on whale watching stairs and gnucci

our sunset 1 hour ferry cruise went fast. took some sun set pics and reached Sardinia after dark. we had a fun 2 hour drive on the never ending curvy roads to Sassari,

Hotel pegasus is not the greatest of hotels , decent, except terrible wifi.  come morning with bread butter and honey and then off we went to explore the north west.

we started with Aleghro , found parking and an open tourist info. the professional person there gave us lots of maps on the city, the area, the county , the voting by area map, list of open restaurants in the old city offering local cuisine, map of sewage lines and other valued maps. by his advice we left the city and headed for neptune caves- or nettuno as is known here. 30 minutes of pretty coastal drive led to the edge of a peninsula. where a guide was ready to take us down the 654 steps. the way down was easy... the cave of wonders was nice, not breath taking if you sees more then a few stalagmites caves but not bad. the local guide gave me tips on this area. now it was time to go back up, that took a little while... 

we drove back after a stop for a little bit of cliff climbing and a stop in one of the many very round turrets that are scattered here on hill tops and bay edges. defensive posts. the peninsula and the sea create many photo moments. we returned to Aleghro and stopped for lunch.

for me gnucci is a small past dish and i ordered Sardi gnucci and carbonara.  the carbonara was good, but the gnucci here is basically pasta shaped like sea shells with tomato sauce, and i kind of left it alone.  the waitress explained that in Italy the gnucci is potato based but here (in the other country) in sardinia, it is a type of pasta. live and learn.

now we split up, i went for a historic old town stroll. I began on the out side walls of the medieval city, seeing towers, trebuchet, catapult and cannons facing the sea.  the rocks on the sea side creating a natural defense well before the massive walls. this must have been a well defended place. but the island did change hands several times in it history. Catalonians. Genoas , Italians and now tourists.

unlike what the tourist info guy informed us. all restaurants in the old center were closed. in my wondering, i came across a gelateria anddecided to sample the local flavor. i tried Fundenta and this chocolate was bitter. as you know, i prefer the pure real chocolate that is milk chocolate.... it was still good, but not what i was looking for. hence kept wondering the old city with its narrow passageways, passing an incredible amount of churches in a tiny area. and then found another gelateria. this time i would outsmart them and ordered chocolata...  which was bitter...

i met back with the gang who used the time to sit still in the sunny wifi. we drove north passing lush green hills, sheep and a glorious sunlight towards tistino. where one of the better beaches is found. i loved this drive with its many shades of green.

as we approached the shore we both had an ahh moment. the shallow waters were in various shades of blue, just amazing. the long sandy beach, with rock formations behind it , the bay, the big island just perhaps 300 meters across the channel and the smaller island with the big turret all combined to a beautiful place. we walked a bit on the beach

the warm sun was fighting a cool northern breeze and I debated myself weather to go in for a dip. It took a while for me to convince myself to be stupid. usually it doesn't take me this long. I walked in for a while, the waters here are very shallow and you walk a while and the water is below knee high. the darker blue where it is deep is clearly well ahead. slowly the water pass my knees and i keep going, but it is windy. and at middle height i decide to just dive in. refreshing and cold, i go back dry and change. i look at the map later and find that there is no local sea name here, just the med sea. 

in the evening news it was reported that beached whales were spotted on northern Sardinia.

we passed port town of port torres on our way back to Sassari. this sentence is already enough description about this town.

in Sassai, i went to shower while they shopped and later we all headed for old town Sassari. we parked in the middle of a piazza as the locals do, just under a sign saying no parking anywhere in the piazza. we passed the cathedral and walked the nicely lit old town streets and reach the main attraction. a Zara store where Shay spent a while and we were in the small square listening to a street artist. we kept going to the main city square. a big pretty plazza with a palace and fancy buildings all around.  

we stopped for dinner and here they had Italian style Gnucci. it was salty and delicious, best meal of the trip.

we wondered a bit on the way back to the car and returned for night night.

