Ahoj, Česko!

 

Once in Germany what a relief it was not to have to go through security and passport control again. Ah... the EU. A uniquely enlightened paradise on Earth.

München flughaven is very swish and I couldn't resist getting a burger as bratwurst mit semf was not an option. It was touch and go for a moment if the burger would be ready in time for boarding the final flight to Prague but it all went very smoothly in the end.

This flight was delayed too but we forgave Lufthansa when they handed out little bars of delicious Lindt chocolate.

We arrived at Vaclav Havel International airport at 22:10 and thanks to Google Maps we were on the bus to hlavní nádraží (Central station) less than twenty minutes later.

The currency in the Czech Republic is the Krona and there's about 16 to the Aussie dollar. This resulted in this stupid old man goofing up the zeros at the ATM and drawing out maybe a million units of local money. Who knows?

I'd deliberately booked an apartment near the main station so once we'd worked out we needed to go down a level it was just a seven minute walk to a nice looking pad on the top floor, next door to a convenience store which I returned to for milk, Pilsner and wine.

We both slept very well!

Una settimana in Italia

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Una settimana in Italia (A Week in Italy.)
Friday, 23rd August - Friday, 30th August 2026.

Summary: 

After our time in South East Europe and Poland and the Baltic States before that, it felt kind of comforting to return to what might be called "Western Europe" and the quite familiar country of Italy. It was great to meet up with some friends for a few days and Julia and David generously hosted us for three days in their wonderful Umbian home. From there, we had planned to spend a couple of nights in Rome but, Schengen had its knock on effects even here, so we skipped that and flew straight to Sardinia and its norther city of Olbia. 

The island has long been on our "to do" list with its promise of torquoise seas and great snorkelling. We spent four days there. Originally we'd hoped to hire a car and tour around the island but due to my lost wallet in Vilnius and Leb's still poorly hip, we knocked that idea on the head too. Instead we visited a beach local to our village and caught a bus and then a boat trip to the Isla Tavolora. Unfortunately, Leb stepped on one of the many sea urchins whilst getting out of the water there, which added another blow to her holiday. Despite all this we had a relaxing time and some great food. I especially loved the coconut ice cream.

Ciao, Umbria! (Friday, 23th August)

After our early short flight from Tirana, it was soooo wonderful that waiting for us at Perugia airport were our dear friends Julia and David who had so kindly offered to let us stay with them for a few days at their Umbrian paradise in the geographic center of Italy.

Julia made a delicious spanakopita and fig enriched (they have a few incredibly bountiful fig trees in their garden!) unleavened bread for us and her Brazilian friend Paula.

Then we lolled around their lovely refreshing pool for an hour or so before playing a few board games. Julia's win record was 100%.

Then, after a short snooze, they tool us for a drink on the terrace at the peak in the nearby picturesque town of Monte Castello di Vibio.

When lovers in the heat, kiss on a cobbled street... that's amore!

What spectacular views. We definitely slept well that night, especially after hearing Kamala Harris' awe inspiring speech at the DNC. It feels sad to note that at the time we thought it was surely one of the greatest political speeches ever. Clearly 70+ million Americans didn't think so.

Garibaldi Square followed by a win for the Garibaldi Redsa! (Saturday, 24th August)

Day 169 ~ Garibaldi Square then a win for the Garibaldi Reds.

We had another lovely relaxing day in Umbria started with a big bowl of porridge laced with juicy ripe figs plucked straight off the tree.

We then had a short trip to Todi, another beautifully picturesque old town on the top of a nearby hill, via a shopping centre. I wanted to ask them "questi typi de pasta vendi qui?" but I never got the chance. I think the answer would have been "centinaia!"

We stopped for a drink in the square and I was spotted by a group of Italian tourists from Milan. See, I was wearing my Forest shirt. Always an attractant. It turned out that a couple from the group had travelled to Nottingham many times and had become Forest fans. We had a photo taken of us in front of Garibaldi Square which has a statue of the great man whose colours inspired Forest to be the original reds in 1865. After exchanging worries about Danilo and hopes about the game scheduled later at Southampton we bade eachother farewell.

