Hotel Moderno 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 ...

... facade that Japan presents the west. But the characters themselves come off as impressions of tortured souls less than actual people.<br><br>Maybe after spending some more time in Tokyo I'll give it, or more likely Out, another read.<br><br>The one interesting thing I did pick up from this book is that happas apparently lose their stunning good looks as they approach middle age - sorry Robbo.<br><br><br ...

... red light district of the neigbourhood and the freizes on the walls. This was pretty interesting..and about all we had time for. We wandered out and had a Granita- orange for Dan and blackberry for me. We walked around the stalls selling touristy stuff, they were pretty desperate for a sale which didn't make you want to buy anything!<br> Another Granita and a sit down later, we walk to the bus to get back on head off to the Greek ...

... the coastal resorts in August - the idea of travelling somewhere quiet and undiscovered was very appealing.<br>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.<br><br>As the road headed up to the mountains, we passed ancient hilltop towns and villages clinging to rocky limestone plateaus. Often seeming more Greek than ...

... cafe, we couldn't get any service. We kept getting cut in line and the register people would help us. Apparently they don't like tourists here...so, no coffee.<br><br>Took a train from Napoli to Caserta. In caserta I finally got a coffee, and all it was was this tiny little shot glass with the most potent coffee I've ever had...pretty tasty though. We met some people here who ...

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.<br><br>Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)<br><br>Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" &#8211; meaning &#8220;dome&#8221;. See the pictures of the wee houses.<br><br>We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus &#8211; meaning &#8220;beautiful view&#8221;. It was beautiful.

... but I am aware that the Corfu vehicles have to embark first and I'm getting jittery, the boat is due to leave at 7pm and it's now 6.15 and I still wait. I walk up to an official and ask again, boy did he light up, shouted a lot of very fast Italian at me, waved a lot and generally looked quite unhappy, I deduce he has cocked up and forgotten some of the Corfu drivers. We are hastily sent in the direction of the ferry only to get swallowed up amongst the ...

... great ease, and there was only one other guy staying in there. So being the nice 'padna' that I am, I let ole Greg in to the dorimitory to sleep in a bed. Great times. But before we crashed, we read a little, watched some of the classic Robin Hood movie in the kid's play section (remember that movie?- the one where Robin was a fox and King John was a lion, etc??), and hung out with some girls we met from the Naval Academy. We were awoken the next morning ...

... for our quarters and expected the mall-like floor plan..."Disco"..."Swimming Pool!"..."Desma, this boat has a swimming pool!! And a sundeck!! And And And." We grabbed a shower and relaxed poolside for 2 hours before the ship even left. It was a real treat. We had 12 hours to kill in Bari before our third and final overnight ferry would put us in Dubrovnik. So we took the time to stroll through this port town with no real expectations. Bari ...

... was, if not, that is what we did for approx 14 hours to get to Italy! But once we were there, we ordered cappuccinos (or Tara might very well have fallen off the earth), ordering in Turkish? No! Greek? No! Italian? Ah yes... we can barely speak English at this point! The port city did have a sweet castle, a few cute streets, a cathedral or two and good food, just a teaser of Italy we would soon come to realize! Off to Croatia, finally!