Sardinia, Italy 02.08

Portisco 02.08
We arrived in Olbia after a short and loud night's sleep on the ferry. Thankfully we managed to find a bus that was going to Portisco, where we were meeting the rest of the group that we were going sailing with. We weren't sure what Portisco looked like, as we'd never been there before, and we didn't realise that the bus stopped only when requested. As a result, the bus didn't stop in Portisco, and by the time we realised this, we were well past it.

The driver didn't speak English, and he must have forgotten that we'd said Portisco when we bought our tickets, so he organised for a bus coming from the other direction to pick us up. Unfortunately, the next bus was in 2 hours, so we had to wait it the cafe where he dropped us off, until then.

There were some interesting characters to watch at the cafe though. There was a German lady accompanied by two men and a huge black dog. The dog was sitting at the table eating from a plate, and the woman was speaking a bit of Italian with the waitress, who seemed to know her. She was probably about 60, and had dyed blonde hair, heavy, clownish make up which only accentuated her wrinkled face, and was wearing a black dress with a split down the front, that highlighted her sagging, wrinkled breasts. It was an interesting spectacle. She looked like a rich, eccentric, old lady, who refused to believe her own age.

There was another younger Russian woman there too (40ish), who was wearing see-through leopard skin pants, which enabled her to parade her g-string for all to see. Interesting crowd that Sardinia draws, but highly entertaining. The Bentley Continental, and the new VW Scirocco in the carpark, gave us a hint that Sardinia was a playground for the rich.
We soon got in contact with Konrad, Artur's brother, who was also coming on the sailing trip. They had arrived in Portisco, but unfortunately, our yacht wasn't there! We were supposed to pick it up from the port at Portisco, but it hadn't been sailed from Olbia.

We arrived on the bus soon to meet them, but due to the lack of ship, we had to drive back to Olbia! On the way down to meet them, Artur accidentally smashed the screen of his phone with his suitcase handle. The phone was pretty much destroyed, and he lost all of his phone numbers! Great success! We arrived at the port in Olbia, where our boat was, but there were more nasty surprises. The boat was filled with the junk and dirty dishes that the last holiday makers had left. The beds didn't have clean sheets, fresh towels, and the bathrooms and kitchen hadn't been cleaned. The boat had no electricity at that time, and no fresh water or fuel. It was a mess. Our skipper spent a long time on the phone yelling at the company, and demanding that they fix the problem. The best we got was new sheets and towels to change ourselves, and they fixed the electricity and water situation. The boat's name was 'Sapphire Hel', which seemed an appropriate name considering the circumstances.
By the time we left, we were all ready for a drink, to try and relax ourselves after a rough start to the trip. There were 7 people on the boat; Pawel, the skipper, the pair of us, Konrad and Gosia, and two of their friends, Przemek and Magda. We were all happy and excited despite what had happened, and everyone was glad to be on holidays.
We all settled into our little cabins, one for each couple. We had a little toilet attached to our room, and the other two couples had a shower and toilet to share. It was a lot more spacious than Artur had experienced in sailing before, but it was Loren's first sailing trip, so it still felt pretty cramped. We did have a nice seating area in the boat, along with a little kitchen, and there was a seating are on the deck, so it wasn't too bad. We were shocked at how expensive these boats are though, this one cost more than the most expensive Porsche on the market! About 200,000 Euros. This is a lot, considering how small our yacht was compared to other ones on the water.
The yacht tilted really far over on its side when we were sailing, which wasn't good for some people's motion sickness. Those that were ok, read magazines and books, or listened to music. Loren found a comfortable spot at the front of the yacht, using the inflatable life boat as a cushion, and protection from being launched off into the sea. It was the most comfortable and private place on the boat.
On our way to Portisco, we saw an enormous ship, as big as a ferry or cruise ship, with the words 'I Love Fashion TV', painted on the side. Apparently, it is used for photo shoots and for luxurious trips for models and celebrities. It was definately a great advirtisement, as you could read the sign from a long way away.
Eventually, we arrived in Portisco from Olbia. We freshened ourselves up, and went to town for some dinner. We ended up eating at a rather fancy looking place, that turned out to be one of the most expensive restaurants in town. Looks like our companions had rather good taste and deeper pockets than our those in our worn out backpacker outfits. Artur also found out, to his surprise, that we all had to pay for the Skipper's drinks and food for the whole trip.
Apparently this is standard, but something we didn't know in our limited sailing experience. We had a royal dinner, and one of us managed to order a fish for 60 Euros! Not a bad effort, hopefully it tasted just as fantastic as the price.
The crew was quite tired by the end of the meal, so everyone headed back to the boat. We soon headed out again on our own, for a night time swim. We weren't sure where to swim, or where the nearest beach was. We found a tiny path that lead through dense bushes and trees, near the water. We were hedging our bets that at one point, the path would lead to the water and the sand. We had only a little head lamp with us for light, and there was no light from the moon assisting us, so our journey was a difficult one. Eventually though, our bet paid off, and we saw a nice private stretch of beach. The water was very clear, and the refreshingly cool. It was a great taste of holiday fun after a bit of a tragic day. On our way back to the boat, we found Magda and Przemek at a cafe. We joined them for a drink, and had a great time chatting about the trip and sailing that day.

