Sardinia: Day 7

Sonia and I took the bus to Baia Chia together. She has not already been to this beach. The sky was more cloudy but still warm. We laughed about how we crept in last night and then the moment we got to bed the two German girls came crashing in and turned the lights on and how Francesco had made signs from paper plates with numbers to grade 'Miss Hostel' in an event that never took place. We laughed about the woman we'd seen at the traffic lights with long tapered toe nails and how I'd said she looked like Wolverine!

The sea was quite a bit colder than yesterday at Villasimius so after sunbathing for quite a while, we went and sat under the palm leaf parasols by the cafe shack, had lunch and talked more and watched the spotted flycatchers going to and from their nest in the top of the umbrella we were sat beneath. I swam once more before leaving, knowing that in all likelihood I wouldn't return to that particular spot again. My leg was still giving me considerable grief walking back to the bus then hostel.

We stopped for fried potatoes and mixed vegetables in the place opposite and returned to the hsostel with them. There was already quite a lot of people in the outside bar area and we were soon a group of about half a dozen - two portugese girls who are now in our room, who Sonia made particularly good friends with as she is of Portugese descent. Bart joined us and a new guy called Joel who is Lebanese, living in the States, speaks four languages and is here to humour himself with an 8 day stay on his tour of the Mediterranean, studying the remnants of Phoenician history and language. He is 21. In late autumn he is going to Chennai to work for an NGO promoting the rights of women. It is a delightful reprimand to meet people who are really pursuing what they want to do, learning multiple languages, studying somewhat niche areas of interest and being so open, friendly and driven by a love for life. We stayed up 'til 2, talking ancient history, etymology and travel.