Sardenga, Italy

Sadly enough I’ve had a bit of an issue since I was born that prevents me from diving (O the insanity!) The issue is I can’t really equalize my head because every time I try to pop my ears when I plug my nose and blow, the air escapes out of my eyes. The 2 medical words for it are the valve of Hasner (really?!?) and nasolacrimal duct (never took anatomy, don’t know). The nasolacrimal duct is what connects the nose to your eyes and the valve of Hasner is what it supposed to prevent air from entering your eye ducts.

The craziest thing is that I’ve only met one other guy with the same issue, he was one of the first classes I worked with on my first ship and we had the same birthday? Do you think that’s somehow related? Okay Okay neither do I but if you put enough coincidences together… haha. We used to freak people out by blowing bubbles out of our eyes under the water when we go to the pool to swim against each other.

The trip still seemed pretty cool, the people going are pretty cool (W&M are 2 of my favorite people to travel with), so I just went ahead and said “Put me in Coach!”

So where is Sardegna you ask? That’s a pretty good question because I didn’t know myself until I agreed to the trip. If you’re looking at a world map and you see Italy, put your finger in the center of the boot, and then move it directly left. that first large land mass you hit, that’s Sardegna. Then move your finger directly North to the island just above that and you’re on Corsica. Sardegna is an Italian island and Corsica is a French island. They both come into play here so remember that.

We bought our tickets to fly out on Friday at 1330. Which means I had to do a little shmoozling (might not have been a word but it is now) to make that flight. So we all arrived early afternoon on Friday and were staying till Sunday evening.

We rented a car for the weekend which was a very good choice because we used the heck out of that thing. One of the people in our group had driven up a couple days earlier and taken the ferry across so there was plenty of room for everybody.

It was my job to find a hotel for the first night and during the afternoon we drove around looking for relics and went beaching, then we headed to the city of Palau which is on the North Eastern tip of Sardegna, which is where we would be spending the night. The place I found was right in the middle of the town and a very good price only 137 euros for 2 rooms split between 5 people.

After beaching all afternoon we decided to get ready for some dinner because we were all famished. We stopped at a quaint little restaurant by the port and it was a seafood night indeed, accompanied with multiple bottles of wine for the table.

After dinner we decided to stroll along the port and wouldn’t you know there was small little carnival area with a “shoot as many targets as you can” stand. Of course the boys wanted to go head to head so they each bought a round for 20 shots each to see how many targets they could hit. You had to hit all 20 to get a prize but there was definitely a dud target that refused to fall over and they all got em all (typical Navy pride right there) (which isn’t saying alot because I don’t know many good shots in the Navy).

The first guy that went first decided on a fuzzy red dice as his prize… and then we realized you could win bottles of champagne. I mean really?! So the next 3 people in a row each won a bottle of cheap champagne and afterwards we walked down to the port and stood in a circle deciding on what to do.

There were 6 of us left, 3 bottles of champagne, and one dice. Light bulb. We each chose a number and we rolled that dice until there was nothing left and we were all pleasantly happy. It was pretty crappy champagne but worth the blank and confused stares we got from all the passerby’s at the rowdy Americans throwing a fuzzy die and drinking copious amounts of alcohol in a parking lot by the port.

After a few more bars and our attempt at Latin dancing we headed back to our hotel for the evening.

The boys had to get up early to go diving so we left them to it, and M & I slept in and had a great free breakfast at our hotel, and one of the guys was having a sinus issue so he decided to hang back to. We then packed up our stuff jumped in the car and asked, “what next?”

On a whim we decided to drive down to the port and see if we could catch a ferry to one of the neighboring islands (even though we already had plans to catch the ferry to Corsica later in the day!) For 20 euros each round trip for 3 people and a car, within just a couple of minutes we were on our way to the island of La Maddalena (right off the coast of Palau, a 30 minute ride.)  On the way M used google maps satellite view to find a beach that looked awesome, we dropped a pin and were on our way, which took us through La Maddalena and to an even smaller much more campsite worthy island called Caprera.

Waving to a few locals we found ourselves winding along an old dusty dirt road to find our first beach of the day, and guess what, practically nobody was on it@! That was definitely refreshing after dealing with crazy ass Italians all summer and their shriveled up leathery brown skin.

So the first step in enjoying your vacation to Sardegna is when you find a beach with practically nobody on it, own it!

First chill that bottle of champagne you just had lying around in the “it’s almost fall” water.

Then get your jump on! I’ll probably never stop taking these kinds of pictures so expect this ^ often.

Pretty soon it was time to go pick up the boys from their dive trip so we headed back over to the ferry station at La Maddalena to meet them.

After a quick stop for a sandwich on the go, we headed back to Caprera but this time with another beach in mind.

just when you thought it wouldn’t get too crazy, I busted out the go pro and we started the underwater photo shoot.
Don’t clam up on me now…

But do come along for the ride.

How is he opening his eyes under the water? Ever since PRK (a different type of lasik my eyes are super sensitive to things, especially salt water)

dun dun. dun dun. dundadundadundadun.

I knew there were fishes in Sardegna. Found some.

She’s a mermaid!

 Just for the road,  a quick pic of this sexy couple (AKA 2 of my favorite travel buddies)

Alas, with a snap of my book, and a ruffle to get the sand out of our towels, it was time to head towards the Ferry station. We would be saying goodbye to Italy and hello to France in just a short 50 minutes.

But first, we should probably stop at a castle along the way. One where I may decide to rule someday…

Around and Around and Around

Up the winding staircase we ventured to see the lovely view.

With a quick rearranging of the packs we fit everything into one car and were off to catch the ferry. Which is where I’ll leave you, until tomorrow, that way you have time to transition over to saying Ou Ou & Merci.