Monday, 2 May 2011
Sardinia 2011, day 6, leaving day
In the morning, I had not enough time for breakfast, it was just running to the bus station (no trust in the local buses, especially on Easter Monday, I knew walking would eventually take me there. Bus 8.10. In the airport I found a post box to post my cards and it was time to check-in. Had good sleep on the plane.
Sardinia 2011, day 5, Easter Sunday
Breakfast: toast and coffee. I had hunger after that. I walked to the church, a small evangelical church that I could find in this town. Oggi è Pasqua per tutte le confessioni, so started the service. I understood a bit. Also to my surprise, one song was a Finnish traditional which I have never heard, and one was English. Afte rthe servide, one woman came to ask where I am from nad tried to speak Russian with me after hearing that I am from Estonia. Shocked as I was, of course I did not answer in Russian, the foreign languages I do not speak that often or well are all hidden in some remote place of my brain.
Planning to walk to the town centre, reading the map outside church, when one man came to speak.
"Buona Pasqua"
"Buona Pasqua"
"Sei olandese?"
"No sono Estone, sono a Cagliari per vacanza"
"Cosa fai?"
"Sono studentessa"
"Cosa studia?"
"Biologia"
I started to make my way to the place where I had agreed to meed K, without a phone (or phone charger) we had agreed on an exact time to meet). Suddenly I saw the aster procession and this made me wonder, why are they carrying Mary, dressed in black, on Easter Sunday. I followed it with the crowd and soon we were on the Via Roma, by the sea. Suddenly, they stopped, changed black clothes to white. At the same time, there was another procession coming from opposite direction, carrying Jesus. Now the two crowds joined, carrying both statues of Mary and Jesus in front. People were throuwing flower petals from balconies.
I had 2 h to walk. At 2 we met with K.
[.............................]
K had to find hostel to stay for 1 night, because the current place only had double rooms, she did not want to pay for 2 when she is staying alone. In the tourist information, we were told that there is a hostel that has single places in big rooms, however they are having an irish music festival and the hostel is full of bagpipe and flute players. It was, but she took a room there.
We also asked about flamingoes and were told in this weather, we cannot go there because buses don't run this Sunday and it is raining and too far to walk. Nevertheless, we got the location shown on the map and decided to walk there. In the nature park, a runner told us that in this weather flaminges keep to the far end, a place more hidden from the wind. He had not seen any in the main park that day. He gave us two roads to go to the end.
We selected one, but of course, after several kilometres of walking , we saw flaminges form the distance, but we were on the wrong side of the fence. There was another part of the saline, but this was also separated with a fence. Coming back, I trusted K rather than my GPS, which at some points was telling me that we were going wrong direction (yesterday's lesson, do not relay entirery on electonic things)
Finally, after arriving in a place where we had been already, I showed what triangles we had walked (Pythagoras, or favourite!).
By the time we arrived in hostel, it was 9.45, we had walked 25km in 5 hours (and average speed was over 5, most often 6, but there were stops to see the map or try to see what is other side of the fence).
31.5 is the total for this day, in town where we planned not much walking, quite good.
At home we cooked again, went to pay for the hostel and ask if I may make my own breakfast (I am able to make toast and coffee!) so that I could have it before 7, for example 6.30. Yes. She had a cat.
Planning to walk to the town centre, reading the map outside church, when one man came to speak.
"Buona Pasqua"
"Buona Pasqua"
"Sei olandese?"
"No sono Estone, sono a Cagliari per vacanza"
"Cosa fai?"
"Sono studentessa"
"Cosa studia?"
"Biologia"
I started to make my way to the place where I had agreed to meed K, without a phone (or phone charger) we had agreed on an exact time to meet). Suddenly I saw the aster procession and this made me wonder, why are they carrying Mary, dressed in black, on Easter Sunday. I followed it with the crowd and soon we were on the Via Roma, by the sea. Suddenly, they stopped, changed black clothes to white. At the same time, there was another procession coming from opposite direction, carrying Jesus. Now the two crowds joined, carrying both statues of Mary and Jesus in front. People were throuwing flower petals from balconies.
I had 2 h to walk. At 2 we met with K.
[.............................]
