Alissa Styles

01/05/2023

Please notice my Cuban outfit in the second part of the clip 😁😁
 
Let me know if I should produce more Cuba vs. World videos like this 🤗

 

01/05/2023

I had a group from Thailand here in Havana and the clash of cultures couldn't have been bigger 😁

The shy but very demanding and service-oriented Thai upper-class travel group against the very extrovert but difficult and very limited Cuban society - and me in the middle, mediating between those two worlds 😁🥵 as you can imagine, they kept me busy and running around through town a few days 😀

When we came to one of the surprise elements of the tour when the Tais were invited to dress in traditional Cuban cloths, play instruments and dance and EVERYONE had a huge smile on their face, I knew: It's all good! 😎 At the end, nobody can resist the Caribbean joy of life

             

08/12/2022

My face as a canvas 🎨

This is me, seen and edited by the wonderful Cuban photographer Titina. When we created this photo and I saw sample work by Titina, I had no idea what an edited photo of me might look like. When I saw the result, I was speechless 🤩 I’ve already worked together with various Cuban photographer, mostly showing Cuban fashion and/or Cuban lifestyle. But I’ve never collaborated with an artist-kind of photographer. I’d like to do more in the future! 💃

The picture was taken during the Gardens Event in Habana Vieja. Afterwards I got 5 questions from Titina, which I should answer (see below) and based on them she edited my picture.

How do you think it turned out? Let me know!

Here you can see the questions + my answers:

💡1. Tell me 3 colors that you like?

Actually, my favorite color is red. Well, if I have to tell you more, it's gold, green, black.

💡2. Can you write 5 words that you like or that are important to you?

Creativity
Freedom
Party
Fun
Fashion

💡3. Tell me a number?

26

💡4. What is your zodiac sign?

Pisces

💡5. Choose with a cross (x) a means of transportation.

-airplane✈️ x

- bicycle🚲

-car🚘

-bike🏍️

-yacht ⛵

- boat🚢

06/12/2022

My current stay in Europe is the perfect possibility to wear aaall my beloved swinging skirts again👗
They're too warm for the Cuban climate and since I do my Europe at a more livable time of the year (= only summer), I haven't worn some of them in years 🫣
In Barcelona I was thrilled to find the store that creates cloths and shoes in original vintage cuts - of course I couldn't resist to buy the super hot tiger dress 🐅 which I can finally take with me to Cuba!

   

03/12/2022

Barcelona 😍 You have my love

I'm back from the tourism fair in Barcelona, where I represented Cuba.

I travelled to Barcelona before, but it was already 13 years ago, so a little refreshing was necessary 😉

🌍 I met soooo many new travel destination at the fair, I don't know where to travel next. One of my favourite booths was Malaysia as they had this wonderful green bamboo bag 😍

🏢 I love the atmosphere of Barcelona.  I've been before, but I didn't remember the Mediterranean atmosphere. The only thing is - it is too cold in winter time for me. I still needed my winter jacket 🥶 it's hard to adapt to normal weather when one is used 30 degrees and summer all year long

🍜 Ramen - Seems like Barcelona is a Ramen city, there is a Ramen restaurant at every street corner

💃 Barcelona style - the local fashion is very eclectic, a mix of eccentric party cloths and vintage style. I found even a shop that produces fashion in 50s style!!! 😍 Of course I had to buy a dress 😉

🤯 the only thing that gave me a headache was catalán, which I didn't understand at all. It seemed (at least written) like portugués to me

27/11/2022

"How do you see Cuba's future? What possibilities and chances have entrepreneurs to deal with?" This and more questions were discussed at the club event.
I was one of the speakers, talking about my experience with tourism in Cuba. Besides me were other interesting expats, Cuban entrepreneurs or journalists invited.

The diverse mix of so many different characters created such a creative and productive energy that was almost palpable. In any case, I went home with lots of new ideas.

Between speeches and business talks we were perfectly entertained by drinks and food curated by , cigar and rum tasting by , photo art creation by and music by fabulous whose pink bathrobe I want to steal 😁
We had a blast! 🥳

Many thanks to the team of Gardens Havana and especially to and for the invitation. It was one of the best weekends I had so far in Havana.

May there be many more to come 🥂

📸

 

24/11/2022

Art in the making 🎨📸
I love this paparazzi pic of my photo session with Titina during the event - I wished I had more pics of me like that, but I guess I'd to employ a photographer who follows me all the time or I'd need a very patient boyfriend like all the IG influencers 🤪

I'm already curious to see the result of that shooting, as Titina tends to photoshop her pics in a different way than anybody else - instead of just erasing flaws and pimples she gives her pics attitudes and mood by using colors.

