I said goodbye to a dear friend today

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Geo: 39.9714, 8.60317

Not a horrid night's sleep on the ferry. Probably at least 4 hours. I kept waking throughout the night. Glad that I had earplugs. Got to Cagliari and disembarked 1.5 hours after the scheduled arrival time. No time to see the town - there isn't much there anyway.

Checked out McDonald's - I was tempted to have a taste of home (though I never eat it back in Calgary). Pricey! A Big Mac was 5 euros - they did have some local items like fried panzerotti. At least things like cheeseburgers were relatively cheap. I'm glad that I ended up skipping McD's.

Had an excellent salami, cheese, and tomato sandwich at the train station, instead. Flavourful - great soda bread that was lightly dusted with flour. Crispy and crusty, but with a soft and chewy interior.

So why did I choose to visit Sardinia? It sounds stupid, but many years ago I remembered seeing a TV show about Sardinia. They talked about their famous "cream" cheese. It's cheese that is left out until it is crawling with maggots. The locals then eat the leftover cheese that the maggots have digested. Apparently, it's been banned by the authorities (for health reasons), but there is still a thriving black market for it. But as soon as I saw this maggoty cheese, I thought "I HAVE to visit this place one day!!!". So here I am. I don't think I'll have the guts to try it - I'll probably eat it and die a horribly slow, and painful death.

Got to Oristano - horrible directions from the Let's Go guide once again! It said to take Via Veneto to Piazza Mariano ... but maybe they should mention that you pass through another piazza first. There are hardly any signs posted so it takes much walking and time to figure out the names of all the roads branching from the first piazza. It was the same thing going from Mariano to Piazza Roma.

"Turn right off Roma to Sardegna", it said. This suggests taking your first right as you arrive in Roma, no? Nope, and by the time I found a sign telling me that it was the wrong road, I'd already walked 5 minutes. Managed to find the B&B with enough wandering and help from the locals. It took me 45 minutes to get there.

The problem is that the guide gives you directions to Piazza Roma from the station and then all other directions start from there. The B&B is maybe 10 minutes from the station. To save 2 lines of text, they screw you up and cause you to walk an extra 15-20 minutes. And the worst part? The directions they give you from Piazza Roma are the LONG way. You can shave 5 minutes off the walk by taking a different route. I am sure nobody cares, but I needed to vent!

Anyway, the B&B is fairly nice. A private room with shared bath for 25 euros. A nice lady worked there. She's the owner's sister and is temporarily looking after the place, I think. Even provided me with a big bottle of water.

Showered and then off to explore. It was quite hot out ... wandered awhile and found the town to be pretty dead. Sunday is always a bad day to travel but I doubt this place would ever be very lively. Similar to Agrigento in that way. At least my Sundays have been wasted in forgettable towns (that sounded mildly optimistic - something must be wrong with me!).

Second-guessed myself - maybe I should have pushed on to Bosa, instead. It would have been better, but who would have known? Also, after the night ferry it wasn't the worst thing to relax and slow it down for the day.

Not much to see here ... sat on a bench for awhile to plan the Sardinia portion of the trip. I feel restless in places like this ... I might speed things up a notch. We shall see .. of course, I've been better about slowing things down recently. I could rush for the early bus tomorrow, but will wait for the afternoon one, instead. But now I need to figure out what I am going to do here tomorrow! Maybe have lunch or a coffee on the square.

Dinner - a recommended pizzeria near the main piazza. The piazza was fairly lively so I wandered for a few minutes. People were sitting at the cafes and just hanging out. Found a good gelato place - already thinking about later!

Ordered pizza with a local specialty - bottarga (ground fish eggs). People eat a little earlier here - 8 o'clock and I wasn't the only person in the restaurant! I was lucky that it was open - most of the restaurants are closed here on Sundays.

The pizza also had artichokes on it ... very unique. Smelled fishy ... but didn't taste fishy. Good, but not anywhere near as good as Sicilian or Neapolitan pizza. The crust was average - more like a pita bread. Not soft, chewy, or anything.

Life of Pi - actually quite good! The author's ability to fully describe things is incredible - his description of a hyena is bang on. Not so much describing it with mere words ... but using simile to describe its demeanor and appearance. Impressive. So far, the imagery is the highlight of the book.

Dessert - what else but gelato!!! Watermelon and banana. Melon was very fragrant - perhaps artificial? Banana was good and tasted real. I have had better, for sure - guess I'm not really a fruit gelato kind of guy. Ran into the lady at the B&B - she asked me if I enjoyed Oristano. Didn't have the heart to tell her that her town is boring! So I said "Yes! I had pizza and gelato!". Watched the MTV Italy countdown, did some reading, and then off to bed.

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Photos

a
JAC!

b
Just another piazza!

c
So sad ... I finally said goodbye to my travel companion - "Mead", the little notebook that could. He has been with me through thick and thin on this trip. Indispensable - for me, he has remembered train schedules, hostel phone numbers, confirmation numbers, email addresses ... I am sad to see him go! He is to me what "Wilson" was to Tom Hanks in "Castaway"! He gave and he gave, until he had nothing left ... so selfless!
But seriously, Mead has been a great travel companion. I have also used him to keep track of my random thoughts until I could sit down and catch up on my real journal.
He's only a bunch of spiral-bound little pieces of paper ... but still - he's done everything for me! You wouldn't think it - but he's kept track of my memories, and my hopes and dreams that I've discovered (and in some cases, re-discovered) on this trip. I am as attached to him as anyone could be to a notepad. Farewell, my good friend! I hope to see you one day in the big paper-recycling factory in the sky!