Santa Teresa di Gallura 03.08
We woke up the next morning at about 9am, and found that most of the crew were no longer on the boat. We decided to entertain ourselves in the meantime, by going for a run. It was already fairly warm, but we decided to go anyway. We went for about 30 mins, around the port, the nearby beach, and up and down a very steep hill. It wasn't too tiring, and we enjoyed the view over the water as we ran.
After breakfast, we started our sailing again, this time for Santa Teresa di Gallura. We had our drinks ready for the day and Frank Sinatra blaring from the sound system. We were ready to go! We stopped along the way at a beautiful little secluded bay. It was just amazing, as only boats could make it to this part of the water, there were no people on the shore at all. Mind you, there were a few boats parked here, with decks full of sunbathers and partiers.
We had managed to fit our snorkelling gear inside of our suitcases, so we were set for a great day in the water. Loren had done her beginners course in snorkelling in Hvar, thanks to Artur's teaching, so we were ready for anything.
We did come across a bit of a challenge though - jellyfish. They were everywhere! You could easily see their little puffy heads, but the long tentacles that hung below could catch you if you swam beneath. Loren was on alert for the entire time we were in the water, and at one moment of lapse in concentration, she actually touched one! Thankfully, she only touched its head, not its stinging tentacles. It was a bit of a shock to touch something in the water and realise it was dangerous though. Gosia wasn't so lucky, and had to retire to the boat after being stung.

We had a great time examining the creatures in the water and the rocks and seaweed that they swam around in. There were lots of colourful fish, that we loved to chase underwater. We never caught any, but it was fun.

We did manage to score something for lunch though. The rocks were covered in 'Sea Urchins', black balls of spikes nestled amongst every crack. We had tried sea urchins in Vietnam, they served them cooked in a soup. Apparently it is an aphrodesiac.

We found lots of them, but getting them was the hard part. We dove down with a dustpan to scoop them up, and a plastic bag to store them in. They were very stiff and spiky, so we didn't want to hold them. Eventually we managed to get 3 of them.

We weren't sure how to cook them, but we managed to do it without too much trouble. Loren was a bit nervous about the whole cooking process, as she loves all living creatures, but if you get too queasy about things like that, you would be forced to be vegetarian.
Eventually, we managed to get a small amount of meat from the sea urchins and eat it with the soup that everyone was eating for lunch. We each had a packet of noodle soup that day, so it worked out very well for our kitchen enterprise.

