Tine Travels: Olbia 2015

I took a flight from Hamburg to Munich, had some transfer time where I tried the different flavours that the free coffee bar had to offer and then boarded my Air Dolomiti flight to Olbia. Olbia is in the Northeast of Sardinia and one of the biggest cities in Sardinia. One of the few sights that my guidebook told me to visit in Sardinia was the Basilica San Paolo, so I went there after I returned from my sailing trip. It's a pretty impressive building, though it's a little bit hidden in a side street. The inside features some great mosaics and paintings and while I was there, there seemed to be a kind of ceremony going on in one of the side wings.

The Sardinian flag features four heads of moors, though the reason why it features them has different stories. The flag consists of a plain white background, St. Georges Cross and a moor’s head in each quarter.

I stayed in a lovely Bed and Breakfast (host is Beta) that I found on Airbnb. The location was a bit away from the centre of Olbia, but very well connected by bus and the ticket for a 90 minute bus ticket was only 1 € if you bought the ticket in advance. With one bus line I could easily reach two of the beaches, that the locals of Olbia like to go to. And I had a couple of supermarkets, restaurants, cafés and shops nearby.

On one of the days before my sailing trip started I went to visit the beach La Cinta, which is one of the beaches in San Teodoro. It was about a 45 minutes drive by bus from Olbia, but quite cheap (return ticket only 4,50 €) and the beach was beautiful. Lucky me found an abandoned parasol and so I could spent the day in the shade. I was a little burnt from the previous days at the beach, so it was good to give my skin a chance to recover.

This is the coast of the Punta Istana beach, which is in the South of Olbia. The water was turquoise and so clear. It was a real pleasure to go swimming there. Also, there were only few tourists and mostly Italian speaking people. Lots of souvenir vendors too, that try to sell you sunglasses, hats, selfie sticks, boxes for your phone or jewellery.

The days in Olbia were very relaxing, probably because of the good breakfast I got at my B&B.

The last day that I spent in Olbia, before returning back to Hamburg, I went out in my favourite summer dress. I made it from fabric that I got at the Maybachufermarkt in Berlin this summer. It's a tad too short for work, so it's been a great pleasure to wear it on holiday.

I loved all the beautiful flowers on Sardinia. These pretty ones were found closeby to my B&B.

 A kind of spleen that I have is to always visit a supermarket, when I'm on holiday. I love to see what people really eat, not the food you get in a restaurant, but plain old boring everyday-food. And in Italy I have seen a variety of olive oil in the supermarket, which I haven't seen before.

Pesto and wine seem to be the alltime-favourites. The pesto is sold in kilos and the wine in five litre cans.

Especially in Sardinia you get the Sardinian bread "pane guttiau", it's made without yeast and very crunchy. You get that on your table before dinner in most restaurants.

Also in Olbia there is a handicrafts shop, where you can get made to measure sandals. It's on the main shopping street.
I hope you enjoyed the little insight in my travel to Sardinia. More about the sailing trip in a seperate post!