Thoughts


Day 9 and 10: Oristano

 People have always been my number one interest, and especially humans as social, interactive animals. I love arts, culture, language: all the ways humans communicate with each other fascinate me.

When you're travelling you connect with people in different ways than you do at home.The other tourists I"ve met I've made genuine friends with in a short amount of time, two more or less lost people in an all new place sharing experiences and stories is a setting where small talk is passed quickly. The generosity and helpfulness of locals here in Sardinia on the other hand is unbelievable: the general friendliness of everyone you chat with, be it an ice cream vemdor or a silver-haired old man in a park, and the astonishing way in which people will go out if their way to help a traveller.

These last few days especially I owe a huge debt of gratitude to many people I have been lucky to meet. The British guy I had lunch with - twice - who let me ride his stolen, erm, borrowed bike when I was too tired to walk and who helped me in many ways to stay safe; the Floridian reiki master whose stories were entertaining and delightful; the many men and women who helped me tonight and personally made sure I had a safe place to spend the night in.

I consider myself a fairly realistic person. I'm more well aware of the risks of the things I do than a lot of people seem to think, I just consider the risks worth taking (hence picture).  Travelling solo through a country you know poorly, especially as a young woman, with nothing but a backpack, money, and some train tickets might not be a completely foolproof idea, and when you are on the road for a long enough time and interact with enough people you are guaranteed to meet both good and bad ones. You get a boo boo, you patch it up and in the next corner you find someone better - a great majority of people are normal well-meaning people though, and it makes me very happy to witness it.

As a young person who's kind of lost in life and Sardinia alike, the world seems like a scary, hostile place sometimes. And sure, parts of it are. But today the universe has shown me a very peaceful and benevolent side of herself in the form of many amazing people, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I was one guy away from having a boring day, one friendly man away from wandering around the streets of a strange city with no map, two women away from breaking down crying on another street at 1030 am, hopelessly lost, and another woman away from being hungry, and this is just a small amount of them. Hypothetically yes, just one bad person away from something very bad happening, but it didn't happen.

To experience so many people helping you in such a short amount of time is incredible. It frees you to trust, joy, and experience, and it clears your mind from fear. Thank you.



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City hiking

Kuva
Day 5: Genova I was too lazy to come up with places to see in Genova, so I just spent most of today wandering around the city without a goal. I like to think of it as city hiking - steadily walking for 4-6 hours enjoying watching the streets, parks, sights and people. It also gives you a nice overview of the city. Based on this brief overview, Genova was a pretty relaxing city. Traffic wasn't insane, the old town was charming, and the harbour beautiful. Kind of wanted to check out the maritime museum, but after 6 hours on my feet already I decided to skip it and head towards the ferry terminal. I'm currently in the ferry towards Sardegna! The ship isn't very big, but otherwise very much like any cruise ship with shops and restaurants. Except you could buy cheaper tickets without getting a cabin, so there are lots of seats and benches around for us cheapskates to spend our night. ;)
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Gelato overload

Days 19, 20: Bologna Unlike with Napoli, I had zero expectations for Bologna. I knew that I wanted to stop somewhere between Napoli and Milano, so I pretty much threw a dart on the map and it landed on Bologna. Now the bad thing about travelling like this is that you have no way to know in advance whether you're going to like some place or not, and I very much wished I had spent these days in Napoli. Bologna is pretty and all, but there's not that much to see - and honestly, I'm not an endurance athlete so walking around for hours every day for weeks was starting to take its toll - so I mostly sat around licking gelato on one piazza. No regrets though, and it was so hot, hotter than in the south,  that that was the most enjoyable activity anyway. Well, never regret seeing extra places :)
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Halfway thoughts

Currently sipping coffee and charging my phone in a cafe, mostly waiting for time to pass by so I can get to my ferry. I'm exhausted - last night was chaotic trying to find a place to sleep while in the harbour at 11pm and then at 2am trying to find a way to get to Napoli the following day. Again, things would have been a lot more difficult without other people's help. Turns out the most important phrase of all is "I don't know what I would have done without you." Yet to prove myself, I want to mention that I got the help I needed because I reached out to the right people at the right time and came up with solutions myself. See, Mom and Dad? I'm out here. I'm doing ok. And I'm clever enough. I'm going to miss this a lot. It feels good to pass by places and cities knowing I'll soon be somewhere else again. Not worrying about anything that might be going on at home, because I'm too far to help anyway. I haven't seen myself in a mirror...
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