Sunday,
13 September 2015
Early
morning, rise and shine. I went to freshen up before heading to the RyanAir
counter for visa check. After that, I joined the thousand or so other people to
clear security. It was a long slow process.
In
contrast to the sombre boring ambience you get prior to clearing security, the
duty-free shops at Stansted are something else. The shops there are bright,
modern, fun and attractive and designed to make you want to part with your
money. I determinedly walked past them all and headed for my gate. We boarded
not long after and took off at 0750. I fell asleep and got up about 40 minutes
before we landed.
We
landed at 1120 at Alghero-Fertilia Airport. I bought a 75-minute ticket from a
machine at the arrival hall for €1 and waited for the hourly bus to the city.
It was starting to get hot, hot, hot and even hotter when I got down at via Don
Minzoni. My B&B was a two-minute walk away from the bus stop on the third
floor (thank God I travelled light eh). The owner met me and showed me to my
room and bathroom. It’s not ensuite but I didn’t have to share my bathroom.
There were only 3 rooms (one unoccupied), the living room, the kitchen and
dining area and the terrace from where you could see the white sand beach of
San Giovanni.
I rested for a while and ventured out after 1500. It was still baking hot then (33C!)
and while other people were happily walking in the sun, I was seeking shade. It
was a ten-minute hot walk to the old town. I walked around the narrow lanes, up
the fort overlooking the marina and the Mediterranean, around the towers... the
compact historical part was done in less than two hours. It was another 2 plus
hours to sunset and as much as I wanted to stay and watch the sunset from the
historical area, I decided to return to the B&B.
I
had read of a supermarket nearby the B&B and was delighted when I found Supermercato Conad adjacent to Banco di Sardegna which was my landmark for locating the B&B
from the airport bus. I bought pizza margherita (which turned out to be salty),
a bottle of water (which turned out to be sparkling mineral water eeuwww) and a
bag of potato crisps. I then returned to the B&B and had an early dinner.
That was when I discovered that there were mosquitoes in Alghero. Dang
bloodsuckers, you had to follow me there?!
Monday,
14 September 2015
I
woke up early this morning and finished packing. Breakfast was served from 0800
and I was going to take the 0830 bus back to Alghero Airport. See, there’s a
direct bus from Alghero Airport to Cagliari (only twice a day though) which to
me is a better option than the train as I have to travel to Sassari by bus and
then only take the train to Cagliari. The travel time is also longer than if I
had travelled direct from the airport so I decided I would catch the 0830 to
the airport and the 0945 bus from the airport to Cagliari.
I
gobbled my breakfast and hurried down with my bag at 0820. I was at the
bus stop a couple of minutes later and waited for the bus. To my pleasant
surprise, it arrived promptly at 0830. I had to pay €1.50 for the trip to the
airport (yes, it costs more to buy from the driver). We arrived at the airport
at 0850 and I sat down to wait for the bus to Cagliari. The bus to Cagliari was
a big blue coach and it stopped about 50 metres away from the bus stand to
Alghero city. It arrived at 0955 and left at 1003. The fare was €20. I settled
down for the ride, changing seats twice to avoid the sun.
We
stopped at 1100 for a break at a pump station which had a big convenience store
attached for 15 minutes (when I asked, the driver said ten minutes. Guess he
was not too particular about timekeeping) before continuing on our journey. We
arrived at Piazza Matteotti at 1345 (1/2 hour later than scheduled) and I
wandered around first trying to find information on airport transfer. I then
walked to Via Pasquale Paoli 77. I don’t know why but I had this feeling that
Alghero would be mainly flat while Cagliari would be a hilly city and boy, was
I right for both cities. I walked up Largo Carlo Felice to the roundabout and
turned right into Via Giuseppe Manno to another roundabout and walked on to Via
Giuseppe Garibaldi. I reached the B&B on Via Pasquale Paoli 20 minutes
after leaving Piazza Matteotti and checked in.
I
rested for a while before venturing out. Man, it was just too hot. 33C and I
thought I’d be enjoying a pleasant autumn weather –and I packed for autumn too.
Arghhh! I checked the temperature for Bari – it was also as bad as Malaysia (minus the haze). Armed with my
rudimentary map (the B&B had run out of maps and the guy told me I could
pick up some at the tourist info office near Bastione di Saint Remy), I went
back to Via Giuseppe Garibaldi and on an impulse, followed a signora up some
alley. I am glad I did so because, my, do they have nice charming alleys there!
I walked along one alley and turned into another, all the while snapping
pictures. I even found the B&B I had booked earlier and then cancelled just
a week before.
I
then stumbled onto Viale Enrico Endrich and from there, I had a lovely view of
the rooftops of Cagliari. I continued on and spotted an elevator across Viale
Regina Elena. I saw a few people above on a landing/platform so I decided to
take the elevator up for Piazza Palazzo. Again, I’m glad I did so because the
view from up there was even better. I lingered before walking down to Palazzo
Viceregio where I found Punto Informazioni (InfoPoint). I left with a map and
went up to Piazza dell Indipendenza, up to Piazza Arsenale then turned to Via
Ubaldo Badas. You can see the view of another part of the city from here. I saw
on a map by the road a sign of Roman ruins so I walked up to find it (you know
I love ruins). Then I turned back and walked down a road to the Tower of the
Elephant. You could go up the tower at a fee.
I
then continued down Via Universita and Via Giuseppe Mazzini to Bastione di
Saint Remy. After that, I just wandered around until I arrived at the train
station. The B&B owner had advised me to take a train to the airport the
following day so I went to check the train schedule. I also went to ask at the
info counter of the ARST bus company but was told there is no service to the
airport. In view of the info from the airport website, I found this very
strange indeed. I then wandered out to the garden of Piazza Matteotti. There
were many immigrants there (and indeed around Cagliari): Africans and South
Asians. A Bangladeshi peddler told me that there’s only a train service to the
airport when I asked about the bus. Hmm.
I
walked along Via Roma before climbing the back alleys up to Via Giuseppe Manno
and followed the early afternoon route back to the B&B. I continued on to
Via Dante where I found a SPAR supermarket. I then returned to the B&B. I
was about to have some ramen when I saw al cane in the kitchen. He looked at me
and growled. I retreated into my room and stayed there. Well, thank God I
didn’t buy another pizza margherita for dinner for I couldn’t use the oven or
microwave then, could I, certainly not with al cane there growling at me. So I
had the crisps I bought at Alghero and which turned out to be less than
satisfactory. They sure didn’t taste like the British crisps I’m addicted to.
To
be continued
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