December 9, 2009

• La Bella Sardegna

  Back to school today after the 'ponte' - the bank holiday for the Immaculate Conception (or "Immaculation" as I accidentally referred to it as) was on Tuesday 8th, so they took the Monday off too. Nice! I took the opportunity to go away, and flew to Sardinia for a few days.

  I found a cheap flight with Ryanair, so although normally I would avoid Ryanair at all costs, off I went. In fact it wasn't as bad as I expected and I think for this kind of journey (where I only needed a small bag etc) it was pretty good. I read in their magazine that they are investigating the possibility of replacing about 60 seats with standing areas instead, the first few of which will be offered free. I can't imagine standing on a flight would be much fun, even if only for an hour or less.

  I flew Bergamo to Cagliari and from the airport it was an easy journey into the centre. The youth hostel was in the centre and an easy walk from the bus station. It was a nice hostel, probably one of the best I've stayed in (although it would have been nice if there had been food provision, there was breakfast but nothing like the one I had in the Trento hostel which was much cheaper!).

  Saturday - Cagliari and Poetto

  The weather on Saturday/Sunday/Monday was gorgeous! Clear blue skies, warm, sunny...proper holiday weather! On Saturday morning I had a general wander around town taking in some of the sights. I started by walking up the steps of the Bastione San Remy which took me to the old city, called Castello. Really pretty...narrow streets, old buildings, and on the terrace LOTS of palm trees. It was stunning. I obviously like steps as I then climbed both Pisan towers (Torre dell'Elefante and Torre di San Pancrazio). Then wandered over to the Ampitheatre which unfortunately had been flooded the day before so I couldn't go in. They said to go back the folllowing day but I didn't end up having time. Still I saw it from the outside. Oh and then I happened to wander past the Botanical Garden and decided to have a look. I had been persuaded at the first tower to buy a 3 day tourist card which gave free entry to lots of sights, reduced to some others and free travel. I think it did work out a good deal in the end, although I wasn't convinced to start with. Anyway the botanical garden should have been a reduced ticket, €2 instead of €3. However, she said she didn't have any tickets for €2 and waved me in free! How bizarre! Wouldn't it have made more sense to charge me the €2 and give me a €3 ticket and cross it out or something? Anyway, I wasn't going to complain as I hadn't really wanted to pay more anyway!!
  

   

  I met Ruth, another British Council language assistant based in Cagliari, for lunch. Really enjoyed chatting and swapping experiences, most of which seem very similar (the same frustrations, the same idiotic things that go on at school, the same amusements, etc etc). Reassuring to know that it's not just my school and my teachers!
  Afterwards I got the bus to Poetto which is a beach... was really pretty and a nice walk along the sand in my boots! There were lots of people playing tennis/football etc on courts on the beach, some of whom were only wearing speedos!! I didn't think it was THAT hot, hehe. It was like a proper little summer holiday though!
  I got the bus back and climbed the Bastione steps again in the hope of seeing sunset from the top. The sun was hidden though and so although I did see the light fall, I didn't actually see the sun set. It was still beautiful though and "worth the haul up" (as my Rough Guide says!)

  After all that I was really hungry but it was only 6.30pm, which of course is a ridiculous time to expect to be able to eat in Italy. However, I managed to find a restaurant which agreed to serve me a risotto at that time, so I enjoyed it with a nice glass of wine. I had to watch football while eating it, but still, you can't have everything!

  Sunday - Cagliari and Pula/Nora

  One of the things I was keen to do whilst in Cagliari was an excursion to Nora, an archaelogical site on the coast about 35km from Cagliari. I hadn't researched bus times and hadn't really thought about the fact that it was a Sunday. I knew that there was the possibility of not being able to get a bus to Nora and having to walk from Pula, a nearby town. I turned up at the bus station at 8.30am and asked for a ticket to Pula. He told me that the bus had just gone, at 8.20am. The next one wasn't until 12.30pm. Doh! So I went away and did some more exploring in Cagliari while deciding whether or not to go. I saw some more Roman sites - Tigellio's Villa and la Grotta della Vipera, followed by a "church crawl" of sorts.  I had been in the Cattedrale the previous day but there had been a baptism going on so I had decided to go back. I went in at that point and there was ANOTHER baptism happening! However this time there were lots of people looking around so I decided as I had gone away the first time I was just going to look this time, so had an explore, went in the crypt etc. I then headed to the Museo del Duomo which was included in my tourist card. I got an individual guided tour of the museum, entirely in Italian! The guy was really nice...he didn't ask at any point whether I understood Italian, so it was lucky I did understand the whole thing!

  Anyway after all that I was just in time to get the 12.30 bus which I had decided to do. The journey was about 50 minutes on the coach. There were some Spanish girls and a couple of unknown nationality (in their 50s) on the bus (along with lots of locals going to various places along the way and after). We were the only ones who got off at Pula though. I asked the girls if they were also trying to get to Nora, and they said maybe but they didn't know yet. The couple, who turned out to be Slovenian, were going though. So we went together in search of the bus which they had been assured there was. One bus stop said they didn't run on Sundays, the next one said they did! So we waited to see if the one due would turn up...it didn't. So we decided to walk.  It said 3km, 4km and 5km in different guides,  but we knew it was doable whatever so we set off together. I was glad to have company, although I would have gone alone if I'd had to. Anyway we chatted while we walked, and after about 45 minutes we arrived at the spectacular site. It really was quite something... lots of archaeological ruins of different times, set against the dramatic promontory, with gorgeous blue sea, blue sky etc. I was glad I went!

