La vita sarda: Driving 131

I woke up today in a bit of disbelief that I was going on vacation. I was excited, yes, but it wasn't that heart-palpitating, stomach-in-knots excitement that I've had before--the type that doesn't let me eat breakfast the day of a flight. But as I waited for Oli's flight to arrive in Cagliari while seated in baggage claim, the suspense of seeing her again and starting our Sardinian adventure together set in. When her arrival time approached, I put down my book, Vasco Pratolini's Le ragazze di San Frediano, and watched for her entrance in anticipation. 

As soon as we saw each other, we hugged (not believing how quickly time had passed), got her luggage, and then went to pick up our rental car. We passed by a baby blue Fiat 500 and just as soon as I had exclaimed my desire to drive it, I realized that it was already taken. Our Fiat 500 was grey with a cream-coloured interior. The challenge of driving was now before me and my nerves were buzzing with fear. 

Leaving the car park was alright (I should have adjusted my side-view mirrors first!), but as soon as I got on the highway (SS 131) the car went at a very slow pace and then decided to stall. Looking back, it was my fault--I had changed to 4th/5th gear before I should have. Luckily we were on a bit of a shoulder on the highway so our lives were not in utter peril. I restarted the car as calmly as I could, and after 3-4 tries we were speeding along the highway with the rest of them. Phew!

At some point between Cagliari and Cala Gonone, we pulled into a gas station for a short panino-break (my aunt had packed me delicious panini and her homemade chocolate salami) and to figure out why there was an orange hazard light on my dashboard. While stretching my legs, I took my first couple of pictures in Sardegna.

Our Fiat 500 whom we later named Fifi

The hazard light disappeared upon restarting the car (thank Jebus!) and as soon as I reached the highway, a policeman on the shoulder motioned for us to pull over. Having witnessed this beforehand on a trip with my parents, I knew that it was likely a random check to make sure I had a driver's license and hadn't stolen the car, so I surprisingly did not panic at all.

After handing him my international driver's license and confirming that our car was a rental, the policeman (whom I should add was rather attractive!) asked if Oli was my amica (=friend, to which I said yes) and then told us we could be on our way. When I laughed out loud to myself soon after driving off, I translated his question to Oli and she and I wondered what he would have said if I had answered "no".

We followed the GPS' instructions and at one point, I missed a turn right after a tunnel and we had a 7 km detour (which I called "scenic") since the GPS' prompt came a little late. I took from that experience a lesson of turning earlier next time; however, this ended up backfiring because I later turned onto a narrow and steep dirt path which, to put it lightly, freaked me out. Every time I tried going forwards, the car slipped back, and at one point I wondered if we would ever get out of that road. After a few tries and some burnt rubber, we made it up and I made a 3-point turn to return to the highway. My contempt for steep roads started right then.

The rest of the 3-hour drive went by relatively without a hitch. Fifth gear was at times a challenge to find, so I would stay in fourth if I felt that I couldn't make it. When we almost reached Cala Gonone, the GPS led me to a very narrow, windy, and grooved-cement road leading down a mountain and without any streetlights. There was a car following me and I had to turn on my high beams and concentrate on not killing us. For the first half of the road I had to keep my hand pulling on the high beam wand and steer with my right hand. Then I realized that if I pressed it down it would stay on the whole time.

Finding our hotel was a bit hard since the GPS didn't lead us to the exact street. It was a bit past 10:00pm and there were tourists walking everywhere, including tweenage boys not looking both ways before darting across the road (thanks, buddy!). I asked for directions and circled around the area twice before phoning the hotel for help. While waiting for the owner's husband to come over, I parked next to the church and we witnessed children wildly playing some kind of water-bottle filling game to the soundtrack of dance music. The game was very effective since a man later used the filled water bottles to water the plants around the church.

We finally reached Hotel Nettuno which ended up being on a street very close to where we were. Our exhaustion made us abandon our plans for a nighttime stroll and I went to bed happy that I wouldn't need to drive for the next couple of days.

Lesson of the Day
Be careful when operating a GPS. Also be careful when operating a vehicle, particularly those of the manual transmission variety. And while we're at it, always try to stay calm as much as you feel the need to panic.