Therefore, in order to find out more about my style and personality I had to answers questions like my favorite color (easy - just look at my nails 😁) or describe myself in 5 words.

I can't wait to see the result and will of course post it here right away as soon as I'll get it!

11/11/2022

Today is the big day! 💪 I've noticed that you've actually never seen my working or when I was working you didn't notice because it looks like fun and travelling to you - but if you are the person behind the scene, it is mostly stressful.

Today is the big day, my first big group after the pandemic is arriving in Havana and starts directly a meticulously planned tour through Havana 🥵 I hope everything goes well. But who else is better equipped for the job than a German? 😉

So wish me luck with my 100 Argentinians 😁  I just got to know that most of them are IG influencers 😅

I try to upload as much as I can today in my stories.

10/11/2022

Tourists buy souvenirs, Habaneros buy 🧻 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I still find it odd that they sell toilet paper in the souvenir shops at all-inclusive hotels, but hey - who am I to complain? 💁‍♀️ After so much difficulties in Havana to find toilet paper (it's sold out, for MONTHS already) and my unwillingness to pay exorbitant black market prices (18 USD for a small package) I took the chance to buy my special souvenir on our business trip to Varadero.

After the pre-check has been done, we're heading back today to Havana, where the REAL big work will start: the final group, more than 100 (!) will arrive to do the full Havana and Varadero sightseeing package. A challenge to plan such a program, which has to be meticulously timed. But is better prepared for such a task than a German? 🤪 Guess who is the project leader 😎😎😎

03/11/2022

🥳 Woohoo, 2 weeks celebration of my LA s**g 💇‍♀️ which released my from the burden of my long, heavy hair 😍

What better place than a night out in Havana's new bar Bleco to celebrate it? I even coincidently wore the same shirt that I wore the day of my haircut 😃 aaaaand could finally show my new vintage pieces that I had bought on my LA trip to the world!

I look like a rock star 👩‍🎤 now 🤪 and I definitely feel like it. The good thing about a made-to-measure haircut is that it incredibly always stays in place, I don't have to style it at all after washing it, it falls naturally as it is! 🤩 I anyway should finally start to use the curling iron and all the brushes that I bought in LA to copy Holly's hairstyle 😁

Scroll to the last photo to see my look before - seems now like a different person to me!

Haircut by - the best in the world!

**g **g  

28/10/2022

: Cruising with my MZ motor bike through the streets of Berlin 🤪

Campagin pic of my photo shooting for Cuban fashion brand Clandestina - LMAO what an experience, I loved it ❤️‍🔥 and am so proud that it turned out so damn good!😎🔥💃 We filmed and photographed the setting literally in the backyard of an house with simply means like a hair dryer to simulate wind and a blanket as green screen (see my making-of post further down). If you look closely, you still see the tiles of the floor on the pic - which are sooo not part of Berlin's streets 🤣

I'm still looking back to this experience with joy that happened shortly after my other, really bad experience - that I got assaulted on the street and my phone was stolen 😤 but as often in life, and even more in Cuba it seems to me: when something bad happens, something good must follow ☯️

Still my really big thanks and I feel honored to the team of Clandestina 😍😍😍 for choosing me as their face to launch their brand on the German market 😍

21/10/2022

Meeting an icon - part 2! 🥰 After my appointment with Holly, I met another great woman in Los Angeles!

I'm such a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe (almost like Brigitte Bardot) - her style, her life, her films and so on. All of her that's left are her immortal hand prints in from of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard... so I had to be suuuper touristic 😅 and take a photo with "her" 🥰

By the way, while I was there I met some other handsame guy (swipe through) 😉 But it is probably the closest I will ever come to holding hands with George Clooney 🤣

19/10/2022

Los Angeles - the city of dreams and most especially mine 🥰

I couldn't believe that I've finally made it to Los Angeles until the very moment that I walked out of the airport. I wanted to make this for such a long time - roundabout 3 years. But then the pandemic happened, flights got really expensive, no time etc.

Then beginning of this year, the final death sentence to my trip seemed to happen, when the USA released their new tightened ESTA rules which prohibited Europeans who had travelled to Cuba in 2021 & 2022 to enter the USA.. 😶😶 In my case it was even worse - I do not only live in Cuba, my very starting point of this trip was Cuba!

