Alghero "Barcelonetta" Little Barcelona
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2008
1
14
48
Trip End
May 01, 2010
Alghero,
Sardinia,
Italy
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The airport bus is crowded I am one of the last on but jump on the back and wedge myself in neatly....people at the front are almost hanging out the doors but the driver seems unperturbed ..this is Italy after all. The first night i book in to a hotel on Via Lido (where many hotels are) ...its behind a building site, has no balcony but i have sky TV and an Internet connection..the breakfast buffet is huge and i surreptitiously smuggle an assortment of eggs, fruit, cakes into my handbag..whilst spilling the contents onto the breakfast table....
My luck improves later today...I spend an hour looking for a place to stay in the Mokador cafe on Piazza Sulis which faces out to the sea ...the waiter wheels out Internet primed laptops on small trolleys so you can browse in the open air... how cool is that? he tells me of a place on Kennedy street
Alghero cnetro storico
. It was perfect. For 40 euros I have my own apartment with a terrace and I àm right in the old city ...I decide to take the bus to the Salsa festival in Porto Conte. I dash into the tourist information office. The nice girl with the long dark hair has been replaced with a portly Italian serving (or rather leching) over a tall slender Swedish girl painfully slowly. I shuffle impatiently and then burst myself on him "look i only have 5 minutes before the bus leaves...can you tell me where the salsa festival is?" ...i ask him. "eetz not a salza Festivaal maadam..." he enunciates painfully slowly "Just a small entertaaainment..." Ok I nod impatiently...just tell me where it is..."Just wait 5 or 10 meeenutes madam ...whilst i server theze customers"...thats just it i don't have 5 minutes.,,,the bus will leave...it is the only bus tonight. Eventually he senses my panic and hands over a leaflet for some music and dance show in Alghero. Its not what i want but i have no more time so i leave.
I show my map to a couple of Italian girls on the bus...they don't speak English or know where the festival is but they tell the driver to make sure the "English girl gets off the bus in the right place" The bus drives through Fertilia a small interesting village and then Maristella...inland before climbing to the edge of Porto Conte...a beautiful bay frequented by divers. At the last stop - Torre Nuova - the driver turns to make sure I get off .I smile gratefully at him and wander off in a vague hopeful direction of what could be a gathering...It is early
piazza sulis..Breakfast!
. When I arrive there is a group dancing the Rueda...a Cuban wheel.. I guess it just a class but it turns out to be the professional dancers. Appearances are deceptive. I am worried because the show doesn't start until midnight and it is early ...The nice barman reassures me..."..you are on holiday "he says puring me a large glass of rose. What he doesn't understand is the dilemma of a single female traveling alone...sitting out 3 hours in a bar or restaurant could be tricky...But at the end of the warm up the Cuban teacher - Roli comes over and leads me onto the dance floor . I swear he is repeating a scene he spotted in dirty dancing at the start where Jennifer stands there stiffly and Swayze rolls his hips, sticks his fingers between his eyes and says "watch me" ...so with about 10 pairs of pro. eyes boring into my back I attempt to body roll and swing my hips interspersed by teenage giggles as Roli expects me to stand back in admiration of him. Later he tells me he is the number one professional hip hop dancer in Cuba...
I'm invited to join the dancers for dinner. I think Roli has more in mind than dinner but when I turn down the offer of a "douche a deux at his hotel" he leaves unperturbed. I imagine his ego will survive. A strikingly beautiful Italian couple Jonathan and Reike sit opposite me. They appear more like professional ballet dancers than salsa dancers, Reike is tall, elegant and aloof. Her partner Jonathan speaks English and chats to me ...he is friendly and interesting
alghero sunset in centro storico
. Another couple Pasquale - a cheeky good looking dancer and his feisty striking red head partner join us. A short Italian magician sits next to me....and performs a few rather dubious tricks over dinner and shadows me the rest of the night. There are about 30 dancers in total and the atmosphere is fun and good humored I feel honoured to be part of it......i wonder how Aloghero can support these dancers ..the entrance is only 13 euros something similar in London would cost a lot more...but the show lives up to expectation...a number of slick performances and a kind of dance off which goes on all evening. with great choreography and superb DJs. The barman makes sure i get a lift home with one of his friends... Max who is a sweet sardinian and I'm grateful to be looked after. Its gone 5 by the time we leave and at one point the car veers towards the other side of the road, Max is talking too much and we are both tired.