The rest of the crew saw Artur throwing the shells of the sea urchins back into the water, and called him a barbarian from Australia, torturing for fun. They obviously had no idea that we were preparing a meal, and making the effort to fish for some food ourselves. Artur let them wind up for a bit, and then explained what was really going on.
We had a few more hours of sailing to go, and then we finally reached Santa Teresa di Gallura. We headed ashore to see our new town and to have some dinner. Thankfully this time, we managed to choose a restaurant which had reasonable prices. The service and the food were really great, and we were quite pleased with the place. On our way in we saw an enormous fish in an ice box. It was one of the biggest fish we had ever seen. That would have been a cool fish to try!
On our way back to the boat, we went past a little hut, that had all sorts of cool informations screens on display. All of the screens were to assist with sailing, and had details on wind strength and direction, information on the waves, maps and a detailed weather forecast. It was very cool, and amazing how much information you can have access to before you even put up your sails.

Sardinian Flag

Back at the yacht, we met up with the crew of another boatful of Polish people. They were running on the same fuel as our boat, 'Absolut Vodka', so we got along well. They were even better supplied than our boat, so we ended up borrowing some from them. Przemek went out late with them on the infalatable raft to a party elsewhere. He came back in the morning with blue feet! His shoes had gotten wet and the dye had stained his feet bright blue.

Bonifacio 04.08
In the morning, we went for another run. It was a great way to explore the town, and a nice change for our bodies after sitting on the boat all day. We needed some bread for breakfast, so we decided to find a bakery while we were jogging. There was nothing in the port part of the town, so we ended up climbing a big hill to get to the main area of town. We found a bakery pretty easily here, so we were set for our day's journey.

We left to go to Bonifacio, one of the pretty coastal towns in Corsica. On the way, we stopped at a pretty lagoon, where we anchored the yacht and went off for a swim. The snorkelling here was even better than the day before. There were even more fish, no jellyfish and really clear water.

We discovered lots of Sole fish on the sand too. They are so flat that it's very hard to see them, but their little bobble eyes that stick up give them away. They believe in their power of camouflage so much, that when we swam down to touch them, they darted on about a metre away. They believed we wouldn't see them. They slightly buried themselves in the sand, but we could still see them. It took several times of us approaching them for them to be convinced that they needed to swim further away.
We also found lots of shells from sea urchins. They are spherical and hollow, and very fragile. Once the sea urchins have died and sea creatures have eaten them or they have just decayed, there is only this shell left. We saw them as decoration in a few restaurants, but we couldn't figure out what they were at the time.

We also found some mussels lying on the sand. We were very excited and collected them, but then we wondered how they go there. Mussels are usually found near rocks, and these were just on the sand, all together. We decided that someone must have cooked them already, and these ones probably didn't open, so they threw them back. Artur lost his from his pockets as he was swimming, so we didn't have many, and we decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Loren busied herself underwater, diving for shells. She found some great ones that looked like they were coated in mother of pearl. She dove really deep at one point, and had trouble equalising the pressure in her ears, but she really wanted to get this shell. Her ears were pretty sore after that.
We headed back to the boat at the time that everyone had agreed to leave. However, when we got back the rest of the crew were getting off onto the life raft. We thought they were fetching the rope that was tied to the rocks, however they soon disappeared into the distance. We had no idea where they were going, or what they were doing, but we found out later that they had decided to climb a nearby hill of rocks, to get a good view of the area. It would have been nice to see ourselves.

While we were waiting, we fed the albatrosses and seagulls with old bread. He told us that sometimes they fly right up to you and take it from your hand. A few came close, but today they were too shy.
We started sailing again, when the others came back from their excursion. Loren got to have a go at steering the yacht, but it was really windy and bumpy, and hard to do. It was her first trying, and it was hard to understand the electronic equipment that was supposed to indicate which way to steer. It ended up being a short turn, because Konrad couldn't handle the bumping of the waves, he was seasick on most days of the trip. Although there wasn't a big difference between the bumping on autopilot and when Loren was steering. It was generally a rough sea that day.
We soon arrived in Bonifacio, and were amazed at how beautiful it was. We sailed between huge cliffs with enormous old walls at the top, like a fort. The harbour was very long and narrow, and we could only find a tiny place between two other yachts. It was really tough for Pawel to moor the boat, but we managed to do it without scratching anything. Everyone from our boat and the boats on either side were holding up and adjusting the big stuffed tubes that prevent the boats from touching. Thankfully, the other boat full of Polish people had found us a place closer into the harbour, and with more space. We gladly left and took it.
After mooring, we all went for a few drinks at a nearby bar. Corsica is a French Island, so Artur and Loren were able to assist with speaking to the waitress and ordering in French. It had been a while since we had practised our French, so we were a bit rusty, but we practised by speaking to each other in French.
After our drinks, we walked along the marina and admired the decadent yachts that were moored there. There were some that were just enormous, lit with bright lights and fancy names and they were sparkling clean. Most of the big ones had servants, who washed the boat constantly, and cooked the meals, ran the boat etc. Some even had scooters on board, so that the owners could go whizzing around each town that they came to, without any hassle.

