Touristing
Day 11: Cagliari
Today I decided to stop doing loser stuff like socialising and did some proper touristing with a camera in my hand. Cagliari, as it turns out, is the capital of Sardinia and so the first bigger city on this part of the trip. Tunisia is closer than Rome, but Cagliari is still the most Italian place I've seen on the island so far: piazzas with people sitting outside cafes, little alleyways with shops, parks, big churches etc. In a way Cagliari really reminded me of Rome, even though with one huge difference for the better - Rome is located between mountains so the heat and smog is terrible, but the sea breeze made Cagliari pleasantly "cool" and fresh at +31 c.
Anyway, I checked out the old cathedral (with a Roman exterior and a baroque interior - always shocks me), the archaeological museum (which was incredible) and the botanic gardens (palm trees!). Very beautiful places, I'd post some pictures but I'm currently on the ferry and the internet connection is terrible.
I like the thought that if modern civilisation falls and a new one emerges from the dust they're eventually going to find ruins of museums and find traces of artifacts of all different periods ans they'll know that our culture was curious and appreciative of past civilisations to the degree we dug them up and put them on show.
The archaeological museum was vast and very modern, and very very empty. They had gorgeous collections of Sardinian artefacts from prehistory to the Roman era to the middle ages, room after room of amazing little statues and burial masks and pottery with barely no one to see them. The entrance fee was three euros. How could they maintain all that? EU money, I assume, and it really made me think about how all the richer countries in the union like to complain about giving more money than getting, and i don't know man, but I think that collections and heritage like this should be protected with EU money if need be. It's all our common history as Europeans after all. You know what I'm saying? I'm kibda seasick right now so I'm not thinking well but anyways that's what I think about it.
Today I decided to stop doing loser stuff like socialising and did some proper touristing with a camera in my hand. Cagliari, as it turns out, is the capital of Sardinia and so the first bigger city on this part of the trip. Tunisia is closer than Rome, but Cagliari is still the most Italian place I've seen on the island so far: piazzas with people sitting outside cafes, little alleyways with shops, parks, big churches etc. In a way Cagliari really reminded me of Rome, even though with one huge difference for the better - Rome is located between mountains so the heat and smog is terrible, but the sea breeze made Cagliari pleasantly "cool" and fresh at +31 c.
Anyway, I checked out the old cathedral (with a Roman exterior and a baroque interior - always shocks me), the archaeological museum (which was incredible) and the botanic gardens (palm trees!). Very beautiful places, I'd post some pictures but I'm currently on the ferry and the internet connection is terrible.
I like the thought that if modern civilisation falls and a new one emerges from the dust they're eventually going to find ruins of museums and find traces of artifacts of all different periods ans they'll know that our culture was curious and appreciative of past civilisations to the degree we dug them up and put them on show.
The archaeological museum was vast and very modern, and very very empty. They had gorgeous collections of Sardinian artefacts from prehistory to the Roman era to the middle ages, room after room of amazing little statues and burial masks and pottery with barely no one to see them. The entrance fee was three euros. How could they maintain all that? EU money, I assume, and it really made me think about how all the richer countries in the union like to complain about giving more money than getting, and i don't know man, but I think that collections and heritage like this should be protected with EU money if need be. It's all our common history as Europeans after all. You know what I'm saying? I'm kibda seasick right now so I'm not thinking well but anyways that's what I think about it.
