Hotel Royal Trani Bari

... shouldn't have taken the first agent's word for it. Seemed to be ships sailing at all hours - must surely have been one with space on it overnight? Definitely the only way to do this route.However, we get by: but I wouldn't recommend Ventourist line: cheap, for sure; but tacky -very, very tacky!Another night in an anonymous port.

... Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
purchased and left behind in Florence
===========================
On the opposite end of the spectrum of first person narratives written a non-objective voice, Oskar, the 9 year old hero of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a absolute riot. I guess the motif works better for heartfelt comedy than noir.

I picked this up in Paris after ...

... a taxi that you haven't called. Jyles insisted though.
I checked the locks on the doors before I got in, and made sure I could escape. It was legitimate, but in a normal situation I would have said no.

We got to the ferry terminal just on time. Since it was an overnight ferry, we got bunk beds and had an awesome sleep.

... Dan got a map of Pompeii and we saw like 1/16 of the ruin! I was dissapointed we couldn't see more but Enzo did say that it would take 2 days to see all of the ruin. The bus ride from Pompeii to Bari was a few hours, we stop for a snack/lunch/toilet break after a few hours. Dan and I had a calzone and a drink, we bought some onion pretzels, pepsi and paprika italian pringles for munchies on the ferry.
We made the ferry on time ...

... typically Italian, it was little surprise to find that this was once part of ancient Magna Graecia; in fact you are more likely to stumble upon Greek temples than you are Roman ruins. Known in Italy as a land of myth and fable, this little region was clearly full of surprises.

Whenever I think back to the first day in Basilicata, images of mountains, beautiful scenery and sunny skies fill my thoughts - a lovely start to the holiday!

... 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.

... trucks. Fortunately someone spotted us driving loops amongst the trucks and sent us in the right direction. I then go from Italy to Greece with some Greek loading officer shouting some fairly hefty abuse in our direction, I know enough Greek to understand that Malakas is not a compliment. Lots of arm waving, mixed Greek and Italian, some shuffling of trucks and vans, the late comers are woven into the load, and I mean woven, through some quite tight ...

... adjust for the bends in the track. I enjoyed kicking back, people watching a bit (some very pretentious Italians in that car), but especially enjoyed taking in the scenery. I noticed so many vineyards, blanketed fields of waving golden wheat (amazing), and mountains rising in the distance (and getting closer the further north we went). It was a site to beheld, truely. I definitely listened to some Gladiator soundtrack and read the book of Romans in honor of ...

... warned us not to. We made dinner on our little desk while the ipod made us feel more at home. We finished 2 bottles of wine in hopes that the buzz would help us go to sleep and forget we were on this miserable little ship. It didn't. The boat rocked and creaked like it was going down in the night. At times we hoped it would. But we survived. And none of this had mattered. Because the sunrise in Dubrovnik made the difficult journey all worthwhile.

... talked of the difficulty of running his computer shop ... the Chinese are taking over by somehow illegally importing goods tax-free. He can't compete. Also, he sells Playstation games for 50 euros each. The street vendor outside sells a pirated version for 5 euros. Of course it's illegal, but the cops figure it's better to allow them to do this rather than turn to more serious crime. Guiseppe figures they have a pretty good living. No taxes, no overhead ... and ...