Hotel Porto Eda Sarande

... a friendly (still heavily armed) Jordanian solider and are able to finish the border formalities within the next two hours, whilst our car is x-rayed.

Third ferry experience: Igoumenitsa (Greece) – Bari (Italy): approx 300km

Superfastferries is a company deserving of its name.

Tickets:
We arrive at the port at 23:00 and try our luck in getting tickets for the next day’s ferry. A very friendly and efficient ...

... Greek wine and their local Ouzo. I ate Pastitsia, a pie with layers of pasta and meat but I kept eating Stee's dinner of this fish cooked in peppers and onions. Vance doesn't do fish so he had a harder time with the menu options. Everyone was in a great mood so we ended up just sitting and talking and laughing and drinking and eating for quite awhile.

... I'm quite happy. Plus, I've been fighting this stupid head cold so I've enjoyed the excuse to stock up on soup (har har, stock up on soup). Oh, which reminds me. Because of the crazy swine flu they are taking all sorts of precautions, which is good. When we first arrived to check in we had to fill out a health survey. Because I had in fact been sneezing and coughing and had a runny nose and sore throat I had to check yes on the form. I was certain they were going to kick me ...

... was Ryan’s laughter. Robyn’s donkey would wait for Olivia and Mitchell’s to catch up and then promptly take off, never allowing them to get in front. When stopping twice to wait for them, it relieved itself of a very smelly load, once nearly getting Olivia on her knee. The shrieking was deafening. It was wonderful entertainment and we all laughed until it hurt. Bundled into taxi (4 of us squashed in the back with no seat belts ...

... on a chair no sleep with so many weird looking passengers seriously it was like the waiting room for hell.

So we tried and tried to get sleep but the crossing was terrible the boat was up and down and up and down. Just as I thought I was going to sleep this man came stumbling into the room with a cigarette and a cheap bottle of cider looking for his wife shouting her name when he found her he hit her over the head with the bottle and said some random things to ...

... they spend a lot of time relaxing, because they live on an island. I have only one dislike. The water was too cold and dirty for my taste, but there are a lot of swimming pools around, so I didn't need to swim in the open. This journey was a fun journey and I will never forget it.

... scratch his head
Massive game of toga flip cup (started by us)
-Bosh being a hero by leading the disarray
-Battle of Crosby/Malkin (L-Bow and Bosh) vs. Messier/Gretzky (Callaham and Jess)
-Smitty instantly smitten with Jess upon her revealing she had a boyfriend, resulting in the creation of Smitty's fictitious girlfriend
Jess: "I have a boyfriend back home"
Smitty: "yeah me too" (web of lies continues upon her ...

... who also knew much about world history and was probably well educated in many other fields as well. He was, though, very modest and did not feel comfortable showing off his knowledge. Although fluent in Russian, Italian and English and generally well educated he has been doing odd jobs all of his life, working as a simple, hard-labor worker in various places. He seemed quite proud of it too. He then ...

... found out what the riot was about, at least the local law enforcement was looking out for us tourists; we are in fact the first cruise ship to ever dock here. And, no offense to the rest of Albania, probably the last. But we all had some great laughs later, talking about the day's crazy experiences over a free wine tasting on the boat (and lots of wine), followed by a late night hot tub in the rain, happy to be setting sail back to Greece on the morrow.

... and indeed the Ionians) and the Venetian influence is much in evidence. Narrow lanes are packed with jewellery shops, tourist souvenir stores, restaurants, cafes and news agents. Many of the old buildings are still lived in although one has to wonder at how practical this would be given the state of the sewerage. Sadly most of these buildings, as they are in Venice, are slowly crumbling into dust. The nazis didn't help the situation at the end of the war when they ...