Off the Coast

In a way, this past weekend felt like the culmination of the entire 3 months here, even though we have one week left. Since Samuel’s class ended on a Thursday, instead of doing a standard Saturday trip we all booked super cheap Ryan Air flights to various parts of Europe. Even though we had different destinations, we all had to be at the Treviso airport at 6:30AM Friday so we got up together at 3AM to walk to Casarsa and take the train, and then after that a bus to the airport. From there, eight of us flew to Cagliari, a city on the coast of Sardinia. Our goal: the beach.

What else? First though, we had to find our hostel so we could drop off our backpacks. For a little while Lexie and Sophie valiantly tried to find it using the sun as a compass and some directions Sophie had printed off the internet, but it was a struggle. After 20 mins of that, I turned on 3G, pulled up Google Maps and GPS and promptly found the hostel's front door.

My way is so unsportsmanlike. All kudos still go to Lex and Soph.

We stayed at the hostel just long enough to get changed before heading back down the hill through the city to the bus stop. We bought the €1.20 tickets, and after a short ride and an even shorter walk were standing on Poetto beach, facing clear blue water that mirrored the cloudless blue sky. It was warm. It was beautiful. The water, at least, is the most beautiful I have ever seen. I swam way out into the bay, almost to where a couple sailboats were anchored for the afternoon, and even there I could still see all the way to the rippled, sandy floor.

I stayed out there for a long time, enjoying the sparkling saltwater and the baby waves and the hot sun and the hills and southern Italian architecture and way out at the horizon where blue met blue. I almost fell asleep floating on my back, it was that relaxing. The cold winter, textbooks, and all that homework that crowds everything, melted. I think I melted actually. It was so beautiful, I almost couldn’t do it. There are few places I’d rather be on a gorgeous day than in the water.  (P.S. there were paddle boarders!!! I tried not to be jealous because that would have been silly, but they were there!)

Reluctantly, I started swimming back towards shore. But I figured it was the safest thing to do because I was lightheaded from not eating. The espresso and brioche at the airport were 8 hours in my past. We had meant to find a grocery store and take a picnic with us to the beach, but we ended up at McDonald’s instead, and Mik and I (being the health-snobs our mother’s raised us to be) didn’t get anything. That really wasn’t a good idea because when all was said and done, neither of us ate until 8PM that night. Oops. Fail.

There are going to be fails when you are traveling in a foreign country, though, so you just have to take them as they come. For example, we hopped back on the city bus, and, since there was no ticket office, tried to pay the driver like you are supposed to do, and we see people do all the time. He waved the money we offered away, though, since the bus was so crowded I guess and he didn’t have time.

We should have insisted he let us pay. When the bus doors opened in the city center, our way out was blocked by two men in spiffy suits. “Biglietto” he said over and over again, which meant he was checking tickets. But of course we didn’t have tickets. We turned around to try and pay the driver but he was unresponsive. So we explained the situation to Suits, that we had tried to pay, but never could. No matter what we said in English or Italian, he responded with “Non capisco.” So we stood there and watched hopelessly as Suits pulled out a pad of leaflets and started writing up a pink slip.

A 200 euro fine--for something that wasn’t our fault.

At that point we pretty much panicked. None of us had been to the ATM yet that day, and we barely had any money. I guess we looked pathetic enough, because with a very frustrated sigh he knocked it down to 50 euro. It took all the money we had, but we paid him.

I stepped off the bus and, walking a few paces to be out of ear shot, said something not very nice. But it felt good (that’s what matters, right? :P) and pretty soon I cooled down enough to realize that it wasn’t that big a deal, and there’s only so much you can do when there’s a language barrier and you can’t defend yourself. Besides, split between all eight of us, the fine wasn’t that bad. The day at the beach was worth it.

We all hit up the ATM directly after that and headed out to find supper. Mik and I got to our little market and bought a bunch of fresh food which we took to the hostel and ate in the courtyard. We didn’t do anything else that night since we were all pretty tired, and knew once we woke up we had a long day ahead of us.

Saturday mostly consisted of walking all around the city. Part of it is on the hillside, so we stayed near the top so we could enjoy all the views. It was a little cooler (70) and breezy, but still perfect. There were flowers blooming everywhere, and the air smelled so sweet at times I could have died. Our goal was to visit the botanical gardens (supposedly the nicest in Italy) but they were closed when we did finally get there. I think they were closed for the season, actually. Even so, we found some public gardens and the whole day passed in a lovely fashion, with lots of food involved to compensate for the day before.

By nine that night, we caught one of the last shuttles to the airport. Since our flight left at 6:30, and we would have to be there at 4:30, we didn’t want to bother spending the night anywhere but at the airport.

It was an interesting night. Airport chairs are made specifically so you cannot either sleep or sprawl out, so I only slept from 2AM to a little before 3. At which point I woke up because Lexie’s sneeze had echoed through the empty terminals.

And suddenly everything was funny. So I wobbled around laughing and laughing and laughing for no apparent reason--actually there were many reasons, to me. I don’t remember them now, but I know they were there. And at least laughing gave me something to do. My other effort to stave off boredom backfired. It basically involved getting rehydrated, but the main goal was to have something to do, i.e, walk to the bathroom frequently. I think it would have been okay, but standing in line for security one of the girls tossed me a juice box that obviously wasn’t allowed on the flight, and chugging that was just poorly timed. On the upside, I was hydrated.

We finally boarded our flight, and landed in Venice at the ungodly hour of 7:50 AM. It was raining. But after some coffee, and another trip to the bathroom, I felt better and since the weather had cleared we (Lexie, Kayla, Mik and I) spent an enjoyable morning getting lost in the ancient streets until our train left.

When we walked through the gate, back at school, I shouted “I’m home!” like I often do. Even though two days in Cagliari was awesome, and I would have stayed longer, coming back to SBI is always a sweet feeling.