Hotel Victor 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 ...

... opportunity.


David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
bought in Siena
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After letting me live in their country for 6 1/2 years and giving me a passport, I figure I owe it to the English to read their most prolific and popular writer. I'm only on page 242 of 800ish so I can't say much about it, but given the number of people who slam Dickens for his gratuitous verbosity (he got paid ...

... around 3.30pm, carried our bags accross and up the elevators to the reception. We got our swipe card and not escorted but told to go a floor up to our cabin. The cabin was small and SMELLED SO BAD it was disgusting. As Dave would say, it smelled like ass. Horrid and stinky were were not happy, as you opened the bathroom the smell got worse. There was an inch or 2 of water on the floor and the bin had remenants of being used (ie ...

... 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 ...

... also on the train (we ended up seeing them again later). They were an Australian couple.

We took our final train to Bari. When we got there we ran into 3 other back packers who happened to be from (believe it or not) SPOKANE, WASHINGTON!!! Unbelievable.

We took a bus to the ferry terminal, booked our ferry ride. Went back to the city for dinner and to get food for ...

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.

... Several passengers moved to other not so desirable seats. I don't like being bullied, I don't like confrontation but I'm English don't F**k with my territory, I paid for this seat and I'm staying. I dug into my trench! So there I am in quite a small compartment filled with what appeared to be a rather large village, all related of Bulgarians behaving very badly. I'm not succumbing to the blatant glares of the matriarchs who want the whole place to themselves ...

... the modern world. Oh, and to top things off, the tuneage at this quaint little Italian restaurant was not 'L'Amore' or some other Italian music, but their version of Smooth Operator... Yes, Greg and I died laughing. We wrapped up the evening around midnight as we came back to the hostel to meet our new friends and hear stories about their adventures in Rome. We couldn't wait to get some rest and start early on our own paths around this ancient capital of the world!

... prohibits tourists from traveling a direct route, by ferry, from Croatia to Greece.) Let us tell you about our horrible ferry journey across the Adriatic Sea. So ironically we got on board and were assigned the exact same room we had on our way TO Croatia, room 302. While waiting for the boarding we met up with a couple from Tulsa, OK (John is a yacht skipper and Delysa a yacht chef) and they were on their way across Europe to "find the perfect yachting job". They had basically sold ...

... Nope - it's industrial pollution! I have never seen pollution like this before ... compared to this, even Los Angeles air is like refreshing alpine. Naples is a dump. The hostel is in a terrible area near the train station. But I must admit that I knew this beforehand - I thought it would be convenient as a base for day trips. The area is like a war zone - trash everywhere and it's pretty scary crossing the streets. Total culture shock! My lungs hurt ...