this morning at pegasus hotel lobby, we drive south towards Cagliari

cheers

on ferries ice cream and limoncello

today we stopped at a mall... a mall yes, Shay blood sugar was low on mcFood and we found a mall in Olbia, a fairly major city. he went to Zara and Mc place and i had some ice cream and a crepe we spent an hour or so there and avoided the authentic sardinian old western steak house. today we had a surprise, places are open. we drove by a few towns, and there is some life here. from there we headed to Palau where many celebrities have villas, but now familiar face in sight. after nearly falling off the pier , we boarded a ferry to isola madeline in the archipelago. this village is an old army post. has a very nice city hall, church and colorful building, we didn't spend here long but we all liked the place and had very good ice cream. we took the ferry back, enjoyed archipelego views of islands and clear blue waters in a nice warm day and then looked at our afternoon ferry to corsica  and noticed a "last port check in 90 minutes prior" on the ticket. it was 3:20, the ferry is at 5, we still have to go to the mainland , then drive for 30 minutes +... the math does not work we are late.

the nerves begin,,,

as soon as we leave the ferry from the archipelago, i drive as fast as possible on these curvy roads a police car passes on the other side and nothing happens..sigh  of course there are road works on the way where tractors use big devices to shave off the trees on the side of the road, and busses, trucks and slow drivers, we get there at 4:10 and find that the note was wrong, 30 minutes prior is fine... we breath and board the ferry to Corsica.  now you can see Sardinia and its archipelago in its northern part but corsica is also near by and clearly visible. the voyage is peaceful and on arrival it is striking. old town benefacio and its medieval walls are on the lime stone high cliffs dominating the area, and the harbor is goes behind it, creating a kind of peninsula. it is very impressive to watch. the building on the cliffs edges seems as they could fall in any moment as huge chunks are at the bottom. we all loved this city on 1st sight.  we checked in to a nice best western, recently renovated and headed out for some corsican food. to our not so surprise it was closed... we has a choice of tapas or burgers and tapas it was. definitely exploratory food for me. i sampled cream of artichokes on toast, 1st time for me, it was not bad, tasted like garlic. then some freak soup in a misshaped bear glass , with strange greens i don't want to know what it was. it was nourishing for me and very good for tourguide. i had also linguini langoustine which was good,we tried deserts, i took a safe creme brulle. it came in small bizarre cups. i tried it and disliked it.  turns out the cups are passion fruit, which i don't like and inside there were figs,  which i really dislike. i thought they put beer inside, which you know i dislike, i didn't like the other deserts the others ordered, things with creme and clementine or nutella. the owner gave us free double shot of limoncello, i took mine and shay's shot and felt it right away, strong stuff.  now they both went to the hotel and i took a solo tour up to the old city. the steep path climbs upwards and enters the impressive walls, which were lit in blue soft light. the old town is nice, with narrow passages, it feels similar to old jerusalem at night but scarier. i was almost alone passing many dark stair ways and allies,  felt unsafe, though i was told it was safe. I spent 30 minutes or so walking the square and then returned to the hotel.

now it is night time... tomorrow corsica awaits

cheers from Corsica  country # 64

on blocked road, dry food and nouraghi

I am sitting in here in a nice hotel lobby overlooking mountainous terrain, villages, green scenery and clouds, the sun is making some attempts to warm up, but its early. its Monday morning and all is peaceful in Sardinia.

I left Cleveland on a Saturday noon, the Delta counter had trouble finding my reservation at first , giving me few moments of dread, i gave them my ticket and then they found two invites for me,  i booked via Vayama so  no sure what happened there, but soon i was at the gate where this oversold flight had 5 to many people... they offered 800$ to delay. i was intrigued but would miss my connection so passed on what would pay for most of my stay. 

reached JFK with plenty of time, but you have to switch terminals, go trough security again with long lines. prices here are higher then I recalled and i settled in on a hotdog, 

soon we were off to Rome and i spent my time with Keeping up with Jonses - entertaining, Jack reacher 2 movie- decent - but the books are better, he (Tom Cruise) is to short for the role and played some trivia. slept only an hour. we reached rome 20 minutes a head of time, my connection was decent, but it did take a while to load on the busses and a long transit line for security, a long walk to the other terminal and then passport control.  each by itself was not too bad, but i was pushing it to make my flight and had to run. Breathlessly i reached the gate with a few minutes to spare, joined with my dad and brother as we took the short last leg to Cagliari.

