Sardinia

Hey all,

Quick bus ride this morning after coffee and cigar in Porto Vecchio, then wandered around Bonifacio for a bit, found where to get a ferry to Sardinia from, waited around, drank more coffee, spoke to K about her plans for coming over to join me in the not too distant future, smoked another cigar (at $1.50 a pop, why the hell not), looked at the boats in the harbour. A lot of fairly impressive pleasure yachts, many with double hulls – would be a fun way to live, if you had the drug empire money to support it. There is a romance to ports which seems to catch a lot of people who end up taking photos of all the exotic craft – I took a few myself – they could go anywhere, although I suspect quite a few of them spend most of their time hopping from marina to marina around the Mediterranean. Also nice to finally see a bit of Corsica that was not entirely made of granite. Ferry ride to Sardinia only took about an hour – was kind of fun – but I miss the easy camaraderie of the walk in Corsica – have become used to striking up conversations with total strangers and getting a good reception over the last few weeks – it is the kind of experience that does that to the people that are on it. Still in that mindset I tried this a couple of times today – with an English couple who had just finished the walk themselves, it went well – with another English couple who hadn't, I am back to startled looks, nervous laughs, glances from side to side, a quick exit. Oh well.

Wandered around St. Teresa, got a map from the tourist place, found a bookshop that had a Lonely Planet guide to Sardinia in English that I could see through the window – unfortunately it was closed. Was supposed to open at 5:30 – at about 5:50 I asked at the bar across the road if it did generally open – the girl said yes – possibly fifteen minutes, possibly more – certainly it would open at some point this evening, probably. Nice to be back in Italy. Having a similar experience here at the cheapest hotel I could find – the guy who runs it is waiting for his son to come back to give me the password for the wifi. His arrival time keeps changing backwards every time I ask when he will get here. Hopefully it will be at some point before too long, cause I really need to get online – the Lonely Planet guide (the bookshop did, eventually, open) was not a lot of help for hiking, unlike the Rough Guide to Corsica, which was very detailed. Don't know how much I rate the Lonely Planet series – they seem to have the market cornered, but I am little iffy about them at times. Still, it gave me an address online where I might be able to find out some more – although it does seem that the trails here are not as well marked as they are in Corsica, where frankly the only reason you need a map is if you somehow get lost – difficult even for me. But it does sound as though the Cagliari might be an interesting city to spend a couple of days in, which I need to do – the new boots are proving a bit of a problem – just pulled them off and removed the tape I had put on my heels to prevent blisters – skin came off with it and now one of my heels is bleeding – had planned to do a hike for a few days here, but need to walk around in thongs for a day or two before I start that. I hope walking around in thongs here is not the Big Issue it seemed to be in Porto Vecchio, where it prompted stares and even one instance where a guy looked at them, looked at me, then shook his head. I pointed at the boots hanging off my shoulders, which were more hole than boot at that point, shook my head right back at him.

Is cheaper here than Corsica, although it is still a resort destination – the resort destination of choice for the rich and infamous in places (which I will avoid) – so pricier than I would like – but a hotel room for 45EU is not too bad though still more than what I wanted to spend for the whole day – the don't seem to have any hostels here at all, which is annoying, because I have resolved to try to stick to a much tighter budget than usual – funds are running low. Hippy and Holland inspired me as their running budget is 10EU a day – how they managed that in Corsica is beyond me, given that it costs half that just to camp for the night – but they did seem to – admittedly I witnessed Hippy remove a half eaten bag of biscuits from a garbage bin, so I am not sure if I want to got quite that low rent – but certainly I need to keep it down for a month or two – Corsica was frightfully pricey, with the lone exception of cigars. It cost me 28 EU for a bundle of 25 Cubans. On the other hand, it cost me 22.90 EU for a lump of cured meat for the next few days...

Booked a hostel in Cagliari for three nights – will explore the city – in thongs – and sort out some sort of hike to do for a few days, then back to Florence for a bit.

Photos. 1. Porto Vecchio – expensive, but a pretty place to have a coffee. 2. Bonifacio, which would have been fun to explore if I had had the time. 3. An exotic cat, populated with people speaking with correct English accents and I would imagine a web of shell companies distancing them from where their money came from. 4. No granite!!! 5. Leaving Corsica. 6. How awesome would it be to live in one of those houses, perched on the edge of a cliff? Imagine being able to stare out the kitchen window at a stormy winter sea in full flight, while you drank a hot chocolate. 7. Santa Teresa at night. 8. Some gypsy band that was playing. Was a fair crowd, but mostly well heeled and middle aged, so the dancing area in front of the stage did not get much use, except for one old couple who A) could dance really well and B) didn't care what anyone thought anyway, and a trio of young girls who were A) hot and B) knew it, and briefly jiggled about in an appealing way much to the delight of half the well heeled middle aged crowd before dissolving into giggles and leaving the floor to the old couple.

Cheers, B.

Blogger seems to have changed the way it does its photos - which is annoying, cause I was used to the other way and don't much like the new one - so they are a bit out of order and the text is not at the side anymore :( Will try to figure out how to make it look less stupid sometime soon, but it is too late now.