After wandering for a while, we decided to have some dinner. Once again, our fellow crew chose a restaurant in an even higher price range than the one on the first night. We looked at the menu and realised that ordering even the cheapest thing on the menu would leave us both starving and out of pocket, so we decided to leave them and eat somewhere else.

We found a lovely place elsewhere, which served fresh seafood on set menus. We both had spectacular meals, one with a huge bowl of fresh mussels, and the other with pasta mixed through with fresh seafood. We both managed to eat here, with a desert, entree and drink for less than the third that we had to pay for our skipper's meal.
After our dinner we reunited and climbed up a huge hill to explore the Old Town. We were shocked at how beautiful it was. If we had known, we would have headed up there much earlier, rather than hanging around the boat doing nothing.
The Old Town was that huge construction on the cliff that we thought was a fort when we arrived. It was filled with winding cobblestone streets, filled with little restaurants, shops selling shells, wooden carvings, souvenirs and postcards.
By the time we got there, most of the attractions were closed. That didn't bother us though beacuse walking on the tiny alleyways was an amazing experience. We even saw the house where Napoleon Bonaparte lived in 1793.
We found a pretty place to have a drink as a group, but everyone was speaking in Polish, so Loren was pretty bored. We left to go shopping by ourselves, and found a great viewing point at the very top of the walls, and there were several restaurants and bars there offering food and drinks with a view. We also found a cool place selling custom made t-shirts. You could choose the image, the colour of the image and the colour of the t-shirt, and the size. Artur thought about getting one that said Corsica, but in the end he couldn't decide. We ended up buying one the following day though, which he was very happy with.

Isola Rosa 05.08
The next morning, we had another quick run, and then headed out for a long day of sailing. We didn't stop at all that day, we just sailed for 8 hours. We invested our time in reading and sunbaking, but it was a bit too long for all of us.
We finally arrived at Isola Rosa, and collapsed onto the shore. There was an enormous rock wall, which stretched all the way around the marina to the town. It was very pretty, but it blocked the cooling sea breeze, so it was very hot on the boat.

We decided to go snorkelling, as we missed out that day. We decided to swim across to the other side of the marina, where the beach was. Unfortunately, the water wasn't very clear, so we didn't have much luck. It was a refreshing swim after so long in the heat. On the way back, we walked around the marina, drying ourselves in the sun.
We met Pawel at the boat, cleaned up and then went to join the others for dinner. Pawel showed us how to climb onto the huge rock wall, and we walked all the way along it into town. It was just beautiful. When we arrived, the waiter wasn't very happy because they only asked for seats for themselves, and then the rest of us group arrived. We let the waiter sort out his own issues, and got on with ordering some food. It was nice food and a good restaurant, so we enjoyed ourselves.
After dinner, we went for a wander around town. It was quite small, but surprisingly lovely. We came across an outdoor bar with a band playing loudly and a huge area of seating. We found a nice big table that was empty and read the cocktail menus. About about 15 mins of waiting for someone to serve us, and trying to call waiters over, we decided to leave. On the way out, a waiter was asking us why we were leaving. We just glared at him. Dumb move on their part as they lost seven thirsty clients who would have probably ordered several drinks each over the course of the evening.

