Sardinia 2011, day 4

Wake up 6.25, tent packed, sleeping bad packed. My fleece smells of damp. Breakfast was supergood. Bread (empty inside, to put butter (burro) inside. And ricotta cake with lemon, all made by S's Mother. S told us that once there had been an American, who came there and spoke only English, expecting everybody to understand English. This is the reason why it is better for us, non-native English speakers to speak a few words of local language than English, because the experience is better. We ar enot only limited to speaking in the tourist information centre. Of course, it depends on country, Germans seem to like speaking English, or maybe they can hear the English accent in my German or maybe the basic tourist German I speak is so bad.....every time I ask something from somebody on the streets, they answer in English....or maybe it is because the times when I could speak German I have only been in Berlin and Cologne). I was very impressed when once long time ago, we were in Germany with the orchestra and K, my classmate, maybe 14 years old, could go to a small shop (the one where we had to ask what we needed to buy) and speak in German, despite the fact that we only learnt English and Russian at school.

We spoke limited Italian and a mix of good Spanish and limited Italian, trying to speak no English. She seemed happy about us trying to speak her language, despite the fact that we both speak good English. We were given a cake to eat on the way - it is strange for Estonians to eat sweet things in the morning, at least for us! We said that one slice for each, but she insisted in giving 2, saying that 1 is not possible, in Sardinia, 2 at least. She also showed a book about Sardinia, about the culture, caves.

Bus stop. The times there were totally different. We crossed the road to ask some locals, but by the time we had explained our question, they showed us that the bus is coming. The Internet timetable had been correct.

K had to run to buy the ticket, whilst I had a shock when somebody came to ask whether I need help. Shock not about somebody wanting to help, but there was nothing to help with, I just had 2 rucksacks to put on the bus, mine and K's.

Bus was warm again. In Nuoro, we made our way to the town centre, trying to find the tourist information. There were signs, but none of the led to the tourist information. The town is at 550m, with clear sk we would have not needed a tourist information, could have enjoyed the views, but with rain pouring down, a museum or gallery was what we needed. One police officer, told us that there is none, but wanted to know why we need it. "Non lo so, ho 5 ora, vorrei fare qualcosa". OK, he showed us the direction to the museums. Again, we saw signs for tourist information.

First, we went to the market, where understood at the cheese counter how little foreign language is actually needed. K asked "Questo animali, moo or mää" and got answer for every cheese about the animal whose milk had been used.


We went to an art gallery, not local art, but the exhibition was about the art of aborigens. After that it was still raining and it was still time until everything would close, 1pm. We was a sign for costume museum. Walked, walked, asked whether we are on correct way, they said "E vicino". By that time we had learnt that all the lontano and vicino are relative, but finally we arrived. It was museum of etnography, very interesting.

After that is was time to make our way to the other end of the town, to the bus station. Bus t Cagliari, after a conversation with a very helpful local who warned us not to go on the bus that arrived earlier because it is not direct and would take 5 hours, whereas the later one is direct and would take 2.5h.

Looking for the hostel, again we were tol it is lontano. OK, after finding out the bus number and spending long time trying to find out what is the correct direction (but nobody seemed to understand, it was not like Estonia where we need to take the bus from correct side of road, it was the central square), I asked the bus driver to tell us when we arrive at Piazza Republica. He did. On that square, we again asked way to a street we had to take. Got the way, it was already time to turn when we saw the person we had asked the way from was coming after us, teling us not to turn, as we were on the correct road. I explained that we actually needed to turn to other road and he was happy then. At the seemingly correct place, there was no hoste, at least we could not see. We asked locals, they also said they do not know a hostel like that there. it was number 10. They said they know other hostel nearby, but offered to accompany us to the one we had booked online. On the door of flats, there was a tiny sign. K rang the doorbell, we opened the door and were greeted by two small boys shouting "CIAO". Their mum showed us to the second floor flat, where the boys immediately got inside the wardrobe, and I think one even started to cry when he hurt himself whilst running around.

This evening we only went to the shop to buy food, next day was going to be Easter Sunday, so everything would be closed. Again, we were directed by a man, to a direction where there was no shop (by that time we should have learnt that very ofter they would show left whilst saying destra and show right whilst showing sinistra, nad every time I would first doubt my language skills, befire realising that I also had this problem when learning to drive).

OK, next try, we found a shop.

We also had 3 flatmates, 3 girls studying "education". K spoke Spanish with them so I did not understand much.