere that the group went to.
The first Saturday, when all the AEGEE people were full of nice spirit that we bring everywhere we go, the participants celebrated the amazing Carnival of San Lucido, where the party did not stop until late in the night. In this carnival, the participants met the Hulk, DuffMan, many bearded ladies and a lot of more crazy costumes brought by the participants from all around Europe. Next night was the European Night with plenty of Palinká, Limoncello, Ouzo, Orujo, Anis, Vodka, and many other typical drinks and foods from all around Europe. The European Night was organised in a Lido – a private beach that becomes a club at night, with DJs, professional dancers and singers. Our great organiser Danilo Carnevale from AEGEE-Ferrara did a good job singing and dancing with all the participants as he did throughout the event.
On 25th Manuela Nostro, from AEGEE-Reggio Calabria (from the well known family in AEGEE-Reggio Calabria of the Nostro’s), proposed a trip to the city of Diamante, one of the most beautiful cities in the coast of Calabria, where more than 80 artists have painted the wall of this city leaving really nice and well known frescoes. This city is also known as the capital of the Pepperoncino, the red chilli typical from Calabria. The next day the group visited the small village of Fuscaldo situated on the mountains. Here the participants enjoyed not only the amazing view of the Calabrian coast, but also a traditional Italian night full of games and fun.
Great was the evening of the treasure hunting, when all the participants ran up and down from the village of San Lucido to the Lidos, where all the parties were made during the night, searching for messages to find the final treasure, 24 bottles of the great “Birra Peroni”. After getting dressed as pirates, been completely wet and kidnapping some natives from the village, all the participants shared the beer, and also the Sangria made by the Spanish participants during the night at the bonfire, with the live music played by the participants with their own instruments brought form all around Europe.
The next day the participants went to the Aqua Park near Paola, where they also spent the whole day and enjoyed fantastic aqua aerobic lessons and a nice workshop in Italian Cuisine given by an expert chef from Napoli. For dinner they ate their own pizzas as well as the ones made by the chef. After the dinner they enjoyed a party in the Aqua Park with good music and the possibility of enjoying the water facilities during the night as Lukács Szabolcs from Budapest (Hungary) also known as PartySzabi and Angel Rodriguez from Oviedo (Spain) did.
Early in the morning, after the party in the Aqua Park of the day before, the group went to visit Reggio Calabria, not many participants decided to attend to this trip due to the energy spent during the two last days. During this day, they enjoyed the nice Pinacoteca Civica from Reggio Calabria, as the tour around the whole city and the new Parliament of the region of Calabria, where the participants were able to see the recovery efforts of two Greek bronze statues. After that the participants had free time in the city that was used by Bata Marcell from Hungary to visit the city of Messina in Sicily. This crazy idea made the group arrive to San Lucido one hour late. When they arrived they had the last party all together at the Lido “Calura” until the party was over.
The last day was to enjoy the last hours of beach with a nice barbecue. During the night, the participants who had not yet departed received their diplomas and prizes to the best kissers, craziest, drunkest, most beautiful eyes and best participant, which was earned by “PartySzabi”. The party continued in the Lido “Azucar” until the early morning with a continuous departure of participants to their countries or other AEGEE events.
In short, this event was great because of the participants, but we have also to report that some of the organisers from AEGEE-Ferrara were more interested in parting than in organising. Some of the participants said that the words of the event were “cinque minuti” (five minutes) or “aspetta” (wait). The accommodation was not the same for all the participants, which broke the group spirit, one group in a residence and others in flats all around San Lucido. A lot of participants did not have breakfast during the entire event, because the organisers did not want to wake up in the morning, after partying, for getting ready the breakfast in the residence. On the other hand, the organisers from AEGEE-Reggio Calabria did a nice work for this young antenna, special remark for Manuela Nostro from AEGEE-Reggio Calabria and Guido Cagnoni from AEGEE-Ferrara, who did a great work during all the event a take care of all the participants.
Written by Martha Mavrommati, AEGEE-Athina & Angel Rodriguez, AEGEE-Alicante
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