Cagliari

Cagliari
Arrived at the #628 bus terminal next to the hostel in Baia del Corallo while the driver was taking a short break before his 08:50 scheduled departure. Thus had a few minutes to take some pics of the rugged landscape overlooking the bay. After checking our bags into the left luggage at the port, we had several hours prior to boarding the ferry to wander around the city above the port area. Even at 09:30, the air temperature was very close to 30 degrees. Our ferry was the Toscana owned and operated by Tirrennia. The ferry's departure from Palermo was delayed by 1h-15m because the loading of the roll-on/roll-off trailers took longer than expected...possibly because they loaded them all in reverse (ie backing them on board). There was still some spare capacity for trailers on deck, but passenger capacity was probably close to the limit. Because the passage to Cagliari takes 14h-30m, we booked a berth which provided an excellent night's sleep. That morning, while wandering around town, I noticed the headline story in one of the dozens of newspapers available in Palermo of a Tirrennia ferry which had caught fire 25 km off Palermo and was serious enough that all passengers had to be evacuated. Coincidentally, on the way out of the port, we noticed quite a few life rafts tied up against one of the piers and a ferry listed significantly to port with a couple of tugs holding her tight alongside. The ferry was bellowing smoke out of the car deck. Thus, even after a full day's effort to supress the fire, it was still very much alive. Later reports indicated that the source was the electrical system of a refrigerated trailer. According to the reports, there were no fatalities, but several passengers were in hospital recovering from smoke inhalation. Last count indicated that about 240 cars were destroyed in the fire. We arrived in Cagliari at 08:45, exactly 1h-15m later than scheduled which means they probably didn't bother expending the additional fuel to make up for the late departure. Disembarkation would surely prove to be a slow affair for the cars and trailers because as we stepped off the ramp with the first wave of pedestrians, the front rows of cars were still not occupied by their drivers who were probably stuck in the heavy pedestrian traffic in the stairways which was moving extremely slowly with all their heavy luggage. For a culture so dependent on maritime affairs, it is somewhat surprising that the Sicilians and Sardinians have not yet perfected the art of embarkation and disembarkation. Nevertheless, all the passengers seemed to be quite accustomed to these delays and were not dispalying any signs of anxiety or frustration, so we waited just as patiently. Once ashore, We walked an easy 200m up the hill from the dockside to the Hostel Marina. This is a brand new hostel since April this year which had its origins as a 17th century monastery. In its time since then it has also served as a hospital and more recently as a school. Quite a beautiful building with high arching passageways and ceilings. In all my years of hostelling, this is definitely the nicest one I have ever seen. Cagliari's history goes back to about 450000 years when there was a land bridge with the mainland. Over the millenia, many cultures occupied the land flourishing in the bronze age about 1500 B.C. with the Nuarghic peoples who left about 7000 nuarghi (circular homes usually surrounded by fortified walls). More recently, the predominant architecture visible today starts at the 13th century and culminates in the 17th century. Cagliari is a small town which lends itself well to easy wandering through narrow winding roads over the hillside overlooking the port. Unfortunately, most of the museums of Cagliari are closed on Monday's (ie tomorrow), so we'll burn up time with more meandering and purchasing some forward bookings of our train to Lanusei on June 3rd and our ferry from Porto Torres to Ajaccio on June 11th.