Tuesday, 10/19 - Sardinia
Lots of wine and
cookies
The next day was
another shore excursion on another island. The island was Sardinia, part of
Italy. We got up and had breakfast, and went to the theater to wait for them to
send us out to the bus. We drove through the port city on narrow streets,
looking at various buildings and ‘points of interest’. At one point, we drove
up a hill and stopped to take pictures. On one side of the bus was the ocean
and some salt ponds. We were told that these salt ponds were no longer used to
produce salt, that was all done on the other side of the island, but these were
maintained for the benefit of the flamingoes and 230 other bird species that
use them.
After a few minutes,
we were back on the bus, and headed out of the city. A farmer in a local
village would welcome us into his house for some folklore, traditional
clothing, music and refreshments. We arrived at the farmer’s house, in the
middle of the village, at about 1. We were joined by a 2nd tour
group, so quite a large gathering in the courtyard.
There was a small
group of performers. One man played the accordion. Others played an ancient
instrument consisting of 3 pipes of different lengths. The longest one had the
deepest sound, and needed to have air blown through it consistently. We were
told that, starting as a child, they were taught to practice that constant
blowing by blowing into a straw into water while breathing normally. One of the
men did a short demonstration with a mouth harp. Most all the performers sang
the songs, and at least 6 performers participated in the dancing.
Generally, we got a
short history lesson of the song or dance about to be performed, and then they
performed a song and a dance. Then they would tell us about the cookies they
were handing out, and the wine being poured. Then another song and a dance,
then another type of cookie and wine. There were, I think, at least 6 different
cookies and wines served. By the time we were getting ready to leave, at 3,
everything above my ears felt slightly fuzzy, but I made it back to the bus and
thus to the ship.
We had a reservation
to see one of the stage shows at 7:30. It was an interesting and entertaining
show, but had its confusing moments, too. A dress made of flip flops? I guess I
don’t hang out in the LGBT world enough to understand. Or maybe that was
pertaining to ‘high fashion’? Certainly I think some aspects of high fashion
are hideous and not functional.
Afterwards, we went
to supper, I’m not sure where. Possibly we tried to go to the Manhattan, but we
didn’t meet their dress code, so we went down one deck to the Taste.
Unfortunately, we were seated in the chandelier area, which was quite noisy, so
talking was next to impossible.
We knew the next day
would be a long excursion (10 hours), so we went to our cabin and went to bed.
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