I had a really crappy day yesterday trying to get from Sardinia to Barcelona. It started out well as when I checked out of my timeshare the handyman offered to give me a ride to the bus stop which was a blessing because the bus stop was a mile away. The time share was a tropical paradise but very isolated, once again I was in a romantic, beautiful location by myself not even any old people. I found out about half way through my stay that the resort didn´t actually open until June. The place was made up of condos which some ople lived in and the rest that were rented out for vacations. The first couple days were great by myself enjoying my privacy after being in hostels, but I got to the point where I was looking forward to seeing the cleaning ladies everyday. I also was enjoying talking to the cats that were around the property. The poor cats there was a lot of inbreeding going on, so they had some issues but they would look up at me with their crossed eyes and answer me when I talked and fed them my leftover pasta during my walks. So back to my story, I got to the bus station but I waited 2 hours and my bus never came.
I walked up to the car rental place and talked to my friend there asking if there was any other way to get to Olbia which is where I needed to catch a train to get to the airport to catch my plane that evening. He was really nice and tried to be helpful but I ended up paying 50 euro to get a ride from one of the owners of the florist shop friend which was next door to the car rental place. It was nice because the car rental guy was concerned who I was going with and was acting like a dad although he wasnt that old and he was kind of like a charmer that you are a little leery of but when it came down to it he was actually really nice. It would have been at least 80 euros if I had taken a taxi to Olbia which is crazy because it is only about 15 minutes away. I actually had it all planned out to rent a car to get to the airport but their are two airports on Sardinia and when the car rental guy realized I was going to the further away of the two he said he didn´t have anywhere for me to drop the car off at that location. So that was my struggle the morning I was leaving. It ended up being a good thing getting a ride as it was a man and a woman and I probably never would have found my way to the train station or would have gotten in a wreck, they are such bad drivers in Italy you just get used to cars heading right for you in your lane. Scary!! They got me to the station and hugged me goodbye and kissed my cheeks like they were my family sending me off, that was a good part of my day. The train ride was fine but the trains are ancient and beat up with graffiti all over them, not airconditioned and it is so warm in Sardinia a humid muggy heat especially late in the afternoon. On my train ride I did meet an interesting Navy guy who was based on an island off of Sardinian called La Madelena. He was off work for the weekend and in an an article about longevity he had read in a Time magazine one of the oldest ladies was 107 and she lived on Sardinia and he was on his way going to try and visit her. I thought that was really cool.
I finally got to Alghero train station about 5 hours later and I had to take a bus to the airport. When I got on the bus the driver started screaming at me because I tried to buy a ticket from him which is the way it had been how on all the buses I had taken. He was freaking out yelling in Italian, he really needed anger management. The worst part of it was he was a young really good looking guy. Finally a cute italian, unlike my fantasies, not all italian men are good looking, for some reason I had this idea that they would all be like Antonio Sabato Jr. It is a good fantasy right? Sadly this is not the case but they had all been very kind and charming, not the bus driver. He stopped about a block up from where I had gotten on the bus and made me go and buy a ticket. I didnt really care about his issue with me I was just worried he was going to drive off and leave me and take my luggage that I had left on my seat. So at the next stop a couple gets on and they try to buy a ticket from him too, oh man that really made him mad again, but I was just laughing to myself about it, glad I was going to make it to the airport on time. It is hard when you dont speak the language there aren´t time tables for the bus so you are just winging it but it all worked out. I have to admit that I gave the bus driver a little piece of my mind and my middle finger once I was safely walking off the bus and on my way into the airport. = )
The next tragedy was checking in for the airplane. My luggage was over the weight limit suprise, suprise, and I had to pay a lot of money for the difference. So my cheap flight on Ryan Air of 40 euros to Barcelona that I was so proud of myself for arranging didnt end up being such a bargain. That actually didn´t even really upset me at that point I was just kind of amused at it all like oh it just one of those days huh. F%#%k it. The plane was supposed to leave at 9:45 but didnt even start loading passengers until 10:30. I am not at all afraid to fly but the flight was turbulent which is not fun in the best of circumstances and I was getting the worst headache behind my right eye and it was making me so sick. Good news we didn´t crash but when we were landing the pilot was going way too fast and we landed and bounced way up and then bounced a couple more times as he tried to gain control of the plane and slow it down, it was extremely scary and everyone actually clapped when we finally came to a stop, well I didn´t clap I was just glad to be alive. After I collected my luggage, I took a bus from the airport into the center of Barcelona which took an hour. I took a taxi from the bus station to my hostel, and before the taxi left I spoke through the speaker to the receptionist at the hostel who confirmed that they had vacancy. I walked into the hostel which at this time it was about 2:30 and the guy said sorry complete, I said What you just told me that I could get a room, he said no I don´t speak english I didn´t know what you meant. At this point it feels like someone is taking a knife to my right eye and temple and all I want is a dark room to collapse in. I read a lot of books when I was in Sardina and oftentimes this gives me headaches in my poor weak right eye if I don´t wear my glasses. So I leave the hostel and wander around looking for a hotel. At this point it doesn´t matter about the money I just cant find anything with vacancy as there is another freaking holiday in Spain and everything is complete. So I head back to the hostel and just sit down in the common area as the door stays open all night and the front desk guy isnt there. There are a bunch of people in the common room which is where the computers are and bunches of tables each with four chairs. There are some guys with their heads laying at a couple of the tables asleep. I sit down and put my head on the table trying to stop the pain in my head, it works for awhile until the front desk guy comes back and starts yelling at us. He tells us to get out that we can´t be here. Apparently the other guys had been staying at the hostel but on Sat night it had filled up and they couldnt get a bed. I am arguing with him as I have had enough crap today. I ask him why we can´t we just stay until the morning saying how it is dangerous out on the street, and it won´t hurt anything if he would just let us, and that I have reservations for the next day. He is not listening to me and keeps yelling just get out, he speaks limited English and my cranky attitude is not helping the situation. The other five guys that were trying to sleep don´t even argue they just get up and head outside. I continue to sit there and they gather by the front door to watch to see what happens, the front desk guy is yelling at me and trying to take my luggage to the door. I am angry and tell him don´t touch my luggage. Remember my shitty day my pounding headache, so as a last resort I have to whip out womens secret weapon.... I start crying. My enemy instantly backs away from me as I say I don´t want to go outside it is dark and cold, please, looking up at him with my face covered with tears, he melts and pats my shoulder saying ok, ok you can stay, he waves the guys back in from the doorway where they have been watching and tells us we can all stay. As the guys go by they all pat me, saying its ok. Of course when someone is nice it just makes you cry more. I try to reign it in but my head hurts and I am so tired. I finally get it together and my work is done. I saved everyone from having to sit outside. The front desk guy totally changed his tune smiling at me in a scared way. The power of being a crying woman, I am not afraid to use what I need to, desperate times call for desperate measures. The crying wouldn´t have worked for the poor guys can you imagine, he would have laughed at them if they tried. So my reward was that I got to sleep at a table last night in the common room which is why I am exhausted today. I am going to take a nap at 2 today as soon as I can get into my room. I am a little bit of a hero to my new friends since we got to stay inside last night. This morning we were playing ping pong, it was really fun. I havent played ping pong in forever. Last summer I had bought my niece and nephew a badmitton set which is also really fun. You know how everything is funny and challenging when you are so tired, that is how I am today but the couple hours I did sleep made my headache go away which is good. Luckily this hostel has free internet so that will be great. I will write about the fun things that happened and all that I saw in Rome after my nap. So today can only be better than yesterday!!
XO Marci