The next day I head to the beach. I walk down Via Lido, past the town beach on towards the campsite where wobbly bathers are attempting to pull up windsurf sails, and then on through the water and round a short stretch of rocky cove where the water is crystal clear. There are few bathers in this spot and for a moment you feel the beautiful tranquility of the place . I love wading this stretch feeling the deliciously cool water up around my stomach. Then I'm climbing the rocks and the hotels and apartments are replaced with beautiful pine Forrest
Town beach
. The sand is white and the water a translucent green...the Sardinia I remember as a wide eyed teenager with my sister and father..Later in the evening I wonder the old city as the sun is setting. I find my local Bocadillo bar next door to my apartment and feast on seafood and crisp white sardinian wine that tastes like Chablis. Content I tumble into bed.
Its the last day at breakfast and Luigi regretfully tells me the Internet is down. I can survive. We have this ritual each morning - I wait whilst Luigi tries to remember my breakfast. Its not tricky - coffee and a plain croissant but he struggles to remember . I always wait for him and give him a big smile when he gets it right. I always tip him too because he looks after me. I pack and then set off to find the shop i bought a little black dress in 2 days ago. Yesterday I forgot where it was and got lost in the maze of cobbled streets . The assistant is a slender blond girl who is very sweet and gives me lots of complements so I keep buying more things. Buts its a scramble to get into anything before she whips back the curtain exposing me to the whole shop whilst she assesses the fit. If shes not smiling I'm worried. Today she doesn't smile so I ask her (in absence of any useful men) if my bum looks too big in this ridiculously small Italien bikini. "Ah no" she says but then adding "do you think?" which doesn't really help. "but you must pull it down at the front and up at the back" I'm not sure i have room to to maneuver it in any direction so decide to also buy a backup pair of french knickers you can wear in the water ......I buy the bikini, the big pants and a bolero...and promise to send all my girlfriends to their shop ...
Its midday so I wander to the closest town beach which is overlooked from the old city walls
Alghero - Dan and Constantine
. The water here is clear but you swim out over rocks...it makes a nice change as there are no crowds, its peaceful and i wish Id found it earlier. After an hour in the sun i order a cold coffee indulgently served In a champagne glass. Its really good. The guy on the next table starts talking to me...I mistake him as an American because of his hat, dark hair and perfect English...but hes Swedish from Goteborg...originally Stockholm which he apparently misses. Hes restless as he and his friedn.. apart from a trip to see the caves with their stalactites and stalagmites where they were not allowed to swim...and a beautiful beach further round the coastline have not been anywhere. Come to think of it neither had I in 6 days. But thats part of the beauty of Alghero it has everything you need in one place. His mate Daniel arrives...a more typical blond swede with a cute youthful face. We chat for a bit and swim. Daniel starts talking about shark attacks and venomous snakes he saw in South Africa. A small child utters something about a jelly fish and we are both swimming for the shore...Hes nice and seems genuinely sad I'm leaving today.....its a shame we meet so late. I show them my apartment as they are interested in renting it. The girl there arrives and we all attempt bad Italian. But turns out shes from Rumania. They book it and we have a celebratory drink in Luigi's cafe. I leave them finally, dash for the bus, discover I read the wrong timetable and am 30 minutes ahead , order ice cream and sit it out in the hot sunshine....I wedge myself into the same spot on the airport bus as it again fills to over capacity ...my last glimpses of Sardinia through the bus window are fields of yellow sunflowers...big happy flowers ...a fitting symbol of this lovely island....