K had to find hostel to stay for 1 night, because the current place only had double rooms, she did not want to pay for 2 when she is staying alone. In the tourist information, we were told that there is a hostel that has single places in big rooms, however they are having an irish music festival and the hostel is full of bagpipe and flute players. It was, but she took a room there.
We also asked about flamingoes and were told in this weather, we cannot go there because buses don't run this Sunday and it is raining and too far to walk. Nevertheless, we got the location shown on the map and decided to walk there. In the nature park, a runner told us that in this weather flaminges keep to the far end, a place more hidden from the wind. He had not seen any in the main park that day. He gave us two roads to go to the end.
We selected one, but of course, after several kilometres of walking , we saw flaminges form the distance, but we were on the wrong side of the fence. There was another part of the saline, but this was also separated with a fence. Coming back, I trusted K rather than my GPS, which at some points was telling me that we were going wrong direction (yesterday's lesson, do not relay entirery on electonic things)
Finally, after arriving in a place where we had been already, I showed what triangles we had walked (Pythagoras, or favourite!).
By the time we arrived in hostel, it was 9.45, we had walked 25km in 5 hours (and average speed was over 5, most often 6, but there were stops to see the map or try to see what is other side of the fence).
31.5 is the total for this day, in town where we planned not much walking, quite good.
At home we cooked again, went to pay for the hostel and ask if I may make my own breakfast (I am able to make toast and coffee!) so that I could have it before 7, for example 6.30. Yes. She had a cat.
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.
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.
Sardinia 2011, day 3
It was time to brush my teeth, this first, as is was too cold for a cold shower just after waking up, or maybe not, the difference between water and outside temperature was not much! And then, the cold shower, was actually good. K thinks I am well-adapted to cold climate, used to that in the UK (or rather lack or temperature changes, as in Estonia it is quite normal to go from -25 outside to a house with +25. Or from sauna to outside.
After the shower and dressed, it was not even cold any more! It was raining a bit, so it could have been colder with clear sky. This night, cold was not problem, fear of steps and our tent being "on display" was more of a concern. I wrote the diary, while sitting under a roof, an eating place, with my sleeping bag wrapped around me, K was still sleeping. A bit or running gave me more warmth.
8.30, tent packed, waiting. G came as promised and took us to Nuoro by car! On the way we learnt that he has 25 donkeys. K said that it sounded like 1 donkey, but he said for us, 1 donkey, for him 25. [and even later we wearnt that donkey is not burro in Italian - a lesson learnt while having breakfast the next day, when butter has burro written on it. Anyway, he understood].
Our bus was 10.30, as we learnt when trying to read the timetable, when locals, knowing that there was probably one bus that time and asked whether we want to go to Dorgali. Yes. We also read that in order to get the 14.25 bus to Cagliari on Saturday, we have to take 8.25 bus from Dorgali to Nuoro. Just to be sure, we decided to ask, whether the bus also goes this Saturday (because it was just before Easter Sunday), so "Vorrei andare a Cagliari il Sabatu. A che ora parte?"
It was warm on the bus, very warm, in contrast to the outside. After an hour, we arrived in Dorgali. Rain was stronger, strong enough to make ourselves more waterproof, so we decided to go to a cafe. Again, although it was still morning and everybody was eating sweet things, we asked whether they have something more lunch-like, because we have "molto fame".
Now in my notebook, there are several B&B addresses. Yes, we decided to sleep inside, firstly because we did not know any campsite, not having searched for this area before, secondly, campsites are outside town and we need to take 8.25 bus in the morning. Thirdly, because of the rain (not a good reason, I know!).
So we went to an Internet place, searched hostelworld, to find it is nothing in this town. From somewhere we found several addresses we decided to find. And we also checked bus timetable to Cala Gonone, a town next to the sea. Looking for the correct street in the rain, there was a museum or something closing and we went to ask. He was leaving work and said it is far and e can take us in car (-quanto kilometri? -1. -1 non lontano! -Siamo non terroristi). Hesitating and trying to get directions....