We decided to just go back to the boat, and most people went to bed. Przemek stayed up and chatted with us for a couple of hours. We had a great time, and it was one of first times Loren had much of a conversation with anyone since the beginning of the trip. It was nice that he made the effort to speak English and chat with us.

Castel Sardo 06.08
We slept in the next morning, too tired to go running. We probably should have gone though, as we spent most of the day on the boat again. We didn't stop for snorkelling which was a bit disappointing. We entertained ourselves with our music and books all day.

We had been planning to cook ourselves some crepes for breakfast, as we had grown fond of them after having them a lot in Hvar Island. We had even bought all the stuff for it, but every morning we were being served or being asked to serve a savoury Polish style breakfast. We decided that if we were going to ever eat our crepes, it would have to be at lunchtime. So that day we cooked lots of them, and served them to everyone as a treat. They disappeared pretty quickly amongst our hungry crew.
Eventually we reached Castel Sardo, and moored our boat. We were all fairly anxious to get off the boat, so everyone hurried to get ready. We had to take a bus to the top of the cliffs to get to the town itself. There wasn't much life down by the port.
The town at the top was so pretty! It was like the Sardinian equivalent of the Old Town in Bonifacio, Corsica. There was a medieval castle at the very top, and lots of pretty cobblestone streets. The town was like something from a postcard.
There were animals everywhere along the streets. At one point we came across a doorway with 5 cats around it! Several in the potplants, on the doorsteps on the street in front, crazy!
Even crazier though, were the homosexual dogs that we came across. There was a big dog and a little dog, and we thought they were just playing. They were prancing about each other, playing hard to get, but as soon as the big dog rolled onto his back, the small dog started doing his thing! The big dog looked like he didn't have a clue what was going on, and was just playing, but the other dog definitely had a different agenda.
At first we went for a drink with the whole group at a cute little cafe. As we sat there, a big group of musicians came past, lugging their heavy instruments up the steep streets. Looked like a bit of live music was about to happen that night.
Most of the group stayed for another drink, but we went off to explore the town before sunset. There was so much to see, we didn't want to miss out like we did in Bonifacio.
First we went to see the old church, and explored the little boutique shops. Then we went to see the panorama view from the top of the medieval castle. It was absolutely spectacular. We could see all the way down the port where we moored, and the town down below. At least half of the view was over the water, another quarter was over the town, and the other was over beautiful green pastures and hillsides. Just breathtaking!
While we were sightseeing, the mariachi band was setting themselves up below, where there were hundreds of seats and a stage. The music was a great accompaniment to our sightseeing, as they practised their songs.
Soon the rest of group joined us at the top, and then we went to see the museum that was attached to the castle. It was an ethnographical museum, focused on handicrafts and old artifacts from the inhabitants of the island. It was pretty cool to look closely at them there, because if you tried to look at something in the shops on the street, you'd find it in your hand in a bag before you could say, 'huh?'
We decided to walk down from the town on scenic route, rather than take the bus. The route that we took was longer than we hoped considering we were starving, but it was really worth it. We picked our way down from the top, via little staircases and paths between rocks.

There was so much greenery around; mountains, meadows and flowers. It reminded Loren of pictures she'd seen of Irish coastlines, but with better weather. At one point the sun set behind a distant point of land. The sky was so red it was incredible. We watched until the sun disappeared. Soon we headed down through the town, and saw the cute little houses that were all along the steep hill. The old residents looked like they all knew each other, and they eyed us off suspiciously as we didn't belong in their neighbourhood streets. Eventually we found our way to a restaurant that Pawel recommended. It was famous for its fish soup. The lady there knew him and was very cute as she bustled around getting our orders and bringing our food. Artur had some grilled Calamari, which came in one big piece. It was absolutely delicious!