My bag wasn't there! here is there is a separate carrousel for domestic and international, sigh... it was in the other one with a ripped stepped, back pack becomes a shoulder carry.

we got the car and quickly began navigating the cagliary roads. the sun shone, a lovely warm day with clear skies. perfect start.

we stopped at a super marketo for some supplies, water, bread , local cheeses and snacks and headed for the SS125 going north east. the road passes salt lakes and fields of various kinds and then slopes up the mountain range. the granite mountains are striking, there are lops of spurs going up from the top of the mountains creating interesting shapes. the scenery is lovely with assorted trees of oak, pine, olive and others and the sea is visible every now and then for contrast. we took a little detour in the village of bureci and took a road to the top of a mountain. this was a dirt road and we stopped on the sides to examine the newly blooming flowers.

the road was not meant for a regular car and we decided to avoid a flat tire and returned back and continued east and north on the SS125.  we reached the village of Arbatax and stopped at the marina for beautiful rocky shores view.. here we found a little booking mishap. our hotel was an hour south so we waived our booking and booked Dorgali which was an hour to the north- to avoid the need to double back. this village arbatx is a happening place in summer, but now in the off season it is off. no one in sight, this is a sunday and the roads are virtually empty. we decided to keep going to pedra delonga. after driving up the mountain, the roads goes steeply down towards the sea. we spot some goats and our expert zoologist guide declares they are feral goats. i do notice that these feral goats have bells on them. i did manage to get a nice photo of these feral bell goats gazing at me with the sea behind. photo of the day.

we reach the end of the road to the restaurant which is closed!!! at this point i get a 911 call from nature... and i leave my mark on the ground 20 meters from a locked toilet. this is becoming a bad habit.

the short path descends to the shore for views of sea and rock formations, including the long rock or Pedra De longa.   i also take the paphto the other side, each path is perhaps 200 meters both ways, but a bit steep, the beach on this end is completely deserted. 

we continue north. the roads here all pass in the towns, in one of them we reach a funeral procession and must go behind the poor soul and half the town on his way to church. we continue slowly on the never ending winding road but with striking views. i fall a sleep here and there in the back, an hour after the funeral we reach a dead end! the road is blocked. I get out to see road work on the other side and a firm blockade on the road, not a gate. time to go around. these are mountain roads, not many off them, we have to drive 20k back then do a huge detour. i take over on the wheel a bit rested after my power nap. Shay is complaining on the constant turning and i laugh when i see a straight stretch of road of about a 100 meters, it is that twisty. for more than an hour we are on this U-turn of a road passing a few small towns, streams, goats and sheep and finally reach a high way, we go north to Nouro, the area capital, it is a city and it is closed! we drive in the center and all stores are closed, and also restaurants and everything. these people take Sunday seriously. we pass a cop and ask for food directions and he guides to the main pedestrian area where we find a couple of sandwich places, we are told that restaurants will open at 8 pm.. and we have a hungry child to feed so we snack on microwave heated pizza or burgers - not gourmet italian food. on the way out another store finally opened and Shay supplements with french fries. all he wants is Mcdonald...

we leave the city and head toward Dorgali the touristic town, center of all activities and we find the road closed. it is dark now and we are tired. another detour.... its a big valley with hills here, hence a few roads to chose from. 30 minutes later , groggy eyed and slapping my face to remain awake we reached the hotel to find it closed! 

we called the hotel and after a few minutes they opened up, we booked this hotel today and the hotel did not get a message somehow, but they were efficient and gave us another room.

i took a shower and was fast asleep.

Day 1 ended where Sardinia makes country #63

woke up before seven and went out to check the beautiful mountain view, green hills vine yards and other fields. we had a great breakfast, with fresh orange juice, good bread, home made cake and other goodies. we went to the super market to grab lunch sandwiches and headed for our first spot. road S46 is closed... a car passes and a nice sardinian lady tells us to follow her on z daetur.  it was a tiny park that seemed devastated by recent floods, i saw a bench on a rock 10-15 meters up, high flood. we saw a sign for a "short nice 20 minute walk" and we took it, the short hike goes in between interesting vegetation and our biological tour guide digs a root from one of plants and shows us its orange root, suppose to make great tea out of it. 

