The boat got in a little late because of bad weather. Had breakfast
on board, which was really _really_ bad. Stale bread (same as last
night but 8 hours older), mouldy butter, off juice. We paid quite a
lot for it too.
Oh, by the way - we're in Golfo Aranci, North Eastern Sardinia, at this
point. Our destination is Fertilia, a tiny town in the North West (near
Alghero if you have a map).
The boat dumps you in a big deserted car park - with no information for
foot passengers. The lady in the ticket office at one side of the car
park didn't even know where the train station (a few hundred metres
away!) was.
We found a cafe that did know, and walked up there, only to find that
the morning train had left about 1/2 hour before we arrived, and the
next train wasn't until 1:40pm (it was then 8:30am). Rang around and
discovered that a bus left at midday. Read for ages, and Kate bought
some nice looking drinks, which turned out to be very alcoholic! She
thought they were just soft drinks (until she got the bill, and they
were already opened then!)
We found out later that the trains do (just) meet up, but at the time
we'd already been in the area for 4 hours before we got moving. First
stop was Olbia, where we then waited for the train to Sassari, where we
had to change for Alghero. Timetable information was very hard to find,
luckily another bus driver told us where to wait.
When we got to Alghero we had to work out which bus to catch, and didn't
have a ticket for that bus (they don't sell them on board) - luckily the
bus driver was good about it and took us for free!
Got into Fertilia at 6:30pm - very nice hostel. We had a double room for
a lot less than we'd been paying in Rome. Really nice ensuite (the
flower shuddered, Kate says, but then all the flowers shud here). She's
laughing now. (That would be shower flooded for the spoonerism
challenged).
The scenery was gorgeous, and there's a giant beach stretching between
Alghero and Fertilia. The bus takes about 20 minutes to drive along
there. The sea is bright blue, the headlands imposing off in the
distance, and Alghero looks great in the sunlight. We have photographs.
Many photographs. Indeed, we took a lot of photos here. Heaps.
Went out to the local pizza restaurant for dinner. Huge yummy pizzas.
The internet computers in a couple of the hostels we've been to take
telephone cards, which is very clever because it means the hostel
doesn't have to deal with coins. Expensive though, and the keyboard
isn't great, so we didn't write many emails.
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