Hotel Costa Bari

As it turns out, filling that day wasn't so much of a problem.... we tootled out of town, found a beach, wandered about & looked at the boats; tootled back, found somewhere to eat, had a chat with a few Brits and - hey presto! - before you knew it, time for bed! But the one on board was a bit more of a challenge... all 13 hours of it! BIG ...

... from Japanese to English. Or perhaps it's just that the elements with which I could relate - growing up under an environment of intense academic competition with both peers and siblings - simply accentuated those with which I couldn't - thinking said sibling soulless, incest, pedophilia, parental abandonment, grandparental dementia. Plus the elite-schoolgirl-turned-prostitute motif has been done to death.
Bari, Puglia, Italy david_chung

So we get up, get ready, have the usual buffet breakfast that has ceased to be a wonder and a pig out fest. We loaded towards Pompeii and settled in for what we thought would be a 45min drive, try more like 20mins later! Suddenly we were at Pompeii, meeting Enzo again and getting wired for sound so we could hear him. It was pretty hot, but still early..and we went into Pompeii via the Gladiator training ground..past there we went to ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.
We passed very few cars on the journey to Matera, which was actually rather refreshing having spent last summer trying to get away from the over-crowded tourist resorts.

As the road headed up to the mountains, we passed ancient hilltop towns and villages clinging to rocky limestone plateaus. Often seeming more Greek ...

... are only a small number of sleeping cabins that have to be booked way in advance and cost a lot of money. So like a lot of other people our ticket was "deck space". Meaning we could find a piece of floor somewhere and sleep. It turned out to be a pretty uncomfortable nights rest tossing and turning with about 200 other people all crammed into every nook and cranny of the boat.

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... see one of the vehicle oracles in my life I'll check it out. Carrefour comes up with the goods. Pharmacy and a few essentials. I head to another quiet corner in their carpark and light up the stove for a tasty treat of quick rissotto. A couple of Italian drivers were so taken aback by the spectacle that they nearly came to grief (don't stare at crazy English people making a roadside lunch, it's dangerous). I arrive at the port in good time to get the error on my ...

... s on my computer which is why there no photos of me but hey i'm sure you all remember what i look like anyway ;) hope to get on net again soon and will bring everything up to date. Its so hot here right now though it's hard to do anything! 30degrees even at night!! It's gotta be better than the rain though eh ;) Hope you all doing well and having lots of luck!! Oh and if anyone has any handy tips on the best way to drive from here back up towards croatia would be much appreciated! Hugs xx

The most difficult part of traveling is the getting there part. Getting to Dubrovnik was a great example of this reality. After the first overnight ferry that we took back to Athens we narrowly made the 3-hour bus trip to Patras. Patras is a pretty forgettable port town. We found a restaurant that catered to guests like ourselves (they offered to store our bags for us while we waited for our boat). This made the food taste a little better. The boat ...

... into Bari, we didn't miss out on too much. I personally believe travelling is best done NOT alone as it's great sharing an experience with someone, especially with people who already know you or have some idea of your background...