  
  

  After having explored and wandered up the hill to a tower on the top (and having made friends with a cute cat, one of many hanging around the site), we headed back to wait for the bus which we had been assured WOULD turn up this time, even on a Sunday. Again, it didn't (of course!). So the Slovenians decided we should hitch a lift, and when a car went past the husband thumbed for it. The car stopped and it was left to me to explain the situation (I had been appropriated as translator for the day, which was actually a lot of fun! Luckily my Italian was having a good day!). The guy was really nice and agreed to take us back to Pula. I felt really bad as he had to stop the car a bit further along to put the back seats back up as it turned out he had them down to fit a ladder etc in the car! Oh and then I put muddy footprints all over the front passenger well. Oops! I was so embarrassed and hope that my apologising came across as profusely as I hope (in Italian). Oh dear! Anyway, my Italian came in handy again as our next stop was the museum which was a combined ticket with the Nora site. We had given our tickets to the Spanish girls who were going to try and use them to get in free (which worked!). The lady asked if we already had tickets and I said we had "lost" them because we didn't know that it was combined, but that we honestly had been there... I produced the postcard I bought at the site as proof! She didn't even argue and waved us straight in which was good!
  At this point it was about 5.30pm and we were keen to eat before getting the bus back at 7pm. Again, even more of a ridiculous time. The Slovenians were convinced we would find somewhere and I had to go and ask in various restaurants whether we could eat.  The first place we tried were almost horrified that we turned up so early "e' presto, sapete?' and the others just looked at us as though we were mad... so in the end we had to settle for a tramezzino (sandwich) left over from lunchtime. We then settled into reading books etc to pass the rest of the time, and I started to fall asleep...it had been a very long day with lots of walking! Luckily the bus to get us back to Cagliari DID turn up and we got back safe and sound at around 8pm.

  Monday - A day of frustrations

  Monday was just not meant to be my day. It started out well as there was a different person giving out breakfast and I managed to get some milk for my tea this time! But then I had to wait aaaaaaages to check out of the hostel (literally just to hand in my swipe card for the room, which incidentally was Room 101) as there were some teachers trying to pay for a huge school group and they were arguing for ages about the bill. There was a German guy huffing and puffing in front of me who then took ages himself! Eventually I got out and headed to the Infopoint as I wanted to find out whether the museums were open. I had stupidly forgotten that Monday is the day when everything is shut in Italy, so I had left 2 museums which I really wanted to go to for the day that they were going to be closed. Doh! Anyway they didn't know at the info point whether they would be open specially because it was a bank holiday (sometimes they are) and so they took my number and said they'd text to let me know when they found out (which they never did). I decided to head off and do some other things I wanted to do first, which were a bit off the beaten track. On my way back into town I sat down on a wall and dropped my map into the building site below. Oops! Had no idea where I was at that point. I managed to find a road which I recognised, after trekking up a long hill. I decided that to get back up onto the top (where the museums were) I would get the lift. A man and I got in the first lift and went up, only to discover that the second lift was closed for technical reasons. Great! So then I decided I would just get the bus... my shins were killing from all the walking the day before and I was tirrrrred! I was waiting for the number 7 but accidentally got on the number 6 when it arrived, without checking whether it was going the right way (I really was tired!). I realised it wasn't going the right way quite quickly, but for some reason (brain asleep) didn't think to get off it straight away. So we had gone quite far when I did get off. I went straight to get the  bus going back the other way to get me back to the starting point. However, for some unknown reason the bus going back the other way wasn't going back the other way at all and started taking me miles off in another wrong direction. So I had to get off that one even further out of the way, and then eventually found a bus going the right way! By the time I had got back I had been sitting on buses for an hour, most of them going the wrong way, and then I arrived back at exactly where I had started before I had even trekked up the first part of the hill. Doh doh doh! By that point I had had enough of walking and decided to just scrap the whole idea of going up the top again. I was meeting Ruth again at midday anyway, so I decided just to wait for that. I did very much enjoy eating a pistacchio and coconut icecream in the sun, sitting under a palm tree! Bliss!
  Then Ruth came and we had lunch and lots more chatting. Then it was time to get the bus back to the airport for the end of the holiday, booooo!

  It was a lovely 4 days and I felt like I had been away from school forever when I came back in this morning! Well it was in fact almost a week ago that I was last here! Only 7 more days left at school now (going to London 2 weeks today!). Back to reality with 3C this morning...that class just do not shut up. They were soooooooo loud, but the Christmas quiz (my last lesson with them before Christmas) went down well I think despite that, saved particularly by the Christmas food magazine pictures sent from England by my lovely parents! 3E were ok and then I had to take 4D alone AGAIN as the teacher didn't turn up AGAIN. This school system is so weird! Oh well, I have really given up caring whether they pay attention or not!! Definitely ready for Christmas holidays!!

  • 7:15 am
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