we drove onward on a mountain road towards the hike of the day. we took the wrong path and tried and failed to make it up the mountain, steep roads, we stopped by a group of italian forest workers. they spoke no english but were very friendly, they were having lunch of bread and cheese and wine. we drank some wine, even I, just to be nice took a little sip. they drew us a map and we made it to the starting point where i left tour guide and hungry child in the car, they had lunch and i went up the mountain. 300 meters elevation change, took me 55 minutes to make it up there. the 1st part is just a path becoming steeper and steeper with occasional sounds of feral bell goats and 1 wild cat. the 2nd part of the path becomes a rocky trail, lots of stair type trail and the more you go up the rockier it becomes, with very jagged rocks, i stepped carefully on this part. at one point you have to go through a tunnel between the rocks and use your hands to climb. short of breath i reach the ancient nouraghi village under a collapsed dome. a guide waiting at the top explained bit about the sheep herding village that was discovered about 100 years ago, there is not much to see and i stayed there for a short while, enjoyed the panoramic view and made my way carefully down the mountain.

sour legged, i enjoyed picoreno cheese and bread. very good, we left the park and drove to orgoloso a town known for anti government political drawing. the streets are full of interesting gravity and quality drawing, but it is in italian  ,and we don't stay here long. the way over here 18 k was once again extra twisty. as we leave the town to return to Dorgali, we go by another road , slightly faster and are told to make a right somewhere, i remark that per the onboard nav system, we are about to cross a river, when we get to the bridge. it is rock made, ancient and half demolished, mush have been broken for over 20 years. we debate if we could jump over the gorge and finally decide not to. another blocked road.. but we do find a nice orchid here before we go back to another detour which is our 4th in under 24 hours. we make it back and head for sea town of cala gonona , a happening place in the summer we reach the shore and walk a bit then hungry boy must have dinner and we begin looking for a place. there are lots of closed restaurant here, they have cruises to amazing nearby beaches but not now, not a boat in sight. we scrounge the town and see and open gelateria, finally :)   we go in, and no ice cream, it will start next week the counter guy say in iris Gelateria. i Order hazel nut hot chocolate, it is very thick and and hot , hit the spot. a near by restaurant has lights, but they will open in an hour, we decide to go back to Dorgali, its a bigger place , there must be food there. we drive around for an hour, it is closed, everything.... low blood sugar shay drives around crazed. we finally find a restaurant sign and head up narrow alleyways and find a 1 star michellen place. but closed. google directs us to the garden pizzeria restaurant which was open!!! too bad.

tour guide ordred zuppa di mar, after desperately wanting soup. apparently a plate of sea food is called zuppa,  he sends it back. i ask for black risotto and octopus. it is nourishing. this is our new code word for something not so good. hungry boy gets ribs, they taste like meat but stringy. the carbonara is also nourishing and the chocolate cake is as soft as dry rock.

shay asks for another fork it share the rock cake and gets another cake... we send it back to rolled eyes glares from our waitress. we hear here debating with the angry cook.

we reached the hotel for a show and fast overnight nap.

woke up around seven,  another vey good breakfast, as we raised our glasses we requested open roads...

we checked out and heading north. we passed the town of orosei. the town shocked us, we saw a few open places, we checked out the beach, pretty and not empty , 2 people were sitting on the sand. 

we are now going not still 

cheers from sardinia

on vomit Quotes and the usual

one evening not long ago, i am sitting in the facilities room, doing what nature demanded, when Mattan walks in. its shower time. no privacy around here any more. while seated, i open the adjacent shower door, let him in and open the water. soon he begins to shower, or more correctly, playing in the shower, he likes to drink from the running shower tap. another minutes passes and Tal comes in. that is strange since i locked the gate to avoid such interruptions and behind him comes Alla. now she should know better! and let a person do their thing. she comes in and declares that she has to go. well, i am in the middle!!, and i ask her some what bewildered. "what do you expect me to do now?. finally she leaves the room with Tal.

the privacy rights in this country are no more.

we try to maintain routine, which is very important to kids, so say all the researchers. but sticking to routine is a bit difficult. of course there is my routine and Alla's routine.

my usual.

Tal Wakes up, i get him, he jumps with joy. we go down, and i give him breakfast, usually cereal, which he must take from the cabinet and he takes a spoon from the drawer, he will not accept my spoon offering. he eats the cereal and half of the milk, another half is on his clothes and another half on the chair. yes, i know it's against the laws of physics, but he manages.

now that he is good and dirty, and infused by milk. he poops and i change his diaper- then go wash his teath and change his clothes.

all this usually happens before Mattan\ Alla wake up

while this is happening i am making breakfast for all the boys, my self included and not for Alla.

