Hotel Terranobile 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.<br><br>

... interruption in the reading, as well as the logistical challenges of the books themselves (I had to ask Vaneet to take The Corner to Bangalore so I wouldn't have to schlep it everywhere, and even the one book was an incredibly heavy addition to my framepack) this book in inextricably entwined in my mind with this trip, for which alone I will always remember it vividly. And yes, my rate of consumption was ...

... down for the night. Some people were sleeping on the deck. There was a pool, which people were using already and a Ala carte restaurant and a Self service one. Dan and I got a drink and claimed a seating area and a few other found us until we had 8 chairs or so. We were almost too afraid to get up in fear of losing them! We went in shifts to have dinner at the self service restaurant. We went around 7.30pm and had tortelli ...

... 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 ...

... 15 hour boat ride.<br><br>We boarded the ferry and set off. Of course on our grocery run we bought some beer and wine, so we began the drinking on the top deck. After a while we had quite the crew: the Australian couple, the 3 Spokane guys, and then 4 Irish lads. We stayed up late drinking and talking under the stars...it was pretty cool.<br><br>Then we went to bed. On this ferry ...

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.

... hoffen :-) Tatsaechlich finden wir in Bari sofort eine Bank und auch einen Bus zum Hafen. Dort lernen wir direkt ein paar unserer Mitfahrer auf der Faehre kennen und verbringen die Busfahrt damit, uns gegenseitig und wahrscheinlich erst recht den Fahrer verrueckt zu machen, an welcher Haltestelle wir wohl raus muessen... "This one?" Die ersten steigen aus... "No, the next one." --- Naechster Halt: "It must be this ...

... on the other side. Our side was only at 202. So we walked for what felt was forever before we got to the 300's on our side of the street. I figured that since each building was the next even number, we'd be at our hotel within the next 10 buildings. But when we reached number 318, the Bari gods decided to punish us by then moving on to letters, so that we had to pass 318a, 318b, 318c, etc. We finally reached the corner at ...

... b/c I figured I'd meet some other travellers and also be able to lie down in case of a rocky ride like the one from Naples to Palermo. However it was surprisingly a smooth ride. And I had the dorms to myself. Not a single other person bothered with it. NICE. The ferry itself was pretty cool, and gave the Naples-Palermo one a run for it's money. It had an escalator just to get in (swank!) and a silly little disco floor, a 'casino' area, 2 ...

... and we can go and have your damn martinis that will cost more than my hostel room ;-) And good luck in school (she is going to Columbia Business school in the fall, smart kiddo) Well I am off from Bari with the train to Venice where I meet my buddy Joel (we met in Istanbul a few weeks ago) to head off to Pamplona, Spain. Without Miranda (the ultimate planner of nearly ...