Sardinia

Take your time, think a lot. Think of everything you´ve got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.
-Cat Stevens - Father and Son

Back from Sardinia. It was a crazy weekend.

Flew into Alghero Thursday night. We took a bus to our hostel and got off at the stop they suggested ¨where you will see a church on a square¨ We wandered until we found the hostel, which was tricky because all of the arrows were actually pointing away from it... We set our bags down and decided to go into town (our hostel was in Fertilia, 3 miles from ¨downtown¨Alghero¨) But instead we stayed at the bar at the hostel where Luca shared his jug of Sardinian wine with us and we spent the evening drinking and eating Bologna (or as he said, the meat from the last American girls that stayed there. haha? ) The next day was our windy adventure into town, as you can see in the Kodak album that I´ve posted. ... Looking at the album on this University computer all of my pictures are very dark... they don´t look like that on my Mac so I hope the colors are right on all of your computers...

anyway... it was a windy day but it wasn´t cold...but I did CATCH cold. So that was a bummer. But we ate at a little pizzeria recommended by Luca where we were told to ¨ask for Frencesco and tell him Luca sent you¨ It was delicious. We then walked around looking at the amazing Italian fashion that we couldn´t afford, ducked into some cafes to avoid the spotted rain storms, and then eventually caught a bus back to Fertilia. We went out in Fertilia that night... meaning went to the one bar in town, the one that closes on Thursdays which is why we had stayed in at the hostel the night before. Had some beers, had some appetizers and then went the the pizzeria and had some MORE food. Wandered back to the hostel and tried to book lodging for the next two days in Cagliari or at least somewhere in between... but there are only 3 hostels on the whole island, and not in very convenient places. We decided on a Bed and Breakfast in Cagliari and to just skip the whole adventure of all the country in between.

We took a bus to Cagliari the next day and arrived around 6:00. After pathetically looking at a city bus schedule for about 10 minutes a nice teenage Italian girl who spoke NO English came over and tried to help us. There was absolutely no way for us to communicate. She ended up just looking at our map and address of our B & B and getting on the bus with us and just accompanying us the whole way there. Very nice. Of course in my mind I was thinking she was accompanying us to some warehouse where we were going to be murdered (I probably shouldn´t have watched the horror movie, Hostel, before coming over here)

Well we found the B & B and all the doors were open and candles were lit but no one was home. Of course, 3 three of assumed it was because they had all been murdered or something. So we all got our pens out to stab anyone who came along and called the number for the B & B and reached Julio who spoke about 7 words in English but said he was on his way. Turns out their ¨internet had been down all day¨and they didn´t receive our reservation. ¨But Stefano, my friend. He take you to new place. Same price! No problems! Stefano, he drive you!¨ Oh great, now we´re really dead. Stefano comes and picks us up and takes us to a different B & B which is like 15 kilometers out of the city. So lame. But he says he will drive us into town, pick us up, etc. We get there and there are 2 ANCIENT old ladies sitting in fur coats and pajamas watching tv. hahaha so weird. I guess it was his grandma and great aunt. I just imagined me taking care of Bobs and great aunt Marti some day and them sitting in their fur coats on my coach... it was a pretty funny sight.

We went into town that night and had a great time at a ¨Bar Pub¨where we were given a few free beverages even! I got to blow a whistle and ring a bell when a bunch of people took a special shot... We had no idea what was going on because it was all Italian of course. But it was a fun atmosphere! We took a cab all the way back to our far B & B. The next day-Sunday- we got a ride into town again with another lady who was staying there, an American lady living in Ireland. She told us the same thing had happened to her and we pretty much realized that this whole B & B thing was a scam. We also decided Stefano prob had no idea he was in on it because he was pretty... simple... and old. But anyway, that was that.

There was nothing to do all day since everything is closed all the time on Sundays. But at least it stopped me from shopping! We decided to stop and get some food and ended up having the most epic meal of our lives. We thought the waitress asked if there were three of us, so we just nodded when we heard ¨tre?¨but it turns out... we´re pretty sure we ordered the #3 ... which you will see also in the Kodak album. First was the bread, tortilla, cheese, and meets. Then came the grilled vegetables and octopus. Then came the mussels. Then came the bowl of radishes and celery and tomatoes. Then came the epic plate of seafood, which I had reluctantly let the girls order in place of the meet dish because I know they wanted to have fish while we were in Sardinia. Well. This plate came complete with 3 whole ...completely whole... cooked fish. Meaning guts, eyes, skin, brains.... all of it. 3 whole squid (brains, ink, everything), 3 whole octopus, and a sprinkling of whole shrimp too. Megan started laughing cuz she didn´t know what to do with herself. Andrea started sweating and turning red (with her funny asian red cheeks) and I basically just wanted to cry. I decided to turn my attention to the leftover celery while Andrea attacked that mess and put pieces of the most harmless meet she could find to put on my plate. So I ate what I could. And basically took advantage of our bottomless red wine to get me through it. Eventually we were the only ones left in the restaurant and all the wait staff and cook staff came out to eat their meal. They brought us pastries and crepes and more wine and we had a good time with them... and the cook specifically who was drunk out of his mind. It ended up costing us a fortune, which we had suspected the moment the random dishes started coming to our tables. So.... it was a learning experience. UGH.

Caught a ride home to the place at 8 and then had nothing to do for the rest of the night. We snooped around our room which must have belonged to Stefan´s daughter in the past. We tried to sneak down to use the computer but the old ladies had fallen asleep on the couch and were making weird old lady noises. And the other lady had told us that one of them had hit her with an umbrella and locked her out of the house and called the police... so we didn´t want to cross paths with her. So we had a really boring and disappointing last night in Cagliari. Wandered around a little more in the morning. Andrea fell into the ocean. Hilarious. someone had to do it. Ate some McDonalds. Delicious. Wandered around a market for a while, and caught the bus to the airport where we tried to waste another 4 hours before our flight. All in all it was a great trip with lots of stories.

Now I´m just trying to catch up on sleep and all the novels for my classes. So reading a lot this week, home rugby game this weekend and team christmas dinner! Should be fun, I hope so!!! And then next friday Dan gets here! So I´ll spend all next week cleaning my piso, painting my nails.... :-D and all those really important things in preparation. I´m sure before I even know it, it will be time to take the train to pick him up at the airport!! AHHH!!!

ALSO, Olivia is coming to visit!!!!!!! I forgot to tell everyone! She is coming the day that Dan leaves, so I just drop Dan off, be depressed for a few minutes, and then Olivia arrives to cure me of my long minutes of suffering loneliness!! AWESOME!!!!

This took me forever to write and now I am exhausted. I´m sure there will be plenty of comments and responses, so send them along.

xoxo

K