Madalena 07.08
The next day we left for one of our biggest days of sailing yet. Thankfully we didn't sail for the whole day though. We stopped at a pretty lagoon, that was filled with yachts. We had been missing our snorkelling, so we made the most of it this day. There were lots of caves and rock cliffs everywhere along the coast, and also a couple of little islands made of rocks.
Loren went diving for shells again, and found a starfish instead! She was so excited as it was a bright red colour and very pretty. We wanted to take a picture of it, instead of taking it, as we had no desire to hurt it. We had swum a long way from the boat, so the trip back, carefully holding a starfish in one hand, was not so easy.
We eventually made it to the boat, and showed it off to the crew. We took some photos and admired it for a while. It stuck itself to her hand with it's little tentacles, and the ones that weren't stuck were feeling the air. Pretty cool to watch!

After the photo shoot, we headed back for some snorkelling, and to replace our new friend in the water. Artur wanted to go to one of the rock islands, which was another long swim, so we had to give it a new home there. Loren picked a spot that looked just like where it had come from, and carefully placed it back in the ocean. We checked up on him a few times while we were snorkelling, to make sure it was settling in ok.

Once we got back, we joined Pawel in feeding the seagulls and albatrosses. We all had bread, and were standing along the deck with big pieces in our hands. A couple of us had some luck and the albatrosses came right up to us and ate from our hands!
We soon went back to sailing, and finally reached Santa Teresa di Gallura, where we were hoping to return for a night. Unfortunately, it was entirely full, and we couldn't get a place, so we had to keep sailing. We weren't too thrilled as it was very dark and we were hungry.
Eventually we arrived at Madalena, and just barely managed to find a place amongst the fancy giant yachts. We had a bit of trouble getting our electricity plugged in, but that too was sorted out. Once everyone had primped and preened themselves, we managed to leave for the town so we could eat.
We went to another place that Pawel recommended, but two members of the group weren't happy with it, so they left us sitting there. We were going to order anyway, but one of them came back to get us. We were reluctant to move five of us to suit the other two, and it was a bit embarrassing to leave after our table had been set for us and we were about to order, but the group decided it would be safer to piss off the waiter than their other halves. Eventually, we reunited at one restaurant and ate there.

Inflated, dried puffer fish on sale around town.

Later that night, after everyone had gone to bed, we had another great chat with Przemek on the deck of the boat. It was great talking about his business, 'Cozy', which he started and is having great success with. It's mostly involved with interior design and custom made furniture, and it's doing so well, that he is thinking of bringing out some new brands within the main one.

Back in Portisco 08.08
The next morning, we awoke to an empty boat again, so we decided to go souvenir shopping. We bought lots of postcards, and a pretty little purse made out of a cowry shell. The shell was about the size of a lemon, and had two equal halves of a shell. Each half was lined with a gold rim and clipped together at the top. Loren was a big fan of the shell jewelry and decorations that people were making and selling at Sardinia. They were very creative, and very cute!

Once everyone got back to the boat, we left for our last day of sailing. The wind was very strong today, so we went by sail for most of the time. This tended to be more rough than using the engine, and the boat was on a very sharp angle for most of the day. It hard to relax when you're falling off your seat, so it wasn't a very comfortable day. It was cool to watch the boat fly across the waves though, and to see other yachts speeding across the water nearby.

Przemek and Pawel entertained themselves by being dragged behind the boat.

Loren was bored, so she set up a movie on the television downstairs in the boat. It was 'Independance Day', with Polish subtitles. She thought she had never seen it before, because she didn't recognise the beginning,, but it turned out she had seen all but the beginning, maybe 2 or 3 times on the television. It was a familiar watch, but it helped to pass the day quicker.

We arrived at the marina at about 7pm, which gave us some time to have our last dinner together. The rest of the group was staying in the harbour for another night. We farewelled them at dinner, and then took a taxi back to Olbia.
We made it in time for the ferry, and thankfully this time we had a room booked. We didn't have to clamour for places with the rest of the pack, so we entered at our leisure, and checked into our rooms. We had a good sleep, but the boat arrived earlier than expected, which cut down our sleeping time again. The announcements on the loudspeaker in the morning were only in Italian, so we didn't really understand what was happening. We ended up having someone knock on our door to tell us that we needed to go. It turned out we were the only ones left, and cleaners were already in the other rooms! To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Sardinia pictures