Im going to make you wait for the explanation for that subject...
Sardinia is spectacular. Seriously, it is one of the altogether most beautiful places I have ever seen. My Lonely Planet says that it is like a continent in itself, and it feels like it--it has every kind of landscape imaginable, adn they are all richly vegetated and lush. The mountains and hills are terraced with vineyard and citrus and olive trees and it is all so GREEN. Its beautiful. And then there is the water. I crossed the island for the last 2.5 days to Cala Gonone, on the Golfo dOresei (pictures coming soon) and it is this little village spilling up the mountain sides from the Mediterranean, and all around it are the steepest, most enormous cliff faces and the most beautiful (well, maybe tied with Lagos) little coves and grottoes. Sardinians claim that they have the clearest water in the world, and I believe them. It is unreal--it is so clear that the water in these coves is like a thousand colors of blue and green and purple. Unbelievable...
And the people...fantastic. Friendliest bunch I have met so far in my travels, by far. They are so friendly and so pleased by your attempts to speak Italian...And I say attempts, because I frigging suck at it. Shockingly, an A+ in Ital 150 at UVic does not guarantee seemless communication with the natives...But they are so impressed when you try (unlike French people...and my French is WAY better than my Italian). Mostly, I speak in a mixture of Italian, French, adn English, with the odd vocab and verb that I can remember...But I managed to pull out of my ass (in context, not out of the blue) "I have no wristwatch" (dont even ask me why one of the very few Italian nouns I remember happens to be that, a word that I happened to need in conversation) and "I am afraid of the cave because it is too small." That one was spoken in a really broken way, but I got my point across and they didnt make me go to the cave. Professor Martina would be so proud of me.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as this place is and as nice as the people are and as good as the food is, it is about the least backpacker-friendly place I have ever been. There are NO fun people around at all. The only people I met there were the oddest couple--she was Ukrainian and he was Canadian--and I am dead convinced--call me crazy--that she was a Ukrainian mail order bride. Do they still have those? If they do, she was one, for sure. They had the strangest dynamic I havve ever seen and I actually turned down hanging out with them because it creeped me out. Plus, it is IMPOSSIBLE here if you dont have a car. It took me 6 hours and 3 bus transfers to cross an island that would have taken 1.5 hours by car. The buses run sooo infrequently it is ridiculous, and it is still in-season (until today, as it happens)...Which brings me to my story...
Yesterday, I spent the day taking a boat trip along the coast, checking out all the coves and spending a few hours on a couple of the beaches. Great day. Clouded over about 4 hours in, but I got a good enough idea of how fantastic the coast is...So I get back, and I have spent my last 20€ on this trip. I go to the cash machine, and it wont read my card. Shit. I have to pay my hotel bill, and I have no cash. Kristine has my Mastercard. It is the only cash machine in town, so I am told that i will have to go to Dorgali, a ten minute bus ride up the steepest, most zig-zaggy road that I have ever seen. But there are no more buses leaving that day...it is, after all, the insane hour of 5pm. So I have to go this morning at 8:05. Problem is, I was planning to take that bus out to leave to come back to Alghero. The bus back to Cala Gonone then leaves at 10:40, so I will miss the next bus out of Cala Gonone as well. This is disheartening news, because there are only four buses per day. Now let me emphasis to you how important it is that I make the next bus, at 2:25 (out of Cala Gonone). Today is the end of the season. Tomorrow, October 1, the east side of the island goes into hibernation mode and the buses run once per day...if that. Plus, tomorrow is Sunday. My only opportunity to get out of Cala Gonone tomorrow leaves at 4pm and thus will not allow me to make my three bus connections and I wont get back to Alghero...so I will miss my flight Monday morning. So I have to have to HAVE TO be on this bus. Its looking good until, in Dorgali, my bank card doesnt work either...at any of three banks, all Sardinian banks. So Im told Ill have to go to Nuoro, another 45 minutes out...so I am getting further away from Cala and closer to the time I need to catch the bus from there, AND I dont even have enough cash to make it to Nuoro...I thought briefly about hitchhiking, but then I think about my parents finding out and giving me a look similarly reproachful and disappointed to the one Nana Portugal gave me after The Incident...They would not be impressed. Plus I could get raped and murdered. So....picture this now...I actually walked around Dorgali and begged for money. It honestly had to be one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I learned the following: Germans are very, very generous. Brits are not. Old Italian men are also very generous. Old Italian women look at beggars like they are lepers. I got my 7€, only costing me my pride, and got on the bus to Nuoro, where I find a national bank and get my cash. So now I know that i may or may not make the bus at Cala Gonone because the same bus that drops me off there will be the one leaving (back to Nuoro, to transfer to Sassari, to transfer to Alghero, to transfer to Fertilia) 10 minutes later. It looks unlikely. The busstop to get back on the bus is up this big hill from my hotel, and i still have to pay and check out. So I start crying. This 30-something Italian woman (Giovanna) across the aisle asked me what was wrong...i told her the whole story, most of which I think she understood, and as we were coming into Cala Gonone and I was ready to admit defeat, she went up to the bus driver and started talked to him in mile-a-minute Italian and the bus driver actually stopped behind my hotel and waited for me to go in and pay, and then let me get back on (without a ticket! Giovanna said he said I had bought too many bus tickets today) and we were on our way...If I have not properly conveyed the panic of htis whole scenario, believe me, there was panic. Sardinia is not for backpackers--that is the moral of this story.
After that saint of a bus driver helped me out, everything worked out great with my transfers (although I put my hand on a wasp and got stung) and I arrived safely back in Fertilia, ahead of schedule. Now, if the weather cooperatres, I have one last day on the beach to recover from today.
I will post pictures soon. I will be reuniting with Kaje in Rome in two days...thank God. I am ready for the fun to start again.
Ciao,
Chels
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