La vita sarda: Palau

Notwithstanding my return to the road, it was a pretty laid-back day. I woke up with a painful sunburn on my back (that's what driving a boat all day will do, especially when you aren't wearing a life-jacket for most of the time), we checked out of our hotel in Cala Gonone, made a quick stop to the pharmacy to relieve my sunburn, and then headed north towards Palau.

The drive was surprisingly relaxing and I felt much more comfortable driving a stick-shift. For the most part we encountered one-lane, windy roads, and I liked it when there was a truck in front of me because it meant that I didn't have to drive as fast--windy roads on highways usually make me antsy. We followed road signs and the GPS and made it to Palau in less than 2 hours, arriving around 12:30pm.

Our B&B was easy to find but parking was another story. I found a spot on a small backstreet--the only issue was that there was a downward slope. And I had to parallel park between two cars. Reversing was barely possible since the car would jerk forward, so I had to resort to parking with quite a gap from the adjacent wall and hoping that I could cajole the B&B owner into fixing it later. The last thing I wanted was to pay the rental car company for damage to the vehicle.

We quickly checked in and dropped our stuff off before heading out to find a place to eat lunch. We decided on Re Ferdinando (King Ferdinand), a neapolitan pizza place, despite the pushy waiter who was trying to convince us at the entrance. Oli had been holding out on her whole Eurotrip until Italy for a pizza, so it would be her first one. We ordered a margherita pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella di bufala, basil) and tomato and arugula salad. Then we started exploring our surroundings.

The port was visible from the restaurant so we headed there first. It housed boats of all types and sizes as well as regular ferries to the neighbouring island La Maddalena, where we would head the next day. Thanks to our B&B owner we found out that with one of the ferry companies (Enermar) we could pay a discounted rate for our ticket if we bought it the day before. The return ticket ended up coming to €25 for two passengers and our Fiat 500--not as steep as I was expecting!

There was a small beach nearby filled with children playing in the water. We walked around, asked the Tourist Information office for some maps and recommendations, and then went to have our first gelato in Sardegna (though we had to wait until it opened at 4:00pm!).

A hat drying on a clothesline in Palau

Our B&B: Campo di Farfalle

After taking a brief break at our B&B to make a rough plan of our stay in Palau, we decided to head to Roccia d'Orso by car. The only reason I was interested was because I love teddy bears and this place was supposed to have a natural rock formation that resembled a bear (orso).

I'm really happy with our spontaneous decision to go--there was a beautiful panorama of Palau and its neighbouring islands and we got to have a temporary escape from the city (not that it was a stressful one anyway).

View from Roccia d'Orso (Bear Rock)

We saw people horseback-riding on a hill in the distance and Oli remembered seeing a sign on our way to Roccia d'Orso. We stopped by on our way (a bit embarrassing since my car kept stalling in front of the security guard) and were a bit disappointed with the price, €75 for 2 hours if I remember correctly. Still indecisive, we started heading back to our B&B but first stopped to watch the sunset.

The funny thing was that there was an RV parked near us blasting some kind of reggae music and all we could see was a dreadlocked man perhaps cooking on the other side.

For dinner we headed to the highly recommended dal Robertino and luckily got a table without having made reservations. We ordered a clam pasta with bottarga (fish roe; the waiter here also asked us if we knew what bottarga was--I guess Sardinians fear that it's too strong for a tourist's palate!) which tasted good but not great, and coupled with the poor service we were not too impressed.

Spaghetti alle arselle e bottarga

We were starting to feel like the people in Palau weren't as warm and friendly as those in Cala Gonone. Perhaps they were overrun with tourists?

After dinner we walked along Via Nazionale, the main road, which was lined with night-market fare, mostly consisting of jewellery and crafts. 

I'm looking forward to our trip to La Maddalena tomorrow. We have no idea what to expect other than gorgeous scenery and beaches!

Lesson of the Day

Sometimes the best plan is having no plan at all.