In the house there was S, a friendly woman. She showed us about the area and also about Cala Gonone. We said we are going there at 1.55 bus. She said there is bus leaving at 5 and coming back at 8. We tried to explain that we had looked from the Internet and there was also earlier time, but probably the message got "lost in translation". She said she is going to Cala Gonone with her mother this afternoon and we could also go there with them. They asked if we have umbrellas. No [this would be inconfortable whilst travelling, I don't even have one in England], they lent me one. K did not want, she kept saying that she has a plastic poncho - they did not understand why she likes this plastic thing!
We ate and than walked to the bus stop to check the times and to the tourist information. We had 3h. Before us there was an English family, who spoke English and no other languages. We got advice to go to the seaside.
We had been there before, the moment we came to this town. Now we went to other side, listening to the loud noise stones make when the wave is leaving. After an hour or more (don't really know) or climbing on the stones and taking many pictures, it was time for the bus. 8.20. The bus stopped on a main road, a big one, outside town. We were very surprised, but he showed us a direction of how to get to the town. Hour or so of being lost, we arrived in the B&B. Warm shower sleep in the bed, while tent is spread out on the floor - to dry.
After the shower and dressed, it was not even cold any more! It was raining a bit, so it could have been colder with clear sky. This night, cold was not problem, fear of steps and our tent being "on display" was more of a concern. I wrote the diary, while sitting under a roof, an eating place, with my sleeping bag wrapped around me, K was still sleeping. A bit or running gave me more warmth.
8.30, tent packed, waiting. G came as promised and took us to Nuoro by car! On the way we learnt that he has 25 donkeys. K said that it sounded like 1 donkey, but he said for us, 1 donkey, for him 25. [and even later we wearnt that donkey is not burro in Italian - a lesson learnt while having breakfast the next day, when butter has burro written on it. Anyway, he understood].
Our bus was 10.30, as we learnt when trying to read the timetable, when locals, knowing that there was probably one bus that time and asked whether we want to go to Dorgali. Yes. We also read that in order to get the 14.25 bus to Cagliari on Saturday, we have to take 8.25 bus from Dorgali to Nuoro. Just to be sure, we decided to ask, whether the bus also goes this Saturday (because it was just before Easter Sunday), so "Vorrei andare a Cagliari il Sabatu. A che ora parte?"
It was warm on the bus, very warm, in contrast to the outside. After an hour, we arrived in Dorgali. Rain was stronger, strong enough to make ourselves more waterproof, so we decided to go to a cafe. Again, although it was still morning and everybody was eating sweet things, we asked whether they have something more lunch-like, because we have "molto fame".
Now in my notebook, there are several B&B addresses. Yes, we decided to sleep inside, firstly because we did not know any campsite, not having searched for this area before, secondly, campsites are outside town and we need to take 8.25 bus in the morning. Thirdly, because of the rain (not a good reason, I know!).
So we went to an Internet place, searched hostelworld, to find it is nothing in this town. From somewhere we found several addresses we decided to find. And we also checked bus timetable to Cala Gonone, a town next to the sea. Looking for the correct street in the rain, there was a museum or something closing and we went to ask. He was leaving work and said it is far and e can take us in car (-quanto kilometri? -1. -1 non lontano! -Siamo non terroristi). Hesitating and trying to get directions....
In the house there was S, a friendly woman. She showed us about the area and also about Cala Gonone. We said we are going there at 1.55 bus. She said there is bus leaving at 5 and coming back at 8. We tried to explain that we had looked from the Internet and there was also earlier time, but probably the message got "lost in translation". She said she is going to Cala Gonone with her mother this afternoon and we could also go there with them. They asked if we have umbrellas. No [this would be inconfortable whilst travelling, I don't even have one in England], they lent me one. K did not want, she kept saying that she has a plastic poncho - they did not understand why she likes this plastic thing!
We ate and than walked to the bus stop to check the times and to the tourist information. We had 3h. Before us there was an English family, who spoke English and no other languages. We got advice to go to the seaside.
We had been there before, the moment we came to this town. Now we went to other side, listening to the loud noise stones make when the wave is leaving. After an hour or more (don't really know) or climbing on the stones and taking many pictures, it was time for the bus. 8.20. The bus stopped on a main road, a big one, outside town. We were very surprised, but he showed us a direction of how to get to the town. Hour or so of being lost, we arrived in the B&B. Warm shower sleep in the bed, while tent is spread out on the floor - to dry.
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