We descended from the town back to the car park via a cute finiculari. It was good to get a bit of air conditioned coolness away from the heat of the day.

Then back to Julia and David's for an afternoon by the pool, except when I sloped off to follow the Forest game. Thanks to Ashley Barnes I managed to watch an albeit blurry image of the game. I think Ashley must have dosed off in the second half because all I could hear was snoring! Anyway, it was better than nothing and with the text commentary on the BBC I reckon I got a good feel for the game. Forest completely dominated the first half and fought hard in the second to get ahead and see the game out 1-0 winners. Forest were 4th in the Premier League at the final whistle. (5th after Arsenal's win later.)

Streaming a match being streamed from England in Perth, Australia, from Umbria in Italia. 
Quality - not so good.

Then, after a bit more of a swim, David cooked fabulous Umbrian pork sausages on the barbecue and with some salad we washed it down with a few glasses of nice Italian wine under the stars

Arriverderci, Umbria! (Sunday, 25th August)

Day 170 ~ Last day in Umbria. Lazy day by the pool, 40 years exactly since I first set eyes on the gorgeousissima Lebley Jane.

Thanks so much to Julia and David for their outrageous generosity playing host to us these last three nights and for recommending the most spectacular pizza restaurant.

Ciao, Sardegna! (Monday, 26th August)

Day 171 Accomodation 72 Flight 20 Country 16 ~ Ciao Sardegna!

Thanks once more to Julia and David, not only for their warm hospitality in Umbria but for chauffeuring us from and then back to the airport at Perugia. After my usual "goodbye video", we headed off back to the airport and smoothly caught the short flight almost over Rome out into the Tyrrhenian Sea and the island of Sardina (Sardegna, in Italian.)

Needless to say we got there easily on time and had time for a bite to eat before going through security to wait by the gate. No problems this time. The boarding was smooth too.

This was our first flight that wasn't jet propelled and it was lovely to see Isola Tavolara in all its glory as we came in to land at Olbia airport. We'll caught a boat trip out there in the next couple of days for a snorkel. Unfortunately my mobile decided to focus on the window itself so it's a very blurry view.

The taxi fare was €28 (ouch!) to our 72nd accomodation (average length of stay currently 2.42 nights). Having been kindly allowed in early, we unpacked and then set off to explore Murta Maria, the village near Olbia we're staying at. We were delighted to find a pescharia which served fresh fish and salad. Delicious but again a bit pricy.

Then we caught a bus to Olbia to explore some more there. We were hoping to find somewhere to ask about snorkelling trips but instead had a nice walk around the old town, visiting a church and a basilica.

Our sight-seeing in Olbia included a visit to the beautiful Basilica of San Simplicio. It's a Romanesque church apparently mainly built in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It's made largely of local granite, and is one of the oldest religious monuments in northeastern Sardinia. It is dedicated to Olbia’s patron saint, who was martyred in the early 4th century.

Then we found the bus back (€1.50 each) and did a bit of shopping before relaxing for the night.

First Sardinian Snorkle. (Tuesday, 27th August)

Day 172 ~ First Sardinian snorkel.

We opted for a local beach for our first Sardinian snorkel. First, we caught the bus to Porto Istana, which has a lovely tranquil (but packed) beach with awesome backdrop - Isola Tavolara.

It was so nice to get in the water. I was saying to Leb how free one feels floating along. You can turn 180° effortlessly with almost the flick of a finger. This inate ability is especially noticeable the older you get when climbing out of the water you remember how clumsy you are on land. And we still teach that we evolved on the savannah!

After our 2nd snorkel we had a couple of beers (more Ichnuso, emblazoned with the odd, racist-looking flag of Sardinia ~ which celebrates the defeat of the moors by putting four images of captives on it [they used to be blindfolded, so things have imoroved]) at the Alabama Beach Bar hosted by a lovely man who was very appreciative of my crappy attempts to speak-a-lil-Italiano.

