March 18, 2012
The next day, we woke up early again to head to the train station in La Spezia. We were going to spend another morning in the Cinque Terre, but the day began very cloudy and colder than it had been. So we decided just to leave early after a makeshift breakfast of sweet crackers and cream cheese and nutella. Arriving in La Spezia, we went to the fast ticket machine and got our tickets to Pisa. Easy enough, we had time to relax before the next mode of transportation. We soon walked to the platform and waited for the train to arrive. No such luck, the letters DOP showed up next to Pisa on the board, which later we learned meant "canceled". 
Okay, I guess we'll wait for the next one. No big deal. Sure enough, there was no train to be found. Then the next one... and the next one... until we finally realized that we had been caught in the middle of a train strike! To pass the time, we really great food (good for you too!) Yes, I finally gave in and got a McDonalds Cheeseburger... no guys, not all of the food is mine. We also read, and wrote, and sketched, and talked, and probably even dosed off a little too. A usual boring and unlucky situation did not leave us bored remarks, but rather jokes and more catching up. It was the most fun you could ever have in 5 hours at a train station! After a long time waiting, we knew the trains would keep being "delayed" and canceled until 6 o' clock that night, so we decided to turn in our regional train tickets and pay the extra money to hop on the next fast train. Finally arriving in Pisa, we realized the usual train to the airport was on strike too so we had to resort to a bus... which probably took too long for us to figure out, but we finally got there. But where was there? Our flight was in the morning, so we had booked a cheap hostel "PISA AIRPORT ROOMS" that prized itself on being so close to the airport (that will tell you how great Pisa is). Finally, around 6, we found the hostel, checked in, and watched the free cable the "PISA AIRPORT ROOMS" offered us. Apparently, cable TV in Italy is telemarketing stations after telemarketing stations (but really... there were at least 60 channels worth). 
Giving up, we headed to the first place we could find that served food. And where was that, you might ask? The Airport. Yes, our only restaurant(s) of choice were in the Airport, so thats where we went. Austin was excited to see he could get a 6 euro Lasagna, and I went for the "chopped salad". He came back with a sad face and a plastic tray of microwaved cheese. My chopped salad consisted of taco lettuce, sandwich tomatoes, and (I was actually excited about this one... corn!) We made the best of the night and pretended we were having a candlelit dinner outside of a 5 star- restaurant. Despite the jokes, I actually had a really good time that day. Its easy to make good out of a bad time when you are in good company! Traveling was however incredibly exhausting, and that was just the beginning of it. (I know... sitting on your ass all day really takes a lot out of you!).
March 19, 2012
We woke up early (again, this time at 4:45am) to catch the 7:35 flight to Calgliari. It was an easy trip, mostly spent sleeping (at least I did), and we were able to celebrate with the rest of the RyanAir crew "another RyanAir on time arrival" where we clapped a listened to all of RyanAir's silly accomplishments. Hey, it was a 7 euro flight... I'll take it. The problem was, Calgliari was a 3 hour bus ride from our final destination of Santa Maria Navarrese on the Gulf of Orsei. And there were no buses to be found when we left the airport. So after talking to a rental car person, almost stepping on a private tour bus, and being robbed by the bus ticket machine, we finally stopped being stubborn and just took a cab (it was cheaper than expected too.) We arrived at the bus station just in time to get on the one to Tortoli (a port town 10 minutes outside of our destination. Sardegna's public bus system is called ARST. Soon it became more of a "pain in the ARST". But looking past the bus sickness we had both acquired from the swervy mountain roads that made the ones in North Carolina seem almost straight, the drive there was absolutely gorgeous. In no way were we in Italy anymore, more like the south west or even Mexico.
The mountains had a dry, desert feel to them, but they were still greener than most of the Italy I had seen. Finally arriving in Tortoli, I sort of went into panic mode when we realized all the info we needed to get to the house was locked up in the cyber world-- and there was absolutely no Wifi to be found. But sooner than later we found the bus to SMN and stumbled upon an open wifi area outside of the (closed) tourist center. We were able to call Manuela's (the owner of the house we were staying at) parents and her father came and picked us up. The house we stayed at, we found on the site "airbnb", for only 40 american dollars a night, we were able to find a home away from the busy atmosphere in the city that was in our price range. We were greeted with fresh oranges and eggs and homemade bread. The view from the house was gorgeous, but after another long day of traveling, all we could really do is close our eyes and be thankful we had arrived. Still, smiling faces prevailed.
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