I felt like a military strategist 😁 when I carefully designed my bullet proof plan to visit Los Angeles - but of course, nothing was 100%. I can't describe in words how nervous I was the last weeks and even more at the airport (luckily I had a pleasant encounter 🤠 that helped me to calm down). I will post my genius hack later, for now I will enjoy my time in LA 🤪

Tomorrow is my big day, the initial reason for this trip - besides that one, getting to know LA and leaving crazy Havana for a while seem understandable reasons, too 😉

For now get spammed with my LA pics ☺️

11/10/2022

Paradise within Havana 💫🌴💫

My stay at the boutique hotel was simply mind-blowing 🤩

I truly can say I've never been to a hotel in Cuba that has such a well elaborated concept. Through work I've been and stayed in all the well-known high-end international hotel brands in Cuba, but what those two owners of Voya have created exceeds what I've seen so far 👏

From the flowers at the lobby to the shampoo in the bathroom - everything was perfect and tasteful. 💐

The service was extremely courteous and polite. The entire team went to great lengths to make our stay as memorable as possible - and they definitely delivered!

The food was simply divine 😋🍛🥘 from the breakfast cappuccino to the beef carpaccio - a 1 million out of 10 😋

The owners truly managed to create an exceptional, high quality space in the middle of Havana. 🏨

Bottom line: I'll definitely come back for another weekend escape!

11/10/2022

Paradise within Havana 💫🌴💫

My stay at the boutique hotel was simply mind-blowing 🤩

I truly can say I've never been to a hotel in Cuba that has such a well elaborated concept. Through work I've been and stayed in all the well-known high-end international hotel brands in Cuba, but what those two owners of Voya have created exceeds what I've seen so far 👏

From the flowers at the lobby to the shampoo in the bathroom - everything was perfect and tasteful. 💐

The service was extremely courteous and polite. The entire team went to great lengths to make our stay as memorable as possible - and they definitely delivered!

The food was simply divine 😋🍛🥘 from the breakfast cappuccino to the beef carpaccio - a 1 million out of 10 😋

The owners truly managed to create an exceptional, high quality space in the middle of Havana. 🏨

Bottom line: I'll definitely come back for another weekend escape!

03/10/2022

Trying to get back to normality - with the help of my friends ❤️
I can't describe what I've been going through and still are, since I got robbed my phone on the street in the turmoils caused by the hurricane. Anger, fear, desperation and sadness. Sometimes I just want to punch something/ somebody 😠🤯

I almost lost hope in humanity, but then I've received so much help and care from persons, who were not all my friends, but more like 'just people I knew'.
I got to chill with the guys from the agro mercado, they pampered me with pizza and chisme. My neighbor stood by me in cheering me up and helping me with searching the phone, my other friends took me to a Dominican party this Sunday.

I still don't feel quiet safe, in shock and with the bad phone.
One friend texted me the other day that she hopes the universe will bring me something really good in exchange for what has happened to me. I'd be definitely ready for it 😍💫

29/09/2022

27/09/2022

We're currently experiencing a blackout in Havana due to hurricane Ian 🌪 which makes me sit in the darkness 🤯🤣

Ian has converted into an hurricane category 3 (out of 5). His eye has already left Cuba, but the most dangerous is his surrounding winds. So danger still isn't over, we have to remain carefully. 🙏

Due to security reasons (falling power poles, broken cables etc) government has switched off electricity ⚡️, which is usually always done during storms, so it was no surprise to us.🕯🔦 The key is to be prepared - charge all electronic devices in time, power banks, fill every bucket you find with water, secure all loose parts at the surrounding of your house etc. Now the only thing we can do is to sit down, drink tea 🍵 and wait until the storm is over. I hope it will be soon, I'm already freaking out to sit in the dark 🥵🤣

Despite everything, we can already say that Havana will get off lightly, while the west of Cuba has been hit hard. 😵‍💫 First pictures are already on the Internet, it looks disastrous. Trees are developed, windows are broken - at the house of grandparents of a friend the roof is blown away. I will kerp you informed in my story - as long as my phone battery allows it 🤪

#,blackout

26/09/2022

🔥🥳Do you wanna experience the same crazy Havana nights out as I do? Are you ready for fun and joy?
DM me when you're visiting Havana & I will make sure, that your trip will be unforgettable!

P.S. What happens in Havana, stays in Havana 🤪😇
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24/09/2022

Dear cigar lovers, let's all pray for the Cuban to***co fields 🙏🌪

We'll start the preparations here in Havana before hurricane Ian is going to strike land, which will probably happen on Monday...

Forecasts say it will hit the region of Pinar del Rio hardest  - that's where the famous Cuban to***co fields 🌱 are located 🙁

Although forecasts about the trajectory still might change and by yesterday it looked like Havana would be the center of attention, Ian will affect us en todos los casos.

***co

17/09/2022

Good girls to go bed, bad girls go partying with me 😜
Saturday has arrived & with it my second weekend in Havana after my summer break. I actually don't limit my parties to the weekend only 🤪🤷‍♀️ as there're so many cultural events going on in Havana, but the weekend still has it's magic.