Then the bus was waiting for us to take is back. We listened to comedy (Sean Locke and Jo Brand mainly) before heading out for another beer and (finally) some pasta.

Happy days.

Boat Trip to Isola Tavolara. Urchin Alert! (Wednesday, 28th August)

Day 173 ~ Boat trip to Isola Tavolara.

We decided to take the 514 bus to Porto Sao Paulo to catch the regular ferry to Tavolara.

We set off under an amazing rainbow... a good omen, you might think.

Google maps told me the bus stop was at the end of the street we were on but when we got there it didn't seem to exist. Suddenly in panic mode, we quickly walked to the other end of town where we knew there was definitely a bus stop. On the way we passed the scene of a terrible accident that must have happened moments before. A cyclist lay on the ground by a van with a cracked windscreen with the bike lying in the road ahead of it. It didn't look good at all but everything seemed to be being done correctly.

When the 514 came the driver told me off for waiting at the wrong stop but let us on anyway. As we drove past the scene of the accident it was good to see the cyclist was now lying in a bed in an ambulance. Fingers crossed.

We reached Porto Sao Paulo 15 minutes later and got off and then walked 7 minutes to the actual dock area. We bought two tickets for the ferry @ €20 each and then waited at the military pier for our boat.

Soon enough we were off for the half hour crossing to the most amazing looking island.

We crossed from the dock area on the western tip of it, and then over to a long pebbly beach where we found a secluded and shady spot.

We set up camp and went for our first snorkel. It was tricky getting in, as the large pebbles and rocks were quite slippery and there was an abundance of scary-looking little black spiny sea urchins. But once we got horizontal we transformed into the graceful mermaid-like aquatic apes all humans probably once were and explored the shallows and rocks effortlessly.

We dragged ourselves out of the perfect water back to terra firma to dry and scoff our sandwiches before taking a second dip around 1pm. As always, the snorkel was lovely but getting out proved to be even more of a nightmare than before.

At one point, I had this crazy idea of walking around the whole island as I headed along the coast looking for a better spot to snorkel. But the rocky beach got progressively worse so I headed back.

As far as I got!

There be Urchins

Within 5 minutes of each other we both had accidents, one hilarious, the other, not. First, my shorts split right down the middle over my back side displaying arse cheeks and worse if I bent over slightly. (Although we didnt realise this until a bit later.)

It was a comical mishap for me but moments later Leb experience something quite serious. I got out the water first and tried to help her climb up on two legs and get out of the water too. Unfortunately as she stepped towards the shore she slipped on a rock and her foot slid onto one of those little bastard urchins. Once out of the water she realised what had happened and we examined the sole of her foot with about 16 black tiny barbs embedded there. Time to get help, so we hobbled back to the dock area.

First, me! I went to the loo to put Leb's sexy black bikini bottoms on so they'd be visible (as opposed to my arse) through my back side crack. Then I asked two cafes if they had any first aid or even a pair of tweezers. No. No.

So we decided to wait for the next ferry back to Porto Sao Paulo to find a pharmacy. The next was going to leave in half an hour. Time for a beer then.

Once back on the Sardinian mainland, Leb went to lie down in the shade whilst I scuttled off to find a chemist past a couple of lovely horses in a field. Once there, I used Google Translate to describe the situation and the lovely chemist I spoke to just smiled and said "I can speak English". She did, perfectly, and recommended putting Ictammolo cream on. (Apparently vinegar would have been ok too). I also bought a pair of tweezers and some bandages.

I scampered back to Leb and we applied the creme which looked like diarrhoea and smelt like petrol and then we both hobbled back to the bus stop. Apparently you're not supposed to try to pull the barbs out. I did try but failed miserably anyway.

Back in Murta Maria we rewarded ourselves with ice cream. The Coconut cone I had was the best ever. Takeaway (linguine with clams) again from Gastronomia Acqua Pazza and then Forest v Newcastle (text commentary only) in the League Cup 2nd round with Forest edged out on penalties. Taiwo Aiwoniyi blazing over the bar with our last kick.

