Six months in the South of Italy - Survival Edition - Erasmus Salerno 2016

Before I start anything. You need to know that a few days ago I read a study that porn pictures are a huge attraction of attention, so I decided to catch your attention with pictures of local food porn.

#ERASMUS #ERASMUS2016 #ErasmusExperience

A brilliant and outstanding experience came to an end... This is it. My erasmus is finished It's time to pack my bags, say goodbye to the South of Italy and return back home. Well, maybe I need to write something about it before I go.. hm.. I guess I owe some words to this place... hm... Salerno... hm Napoli.. so, to all of you who never been here. I will tell you like this: This place is f*cked up!

This is the place where:

• This is the place where you wait and wait for the bus that will never come.
• This is the place where internet is activated in just 3 weeks.
• This is the place where there are no lines on the streets, the cars drives by the rule of nature and the traffic lights are on vacations.
• This is the place where the gym finish its activity overnight without any notice while your membership is still valid.
• This is the place where lectures are kind of a lottery because you are never sure if the professor will show up.

(Photo: The campus of the University of Salerno! Well, the professor may not come at his lectures, but the campus is quite all right. )

• This is the place where ambulance turns on their siren for 300 meters just because they don't feel to wait in traffic.
• This is the place where you need to look down while walking cause all around the city is quite a lot of dogs poop (I saw fancy woman’s in high heels walk directly into it! ).

(Photo: This is the sea view from my room. They were advertising a room with sea view. It’s splendid. Enjoy it! )

• This is the place where the bus driver kicks you out of the bus 4 stops before your destination, because is his last drive and he do not feel going until the last stop.
• This is the place where the postman don't bring you the post, and you spend 2 days searching for it at their post offices (but nobody knows where it is and even the tracking number doesn't help you) and at the end you need to make a 1 and a half hour trip to go and take it.
• This is the place where people while hearing you are from Slovenia feel bad for you, thinking you come from some kind of Mozambico and ask you if there is still war in your country.
• This is the place where when you answer that there is no war in your country, they just simply don’t believe you (because of course there is war in Slovenia, what else could there be).
• This is the place where they just decide to close Pompei for that day, because well, because they can.
• This is the place where if you know how to drive here, you know how to drive everywhere!
• This is the place where soldiers have an outgoing operation in Napoli city centre to make it secure.

(Photo: Me in Scampia, a really famous neighbourhood for the Mafia Camorra in Napoli)

• This is the place where the professor doesn’t allow you to take an exam because you wear short jeans in summer with a temperature of about 34 degrees.

Well yeah from what you could understand this place is a total mess, a disaster... especially for an organized person who is used to punctuality and availability of information. Yes, this is the South of Italy. I'm telling you this place is simply unbelievable, outstanding, amazing, beautiful, crazy, lovely, excellent, magnificent, marvellous, wonderful, formidable, fantastic, awesome. This place is magic.

Why magic? Why unbelievable? Because this is also the place where:

• This is the place where the food… damn.. the food.. the food… the food makes you jizz!
• This is the place where you get to know people from all nationalities, but well, yes, most of them are Spanish.
• This is the place where “uno, due, tre.. Porno Mafia”; “2 3 4 3.. 500”; “Mafia Spaghetti Audi Quattro Pizza Don Filetti... ”
• This is the place where Positano, Amalfi and Capri are.
• This is the place where your hairdresser will smile and salute you every day, ask how you are, and introduce you to other clients and offer you coffee while waiting for your turn.
• This is the place where incredible is not enough to describe the beauty of the beaches.

• This is the place where you spent tons of wonderful time on top of an unfinished construction building that will became ‘the crescent’ a prestigious place on the lungomare of Salerno.

(Photo: Crane view from the construction building of "The Crescent")

• This is the place where we “brate”.
• This is the place where views are breathtaking and you can spend an entire hour just admiring the view while not saying a single word.
• This is the place where a stranger will help you find a parking for your car, will present himself and will offer you a coffee.
• This is the place where your old neighbour will bring you some sweets she just made, because you are ‘simpatico’ and ‘bravo guaglione’.
• This is the place where employees in a supermarket become your good friends and the 50 year old women working there will send you kisses and will try hitting on you in many super-innovative ways.
• This is the place where members of a football team give you an overwhelming welcome in their squad, as if you are some kind of Shevchenko from the East (Partizan Salerno Forever).

(Photo: Me and a great Italian representing Red Star Belgrade and my Slovenian city of Izola in a football 5-a-side tournament. )

• This is the place where the first question of the icecream seller will be "Where are you from? " and the second "do you like “La Figa”? "
• This is the place where you turn people into alcoholics and show them that you simply cannot go to a party and have fun without alcohol!

• This is the place where you make people listen to 'balkan' music and some of them actually love it!
• This is the place where your friend steals a van and you get attacked by fishermen!
• This is the place where you drive a bus.

(Photo: Me at the drive of the local public transport)

• This is the place where you start hating reggaeton because you have full balls of it, but deep in yourself you know, that after several months you'll put it on again and probably will dance on it in your room.
• This is the place where you go out and return home 2 days later.
• This is the place where the train controller doesn't know English, so he don’t write you a ticket and just leaves.
• This is the place where you sit on a 40 min train ride alone without anything and end up with eating and drinking on it with three new friends, and with some more food to bring home.
• This is the place where in 5 months you get several calls every week to play football, to go for a coffee, or to come over for dinner.
• This is the place that shows you how small the world is and how similar we are in all our differences.
• This is the place that makes you feel in love and the place where you feel like ‘home’.
• This is not the place where you work and strive for promotion! This is not the place where you wait for the weekend, wait for the summer, wait for the next year to finally start living. This is the place where you live! Where you live in the moment! Where you live every single second of your life!

Can you now understand the beauty of this place and those people?

I cannot describe how grateful I am for this Erasmus experience. It was amazing. Outstanding. Tons of fun and adventures. Many stories I’ll be able to recount in years to come. Moments that became memories for a lifetime. Erasmus is a must!

Whoever has the opportunity to go should grab it with both hands!

A huge Thank You from the bottom of my heart to all the people from every nationality that made my life in the south of Italy that beautiful. You know who you are. Thank you so much!

It was an honour meeting you, become partners in this adventure and grow into friendships and more. Thanks again.

As the Italians would say:

»Questo non e un addio e solo un arrivederci«.

P. s. : One last quick sentence to summarize everything:

This is the place where you spend time with 'strangers', people who you'll never forget.

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