10.19.22 to 10.20.22 Regular Days!
I had one class Wednesday and three classes on Thursday. I was exhausted from Morocco, Mallorca, and now a full week, so I tried to take some siestas. I was only able to take one this week because of all the assignments and everything I needed to do for Spring semester in Fayetteville. And on Thursday, our flight from Palma to Cagliari was canceled because of the labor strikes occurring in Italy on the 21st of October. We were unable to get refunds for the other two flights and the airbnb. I spent all day coming up with different plans ranging from cutting our losses to flying out of Barcelona on Saturday. My head was spinning trying to save our weekend in Italy, but we did it!
For dinner on Thursday, our group all got together for a potluck and a friend’s apartment. I chose to bring microwavable patatas bravas, K brought crackers and hummus, and E decided to bring pizza. Our friends made pasta, fried rice, and salad. It was so much fun to see everyone and play card games with them.
10.21.22 Churros and Chocolate!
We woke up at 9:45am for chocolate and churros. E and I thought it was at 10am and that we were going to be late so we were speed walking trying to catch the right bus. The second we got on the bus, our friend told us it didn’t start until 11am. We decided to grab coffee in the Ruzafa district and enjoy the morning. After coffee, we met up with our ISA group for the activity of “Churros con Chocolate” followed by a visit to the Museum of Fallas. The different types of churros were so good and the chocolate was delicious. Our group wandered around the museum looking at the historical artwork and masterpieces. It was cool to see an integral part of Valencian culture.
After we finished up with the ISA activities, my friends and I went to grab burritos before some of them got their nails done. The burritos were amazing and made me miss 1021 burritos on Sundays. After lunch and nails, we all decided to head home, mainly because I needed to pack for Italy…
10.22.22 to 10.23.22 Cagliari!
Initially, we were supposed to leave on Friday, but on Thursday we received an email saying our flights to Cagliairi had been canceled. We thought about cutting our losses because we were unable to get refunds for our return flights and our houseboat rental, but we ended up deciding to train to Barcelona and fly to Cagliari from there on Saturday. The labor strikes in Italy on Friday did cut our trip time in half, but I am still so glad we went. A little bit of Italy is better than nothing.
We woke up at 5:45am on Saturday to get ready and head to the train station for our 6:55am train from Valencia to Barcelona. Upon arriving in Barcelona at 9:45am, we had to decide on whether we saved money and used public transport to get to the airport or to just bite the bullet and taxi. Our flight started boarding at 11:20am, so we chose to pay for a taxi from the train station to the airport (34 euros). After going through security, we were able to grab breakfast at McDonald’s before boarding. The flight was super short, a little less than an hour.
Our houseboat rental was an 8 hour walk or 30 minute taxi ride (50 euros) or 45 minute train and bus ride (6 euros). We decided to save money and took the train from Elmas Airport to Cagliari and then hopped on a bus that took us to Poetto. We arrived around 2:30pm. Our “hotel” for the night was a houseboat we found on booking.com and I am so glad we chose to do the houseboat and not a hotel. However, we were starving and immediately went looking for somewhere close for lunch. We found a restaurant 5 minutes from the marina. I ordered a seafood salad thinking it would be lettuce with some shrimp, but I was so very very wrong. It was literal octopus chunks with just a little shrimp. I am glad I was able to try fresh oysters, clams, octopus, lobster, crab, and shrimp. My favorites were clams, lobster, crab, and shrimp. I was not a huge fan of the octopus and oysters because of the chewy texture.
After lunch, we headed to the beach to rest and look for seashells for about an hour before returning to the boat to change for pictures, ice cream, and dinner. K and I took pictures at sunset and then walked to eat some gelato. I ordered vegan pistachio and dairy-free strawberry ice cream. It was delicious and I am so glad they had dairy free options. We forgot to take pictures of our food this entire trip because it looked so good we had to eat before our phones.
The ice cream was so delicious but extremely filling, so we decided to return to the houseboat and sit on the roof. The view was amazing, the weather was perfect, and it was the ideal location to listen to “Midnights” by Taylor Swift. These are memories I will treasure forever. We did start to get hungry around 9:30pm so we walked the 45 minutes to a highly rated pasta place, only to discover it closed early. After walking around for a bit, we found a tiny little restaurant that had pasta. I ordered gnocchi with red sauce and basil. It was amazing. I want to learn how to make gnocchi when I return home or honestly maybe just find some decent frozen gnocchi.
Our flight departed Cagliari at 8am on Sunday, so after dinner we returned home and got 5 hours of sleep prior to our travel day. Immediately upon returning to Valencia, I took a shwer and fell asleep for another 5 hours. When I woke up, my host dad made me chocolate and churros before I started on my homework.
Italy is at the top of my must-do list in the future. I would love to spend 10-14 days traveling around Italy and eating pasta. I will for sure be back!!
10.24.22 to 10.25.22 Classes!
Monday and Tuesday were super normal days! I had all my classes, turned in all my assignments, and enjoyed all of my host dad’s cooking! The end to another amazing week!!
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