Last Full Day in Sardinia! (Thursday, 29th August)

Day 174 ~ The last day in Sardinia and *by far* the laziest so far. Because of that f-ing urchin and its devastating effect on Leb's left foot, we decided it was not a good day to walk anywhere of significant distance and because of my ripped bathers we decided against going for a snorkel.

The Result: we spent most of the day just lying in bed. I did one visit to the supermarket to get some brekkie (and a few cans of Ichnuso) and one visit to Gastronomia Acqua Pazza and the Geletaria Costa Turchese to get dinner (lasagne and aubergine parmigiana with a big tub of coconut ice cream. )

That's it. We were all set to go to Prague the next day.

Arriverderci, Sardegna! (Friday, 30th August)

Day 175 ~ Accomodation 72 Flight 18 Country 22.

Arrivederci Italia, Ahoj Česká republika.

Leb's urchin punctured foot seemed to have benefited from a relaxing day as we packed up, I did my "goodbye video" and then we set off to try to find the elusive bus stop to catch the 514 to the airport.

It turns out it was conveniently located by a cafe so I asked for "due café freddi con latte". I was quite pleased with myself for this but they seemed totally puzzled. We ended up with two champagne glasses of ice cold coffee. Nice, but too small.

The bus arrived on time and it was good to only have to pay €1.50 rather than the €28 we'd paid going the other way. (Why didn't Google tell me about the bus on Monday? - or maybe it did but I just didn't notice.)

Olbia airport is small and very nice with plenty of food options but I didn't fancy sitting there for six hours so I left Leb to continue her recovery and caught another bus (#10) to explore the old town of Olbia some more. The bus passed right by the Olbia FC stadium host to the series D side. (Blimey that's a huge tier in the Italian league.) In town, I saw the archaeological museum but decided against going in. Instead I had a beer (why was Leb not surprised). I found the oldest bar/restaurant in town but it was too pricy.

ChatGPT told me to try a sebada, apparently a local Sardinian delicacy. The description sounded great...

"Sebadas are deep-fried pastries made from semolina dough, filled with pecorino cheese (a type of sheep's milk cheese) that has been flavored with lemon zest. After frying, they are drizzled with honey (often from the local strawberry tree, known as "miele di corbezzolo") or sometimes sprinkled with sugar. The combination of the warm, melted cheese, the crispy exterior, and the sweet honey creates a unique flavor profile that is both savory and sweet." That would be a yummie surprise for Leb, I thought.

Unfortunately I couldn't find anywhere that sold them so I decided to head back to the airport anyway whilst scoffing a big slice of delicious pizza. Two other passengers going to the airport had the same idea but were told off by the ticket inspector for eating on the bus. I managed to get away with it as I popped the last bit in my big fat gob just in time.

Back at the airport we went through security smoothly and then had a similar kind of cheesy pastry to the sebada described above, a toasted roll, a beer and an ice cream as we waited for the delayed flight.

When it finally took off, we got another great view of Isola Tavolara to our right as we sped over the Tyrrhenian Sea towards the Italian mainland, over the Alps and onto Munich, which I discovered is called Monaco de Baviera in Italian. (Does that mean Bayern Munich should be Monaco di Baviera di Baviera?)

And so, as somewhere down there, Italy became Austria, we said a silent arriverdercci to Italia.

Riepilogo finanziario (Financial Summary)

Italia, thanks largely to the hospitality of Julia and David, turned out to be a relatively inexpensive stop. Our average expenditure of $273 was one of the lowest so far.

Riepilogo dell'umore (Mood Summary)

These were generally giorni felici although I do find it a bit stressful being on my best behaviour when being hosted at other people's houses, especially at such luxurious ones as Julia's and David's. Maybe one day I'll grow up. The first day in Sardinia was the best for me. I love exploring new towns and it was good fu walking around Olbia. The snorkeling was good but perhaps not as good as we expected and Leb's Urchin episode definitely put a dampener on things towards the end.

Riepilogo delle festività (Holiday Summary)

19 countries visited now and over 64% of the way through, this was another great destination. 

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