cagliari

sun was already long down when i arrived in cagliari. i had no idea where to go, so i booked it to the closest mcdonalds and enjoyed the wifi there. couldn't use the outlets, tough, because of my broken adapter. made it my mission to find a new one the next day. after a bit of scowering through google maps satellite images, i found a seemingly abandoned overgrown area within walking distance and headed there. got lucky and found a very secluded and quiet spot to set up camp.

woke up in time to watch the sunrise from my camp spot, which was elevated on a hill way above the nearby apartment blocks, which made for a fantastic view. but when i wanted to leave, i came to realize that i had been shut in and the gate that was open the night before was now closed with a warning sign to match. you could just step around the gate though, and i had seen people walking their dogs up there, so i decided to stick with the spot.

bought a quickcharging set (life changing), a new book (orwell - animal farm) and one year premium for an offline language learning app so i could learn persian on the go. enjoyed some of the towns views and sat for half an hour listening to some french woman singing in the street. returned after a quick supermarket shop, made a cheap variant of egg & bacon sandwich dinner and went to sleep after a call with jakob.

the next day was spent almost entirely inside the mcdonalds which was more my home than my tent at this point. calling home, i was informed that there had been several earthquakes around naples indicating an eruption of mt vesuvius. that would def be quite the experience, but i'm not going to allow myself to be scared off by some mountain with anger issues.

i had noticed that every evening around 11pm, the wind carried loud music and engine sounds over while i was trying to sleep. it was jakob who brought up the idea that it could be a car meet. friday evening, i was actually prepared to go out and see for myself, but the streets stayed quiey that night.

woke up at 3am and read through my mails again. had a short panic attack because one e-mail said that i needed a printed out version of my ticket, but then i remembered that i have a history of stuff like this suddenly going my way, so i didn't bother too much. if shit hit the fan, i could always ask any shopowner with a printer to do me the favour.

exactly as i had hoped, the digital version worked just fine boarding the ferry the next day. the drug dog looked at me a bit sceptically as i walked past him with the weed in my backpack, but i can thank chris for gifting me his bag of scented wood for obscuring the smell.

somehow managed to lose my sleeping mat in the x-ray, but apart from that, everything went smoothly. also met dongjin, a bikepacker from south korea, that i had already noticed twice as he was cycling around oristano while i was passing by him in different cars on my way to cagliari.

lastly, some cultural takeaways from sardinia:
- more old people than teenagers are vaping
- people here seem to despise bicycles, have seen a grand total of about five in two weeks
- public affection goes craaaaazy: at all times, and i'm not exaggerating, there were at least two couples in the mcdonalds laying on the benches cuddling or straight up having makeout sessions.Read more