S'Arenada Hotel Villasimius

... turned up and Jen had stepped in to take up the lessons aboard. The two children Orlando and Allegra were very nice kids. Jen was worried as she got seasick easily. A cheery lass from Seattle - the same as Bradley, so they had common ground from the word go.

The boat looked very tired, but the worry was that there was so much gear we felt should have been there in tip top condition, and it wasn't. Oh dear!! Kevin was helping ...

Cagliari

Got the overnight boat from Palermo to Cagiiari which is in Sardenia. Still part of Italy. Was a bit of a nightmare journey. Decided to opt for the cheaper sleeper seat instead of the cabin this time. Was quite difficult to get comfortable in and sleep. Just a cushioned seat. Whomever was in charge of the air conditioning put it on sub zero. Outside it was like 30 and inside it was minus zero. I was in shorts and t-shirt.

There was some ...

... where there was a shop – well, the nearest shop of any description at all was 5 miles away, we are after all staying in a converted monastery. They had arrived by taxi last night and were considering not unpacking and leaving. I did feel for them a bit, because they seemed so lost – the fact that no one here seems to speak English was also a concern for them. They asked us what we had been doing during the week and we told them about our hire car ...

... beauty of its own. We found our way onto a dirt track again and pulled up into a bay where we sat and read and watched the sea in silence.

When we decide to make our way back we stop at the supermarket for more picnic supplies. The sun goes down around 7.30pm at the moment here and we were close to an area near the monastery where you can get down to the sea, so we sat there and ate our picnic and watched the sun go down.

... stay in the cove, eat our lunch and relax for a while.

After lunch we walk back to the monastery, take a look at the map and decide to drive out on another piece of headland to a lighthouse – I like doing this because you often find wild stretches of coastline that are nice for walking. The chosen headland is Capo Carbonara and when we get there we find that part of it used to be an old quarry, so we find our way down on a dirt track to the old quarry ...

... must have known as well and put his foot to the floor, at which point the back of the car started coming round, putting the car almost sideways in the river – it was a small miracle when one of the wheels must have momentarily found something to grip onto and with a final jolt John found his way onto dry land on the other side of the river bank. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and rock hopped across. John and I looked at each other in silence briefly before exclamations of ...

... a few words and order a mushroom pizza, but the waiter tells me "no pizza", which was quite odd in a pizzeria, but hey ho. Given that I didn’t understand anything else on the menu there was no point in deliberating about it, so I point to the first thing on it and decide I’ll just have a surprise – only the man tells me “you no like” and proceeds to talk to me in Italian, I just shrug my shoulders and say “Okay” ...

The main reason for people to go on vacation is primarily to relax and escape their normal lives. Oddly enough for online booking for hotels, you quite often see advertisements offering "free wifi" along with the general amenities for a simple room. Just imagine a typical American plunging him or herself on a semi-desert island with no wifi and no mobile service! I bet that internet access would be the first thing they would look for, if they already don't have ...

... town with tiny streets and beautiful buildings. After visiting the info centre and having some lunch we went to the Roman archaeological site of Nora which was just down the road. The site was good even though the remains were pretty much destroyed apart from the amphitheatre. After this we wandered around looking for a place to stay without much luck due to the crazy prices. Eventually just as we were going to give up (not before a stop at the ice cream shop again ...

... win a scholarship for that school. I could have never afforded it otherwise. It meant great education, but also the promise of a completely different future. A future which would have not taken place in the case of failure. A future which was in front of me like a parallel life I should have not normally been offered but that nonetheless was there, for me to dream about, for me to fight for. Everything that I am now, all the things I have done since, are all so ...