Alla's usual (in the less usual case). Tal wakes up, calls Aba Aba Aba.... Mom comes, he jumps with joy but still calls for Aba. First Alla changes his diaper and brushes his teeth, then dresses him nicely. then breakfast, usually cereal with the same level of mess. now she goes to change the poopy diaper and change the outfit to another nice outfit.

 

recent quoates 

"no I am not sick I went to the doctor yesterday" mattan

I dont  want to go to evie's party   since she said once I  am a bad boy - Mattan

"she (Evie) told Lilian once that she is bad"

when asked if he or Lilian did anything bad   mattan says     there are no bad people at our school

this was a harsh winter. not the weather itself which was extremely mild for a cleveland winter, but sickness. since December = Tal had 5 sick episodes, most took a week to run through. a combination of liquids coming from every where possible. Mattan had 2 spells. but most were not in paralel and we had  to scramble often for a sitter, mostly meaning i stayed home. now we have almost 2 weeks of no sickness, just runny noses and finally things seem a bit normal. but we had our concerns. Tal is no on an all lactose free diet and gets fiber while we wait for various allergy tests to arrive. Today, we had a visit with radiology. poor taL work up at 5:30, not knowing that he can't eat till the test. he was grumpy asking for a bottle, cereal , yogurt, cookies, rummaging in drawers trying to obtain food . go explain to a hungry 22 month old that he has to wait...

Alla took Tal to the hospital, while i got ready to take Mattan to school and join her. 10 minutes later alla comes back (forgot her purse) then she rushes out again. i leave and go to drop Mattan off then drive to the hospital. I reached a random parking lot, 4th floor at the far corner. get out of the car and am about to call Alla when she happens to pull in to the slot next to mine. weird coincidence , this is a huge hospital facility with more than 1 lot, and multi floors. she was suppose to arrive before me,  bagel stop. alla is addicted to take out.

Tal is now calm, as we had in, he enjoys the light in the under ground tunnel and the elevators and the many greeters in uniform. we reach the radiology room which impresses me. it is a room geared for kids. lots of finding nemo/dory stickers on the walls. there was a hospital child services person. her job is to ease the worries of parents and kids. impressive. they explain the procedure and we first get a single x ray and tal is the perfect patient. then we wait for the doc and tal plays with the lights. finally the doc arrives, Hungry Hungry tal gets to drink something milk looking with dye. it is some fruit flavored. i was worried it would taste as horrible as the adult version. but it was not. tal takes a sip, then surprised and looks at the bottle, we hold our breaths, but he decides it is consumable and digs in. i see on the X-Ray frequent shots- and you can see the liquid goes to his esophagus, spends some time in the stomach and then goes to the intestine. very cool to see and once more Tal is fully cooperating, with the "milk" and a sucker that they give him to stimulate the stomach.  at the end when we here he has no anatomical blockages , he gets to choose a toy, he gets a little car.

currently Tal could have had just a nasty series of stomach viruses, but not all results are in.

Meanwhile, after my great success last year with biggest loser, i had no so good success in the 2nd part of the year and gained some of it back. i just finished a 2nd biggest loser and sadly i've lost by losing almost nothing... shame, the good part is that the weight gaining has stopped- i am stable for the last 2 months and i am much more active now and hoping resume decent in upcoming active months.

i will rejoin this competition again next year, it keeps me in check.

as you know i Participate in toastmasters and reached a mile stone of finishing all my speeches. i have 2 things left to complete to be a DTM- distinguished toast master and hope to finish this by MAY

 

more  quotes 

he sees a sign of 25 MPH and we explains that we go slow since the speed is 25 miles per hours. he then says in the high way you can drive faster 65 thousand dollars... a little unit confused

Tal begins to talk in 3 word sentences - but i don't recall anything record-able at this point, 

we went to see La La land and i don't get the hype, it was fine, but best movie... i don't think so.

we also went to a Carpenter tribute event , some band anecdotes and lots of hit songs. average age was 70 + ... i loved the event, Alla was suffering bravely..

that is it for now. soon more frequent updates as destination #63 approaches.