Bari

Trip Start Apr 20, 2008
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43
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Italy  , Puglia,
Monday, September 15, 2008

So the Greeks seem to have some kind of problem with directions, or their sense of distance is a little bit out... we experienced this quite frustrating fact numerous times but none quite so bad as when we went to catch the ferry to Italy. 'Oh yes' they said, the ferry leaves at nine so come here at 8 to get your bags which they kindly held for us and then just across the road down 100m to dock 4. When we started walking to dock 4 we found that it was not at all 100m but more like a kilometer and that was just to find the pedestrian entrance to the port. By this stage we started to get a little stressed which was exacerbated when no one seemed to know where dock 4 and of course there was no signage... we spent some time running in the wrong direction with our backpacks on so by the time we found the right place and found that the ferry was running late we were absolutely exhausted. Being poor backpackers we only had deck tickets and the lounges only had uncomfortable chairs were over air-conditioned and smoky. We ended up setting up camp right up out in the open on our li-los. Camp on the ferry
Camp on the ferry
 . we got some pretty funny looks but I think people were just jealous.

We arrived in the Italian city of Bari at 7am and locked our bags away. We spent the whole day walking around the city. The old town was lovely with small streets, lots of churches cathedrals. We even got to witness an Italian wedding in a very impressive cathedral. Had pizza in a lovely restaurant and walked along the seafront. We then ate pizza again for dinner and this time it was a much more authentic experience. We headed away from the tourist ridden old town into some side streets and ate in a little restaurant where no one spoke English. We got by with Dave's little European phrase book, Dave even figured out how to ask if he could see the pizza oven which  resulted in a long winded explanation in Italian about what temperature it should be for pizza and bread and how long they should be cooked for etc etc.

Exhausted we headed back to the port to board yet another overnight ferry! The terminal was full of Australians! It was a little strange after coming from Corfu where pretty much everyone was British. The Italians seem to be a bit more organized than the Greeks and we even had to show our passports as we boarded!
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