Who knows where we will end up tonight? 🤷‍♀️ One thing I know for sure: That it will be great! 🥳

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17/08/2022

Vacations expectations vs. reality 🙈

I was so happy to go home and see family and friends after almost one year. I wanted to enjoy the German summer, sit in the garden and drink Aperol Spritz, eat all that delicious food... but life has other plans and I passed all the time sick in bed. I had merely two days of normality before it got it. So no friends, no joy... only the most hidious desease ever.

Funny how life can go sometimes.
Today I'm off to Italy - hopefully without unexpected surprises...

27/07/2022

Yep, but only half of it! 🙌

I get irritated a lot when people impute to me that I'd "LOOOVE Havana/Cuba", that when I tell them about the basic problems we are facing with everyday (no food in stores, demonious inflation, no gasoline etc.) they say that I'd anyway be "sooo IN LOVE with that city" - like I would be some foolish teenage girl walking around with rose-colored glasses all day 🤦‍♀️😤

No guys, you're all WRONG! I moved to Havana because I liked the life and the opportunities I've built there for myself.

I think that's the healthiest way to look at things when moving abroad. Then, secondly comes the place.

I've always been quiet realistic and tried to see Havana from a certain, objective distance. If I'd stayed in Havana just for Havana - and everything else is sh*t - life would get frustrating.

It's true, the pre-pandemic Havana was a different place from now - these days it's rather sad... Each day I have to balance out the positive and negative aspects. As long as the positive ones predominate - good 🙌 when the negative ones start to gain control - which is slowly happening to I think most expats here - one has to reconsider their life plan 🤔

Until now, I still try to make the most of my time in Havana - as you undoubtly can witness with all the parties stories I present 😁 But once the joy is gone - I'm gone! 👋 And: Sorry mum, but I definitely won't move back to lunatic Germany 🤓

Do you agree? Have you moved to any place abroad? What were your reasons?

24/07/2022

Alissa, the real estate agent 😎🏠

I'm busy for a few days already haunting apartments in Havana - a friend wants to make her dream come true about owning her domicilio in the Caribbean 🌴

The market for buying is not that bad at the moment, since a lot of people are selling all their belongings in order to leave Cuba to search for luck and a better life elsewhere (what, in turn, is sad...)

So I'm cruising through the city and have a look at old and new apartments, well-equiped or complete empty, good and bad neighbourhoods... let's see if the 'right' is among them 😎

I've put some examples of various apartments in this post - if you're curious...

👗outfit and accessories: of course Cuban design, bought with

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12/07/2022

Looks like... me 😏🎨🐦

What a super nice and totally unexpected surprise! 😍

When Cuban painter Adriel Perez asked me to send him a photo of me a few weeks go to make a draw of me, I actually thought he would make me some pencil sketch on a piece of paper... I stood with my mooth wide open when he brought me an ACTUAL and REAL painting of myself, made with acrylic on linen. WOW!

I met Adriel over Instagram (the power of social media 💪) and then finally in person at an art event a few days ago at Maison Castillo (you remember? I showed it in my stories) where we took the other photo in front of one of his iconic women with a bird on her head.

Now the painting hangs on the wall of my living room between my landlord's art - which I hopefully can replace soon step by step with my own, purchased art works!
As an art historian and lover of anything beautiful, I think there are only a few gifts that reaches the level of an art work ❤️

Mil gracias por hacerme este regalón! ❤️😍😘


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05/07/2022

That's how you stop a taxi without getting burnt by the merciless Caribbean sun 😉


👜👗

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04/07/2022

Which Havana do you prefer? The old or the new? Colonial charm or modern design? 🏛🏗

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27/06/2022

Friendship ❤️

Thank you so much my Juli & my Nati for being part of your stay in Havana.

I will miss my Juli del día and my Nati de la noche very much 😢😘
dermanataliarozzodermato

The sad thing about expat life in Cuba is that most friends won't stay forever. But my world map gets fuller of spots with lovely persons. Now Colombia has been added. I will visit you ❤️🥰

27/06/2022

Sundays 🍸✨️
Sunday was my hate-day until I came to Cuba. It was the only day of the week out of normality - shops were closed, life stood still and everybody seemed like turned off.
In Cuba I like Sundays more than Saturdays, because nightlife is as good as Saturday without the pressure of being a Saturday. I hope that was clear? 🤣

But this Cuban Sunday is a sad day for me, as .nataliarozzodermato is leaving tomorrow 😢 another goodbye in the lines of many, another promise of seeing each other anytime anywhere again. Can't wait to visit you in Colombia 😍🥰

Thank you so much for your true friendship and the short but intensive time we've spent together 😘