Sardinia - Valledoria & La Foce

If you ever find yourself in the north of Sardinia and close to Valledoria, don't miss the chance to explore the town and its surroundings. Once there, you definitely have to try out the local ice-cream and pizza. Neither is expensive, but both taste delicious! If you're confused by the range of different varieties, buy the chocolate ice-cream and the quatro formaggi pizza. You won't regret it.

The town is small and picturesque and evokes a calm, family feeling. There are quite a few restaurants with an outside seating. Many of these offer live performances of singers and musicians, so you can listen to the music for free while enjoying a tasty meal.

Valledoria is a stone's throw from the sea, so it's not a problem to get to the beach even without a car. If you plan to do so, don't miss the chance to visit the camping village La Foce (http://www.foce.it/) and its facilities. Many people enjoy kitesurfing under the tutelage of local trainers, and I highly advise you to give it a try too.

If you're not really into such activities, you can always just find yourself a place at the beach near La Foce and admire the beauty of the sea. If you don't like crowded beaches, then this place is exactly what you seek. Just ask the locals to give you a ride across the river. This place, partially separated, is much calmer than the rest of the beach. Just don't forget to bring some food along and you can spend the whole day swimming, sunbathing and relaxing. Oh and the last tip - don't leave before the sunset, it's simply magnificent.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

A magical forest

So a magic(al) place, huh? Ok, let me tell you. But don't forget that this one is my own and I don't want to see you there! :D

Imagine you wake up in a deep forest. Every now and then, you can see droplets of a morning dew, lying motionless at the grass tips, sparkle as the finest diamonds in the light of sun rays which found their way through the labyrinth of branches. The grass itself is so green that it can easily rival the color of the moss covering ancient wooden guardians, who have been overseeing this place for more than two centuries. Their spreading crowns and sheer size give such a majestic impression that you can't but openmouthedly stare at them.

The sweetest scents and perfumes you've ever smelled could easily be a smell of a rotting carcass, compared to the fragrance filling the cleanest air, slowly flowing between the trees here.

And the SILENCE. The silence is such that you can hear your own heart beating in your temples. It is only occasionally disrupted by a gentle, hardly audible whispering of a mild breeze, playing hide-and-seek with tree leaves. But if you stop and listen really carefully, there is one more sound you can hear - not close, but not far either. It's a sound of a gurgling stream, seeking it's path somewhere behind the trees.

While looking for the source of that gurgling, you notice something else. A humongous bush covered with small, red beads. And when you taste one, and believe that you do because you are not afraid of anything at this place, you find out that they are forest raspberries! But, as you can guess now, not like any raspberries you've tasted before. These are so sweet and sour at the same time that it's simply mind-blowing and your tongue and brain will need a while to recover from such an astonishing experience.

Like the place? Well, that was only the beginning ;)

Smoking should be banned at ALL public places

Smoking is bad, no matter how you look at it. It slowly deteriorates the condition of your body, mainly the lungs, and causes irreversible damage on the cellular level. There are people who do this damage to their bodies willingly and consciously, but also people who would never light a cigarette and yet have to stand the smoke and odour every day.

Smokers, the first group, think everything is just fine and that they have the right to smoke anywhere. They usually don't care that their smoking annoys other people. After all, it's an addiction like any other and as such has to be satisfied regularly, be it in front of a school, at the bus or train station, or anywhere else.

Non-smokers, on the other hand, severely underestimate the power of this addiction. They think that smokers don't have to smoke unless they really want to, that they don't actually need the cigarette and that they could quit if they wanted to. That is the reason why they would ban the smoking altogether. But that is an impossible scenario. Non-smokers and law-makers should rather focus on specific places where smokers COULD enjoy their cigarette but at the same time not bother anyone who's not particularly fond of smoking. Then they could ban the smoking at public places without making anyone angry.

To conclude, both groups think they are right in their doings, but they both have opinions that are far too extreme and radical. The only way to satisfy both sides is to find a neutral solution and reach a compromise.

Junk food is for RATS !

Literally. By conducting tests with 32 female rats for 6 consecutive months, scientists of University of California, LA, were able to prove that eating junk food leads to obesity, as the ingredients are highly processed and the food contains more sugar. Nobody will be be surprised by such a result. More important was that the rats were much lazier too!

Rats that were fed junk food needed almost twice the time to perform the task they were given. And not only that. They even took breaks! Rats taking breaks.. Am I the only one hearing this for the first time?

After six months, the testing subjects' diet was switched, but to hardly any result. They didn't start losing weight, nor became quicker or more active.

Now, this means that our belief that obese people are fat due to their laziness is wrong. It's vice versa. They are lazy because they are fat! It also means that while putting on weight is easy, getting rid of it is not. Not that it would change much, but hey, it's good to know stuff like this.

So if you put on weight and feel like lacking energy, then maybe it's time to change your diet. It will take a while, but ultimately you will not only lose weight, but also feel full of energy.