Blogs from Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, Europe - page 2

It has been far too long since my trip to Sardinia and I am appalled that it has taken so long to update my final destination on my 7 week backpack but I guess better late than never. After weeks and weeks of partying like no tomorrow, I left Croatia bound for Bari on the east coast of Italy via boat. I took a plunge 10 weeks earlier and booked a cabin room on the boat, which although expensive, well worth it for comfort and a chance for some catch up sleep. The boat ride was 9 hours long and after my experience from Athens to Santorini I was not going to sit on the hard floor for all that time. When I finally got to Bari I had booked myself into a very nice hotel ... read more

Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean; Sicily is the largest. It was colonized by the Phoenicians in the 7th century B.C.; the first city was settled by the Carthaginians. It was captured by the Romans in 238 A.D.; controlled Pisa and Genoa in the 13th century and then the Spanish Kingdom of Aragon. Eventually it was controlled by Italy but our guide told us the natives of the central part of the island don’t speak Italian or Spanish but Sardinian, a language that is a combination of both. She couldn’t speak it as she was only taught Italian in school. Traffic was terrible because tomorrow starts the Festival of Sant’ Efisio, the patron Saint of Sardinia. Seems like in the area there is a festival for something almost every ... read more

April 2, 2009 Today we got a good start on the day. It was really hard to wake up this morning, but we got up anyway in time for our continental breakfast. Even though there was more of selection here than in Paris, the baguettes and jam in France beat this breakfast. We got back to our room and got ready and then soon met up with the other room. Hollie found a supermarket very close by, so we went there to get groceries and snacks for the day. We were able to take a shuttle from the hotel to city center for only 25 euro! Amazing! (I paid 3.60 for bus.) The guy dropped us off and we wondered around. We attempted to find the beach, with no luck. We walked for a good couple ... read more

Geo: 39.0938, 9.11564Breakfast - juice, coffee, cereal, nutella, biscuits, pre-packaged croissants. Better than average. Ate with 2 Italian girls ... in Palermo for some kind of Donkey conference??? There were communication difficulties so I'm not exactly sure why - perhaps they were zoologists? Or maybe they were just calling me an "ass", but somehow it was translated incorrectly. Off to Monreale with Steffi. Not much there other than the cathedral. Nice exterior but the inside was JAC! Back to Palermo. Lunch was a veal spleen sandwich. Famous place, in business since 1834. The spleen was ... not great, but not bad. Cheap at 2 euros for a sandwich. Pretty oily - Sheree and Maryam raved about it in Cefalu, but I only found it to be OK. Gelato - caffe and biscotti flavour. Nothing great, but ... read more