Just Popping down to Italy Again….

Paradise beaches

 In search of a relaxing beachy holiday in the sun before we return to sunny Perth living 10 minutes from the beach, and to bid farewell to Aunty Sue, Uncle Frank and Curly, we set off for Sardinia early in the morning of my birthday.  I have to mention my birthday as I’ve mentioned everyone elses and if I didn’t it wouldn’t be fair!  We had a ferry to board that was leaving the Port of Lovorno at 3.30pm that day and were advised to be at the port at 2pm, so allowing time for traffic and toilet stops, we left our house at 6.30am.  We were super organized and actually left on time, when after half an hour of driving Maciek shouted ‘Oh crap, Happy Birthday!  We’d all forgotten including me, even though I’d looked at the date on the dash board clock numerous times, and my special homemade card that Amelia and Noah labored over in ‘secret’ in my bedroom the previous day, as well as my present that I chose myself and ordered off the internet, had been left behind ‘well hidden’ in the top drawer of my chest of drawers!


4 hours waiting

We hit traffic which put us an hour behind, and anxious that we might miss the ferry we drove non-stop, except the once for petrol, and after hours of whinging from Noah, he finally fell asleep half an hour before we arrived at port!  Typical!  Reaching the port we were sent on a wild goose chase following the Passeggeri Imbarcati sign which in true illogical Italian style sent us all over the place before we entered the queue for the ferry.  After an hour of waiting in the queue of cars and caravans we discovered the ferry would be delayed by two hours, and it finally arrived and we boarded at 6pm. 


It was so crowded on board that people were laying down blow up mattresses in corners and settling down for the evening but I couldn’t face a 7 hour journey huddled on the floor with the kids especially when they became tired, so we booked a cabin.  After discovering that the first one we’d been assigned had been double booked we finally settled into another, a deluxe, which had a very useful desk and wardrobe, took the kids for one lap of the ferry, finally sat down for a drink to cheers my birthday, and snuggled down for a few hours of sleep.  We were awoken close to 1am for disembarkment at 1.30am.  We waited by the stairs to the garage and listened to the Italian announcements informing car passengers of Deck 3 to make their way to the car decks.  We waited and waited and listened for passengers of Deck 4 but never actually heard it, and just followed a crowd once we saw them moving down the stairs.  We arrived on our car deck to see every car driving past us and our little Peugeot sat stationary amongst all the revving and swerving!  It was like dodging bullets to get to our car, throwing the kids and bags in to take off as quickly as we could!  We could only imagine the cursing of all the passengers parked behind us waiting for an opportunity to pull out and leave the ferry!  We drove off at 2am, four hours delayed, and met poor Sue and Frank on a side road, they’d been waiting up all night to meet us!


We stayed in their little holiday apartment attached to the main house which is lovely, and Sue had stacked the fridge with goodies and we spent a good part of the morning after a sleep in drinking coffee and doing nothing, watching the kids pick all the little apples off the tree and collect them in a bucket, and then put an ‘apple shop’ together!


The first thing we noticed about Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean, behind Sicily with a population of about 1.6 million, was that it looked a lot like parts of Western  Australia!  Except for its mountainous interior; the dry grass, sandy verges, red earth, and similar vegetation right down to Eucalyptus trees, made us feel like we were driving up to Lancelin!  The white sandy beaches and turquoise water also exactly the same, only a bit more crowded, as it was prime time for Euro’s on holidays!  (In fact, we noticed back in June whilst driving from Venice that the style of the houses with balconys and striped awnings could have been taken straight out of some of the ‘Italian’ suburbs of Perth and plonked there in the Italian countryside!  Or vice versa, so it would seem.  I always thought that style was of the era they were built, but now I realise they were more than likely built by Italian builders for Italians in proper Italian style!  So I think now I will look at them in a different light when I get home.)  Great weather also for flying a kite, and Maciek enquired about kite surfing lessons with a man who had spent 6 months in Perth and said that being a kite surfer in Perth is like being a 10 year old in Disneyland!  Perfect conditions!





Yachts moored at Costa Smerelda

Artsy Fartsy

 A few days were hot, and a couple of days it absolutely chucked it down!  Bit of a problem as I’d only packed beach wear after Sue constantly complaining about the heat and that it NEVER rains!  On hot days we relaxed on the beach, on the very rainy day we went to the town of Olbia to the shopping centre, where we didn’t last long as it seemed EVERYONE on the island had the same idea, and on the day where it started out sunny and ended rainy we drove to Costa Smerelda, passed the private airport home to planes owned by the likes of George Clooney and Sting, the holiday place of the very rich.  Lined up at the marina, moored at a cost of around Eur3000 per night, were luxury yachts two or maybe three times the size of your average house.  A lovely, richly rustic little town, bursting with art and galleries and unaffordable fashion, and rich Americans.  The kids were not really enjoying themselves after an hour which meant neither were we, so we left, stopping at a pizzeria on the way to the beach.  

Oh deary deary me..Are we having Rogan Josh for dinner?  How lovely!

For my ‘official’ birthday on the 2nd of September (this year only!), Frank and Sue cooked a lovely meal and forced a good few shots of Schnapps and Grappa down our throats!  Another evening we went out for a set meal of various antipasto and cheese filled ravioli and red wine, and on an another cooked again a delicious meal which we enjoyed with friends of theirs Fritz and Evie.  During this meal in a surprising turn of discussion Frank told us the story of the time they visited the Indian markets in Birmingham, in search of a Sari.  His logic was as the heat in India matched the hot Summers of Sardinia, it would make perfect sense to wear in Sardinia the same as the Indians wear in India.  I can only imagine what those Indian stall holders must have been thinking when they were approached by this white German man (very upstanding, distinguished looking gentleman that he is!) searching for a sari in the middle of Birmingham!  Anyway he did get his Sari and was very happy to model it for us and explained that he had even worn it out for dinner on particuarly warm evenings!  (Maciek had almost fallen off his chair in hysterics at this stage!)  Why not, I say, it’s cool and comfortable, and if you stick a red giftwrap star to your forehead like Aunty Sue did, it finishes the outfit off a treat!


We also took our coffee machine over for them and whilst there discovered how to make delicious cappuccinos using the Espresso capsule and frothing up the milk till it looked like melted marshmallows.  Yum!  Pity I never discovered that 6 months ago when we first bought the machine!  Missed out man!





The house that Sue & Frank built

Sue and Frank built the house themselves from scratch.  It’s a lovely place with a huge amount of garden housing willow trees and fruit trees, vegetable patches, a pond and a little paddock of goats!  It must of have taken a ton of blood, sweat and tears and they’ve done a wonderful job.  By the way, it’s for sale.  Leave a comment if you’re interested!


We said our goodbyes on the Thursday evening and queued up for our overnight ferry.  No delay this time and we had a cabin pre-booked, enjoyed a lovely nights’ sleep, and in the morning were the very first people on the car deck and seat belted into our car ready to drive off when the signal was given, only to find the people parked in front of us were amongst the last to dodge the bullets and scramble into theirs!  Oh bugger!








Picking...

Collecting....

Our shop is ready!!