Bari and the journey to Greece

Not the ferry the took from Croatia to Bari - but the Orchestra cruise ship
see all photos »

Looking at a map of Europe, one would assume that getting from Croatia to Greece would be a simple train trip. Sadly, that assumption is ridiculously far from the truth. Instead of getting a train from Croatia to Greece, the trip involved getting a ferry BACK to Italy, and then slingshotting over to Greece. Fun for all involved, I assure you.

The first ferry we got (Dubrovnik, Croatia to Bari, Italy) ended up being a day ferry after a few swapping of tickets to delay the trip to the 20th (while Elena got better). Which was interesting as we'd already booked a bed for that leg of the journey and the ticket clerk was kind enough not to mention the daytime-ness until after I'd received the ticket. Oh well, at least we could nap if we wanted to...

A view from the ferry to Bari
see all photos »

The first ferry took 8 hours and was spent mainly reading, eating and sitting.

We then spent one night in Bari, a port town on Italy's East coast. Bari is, well, pretty unexciting. It had a nice castle that we would have visited if it weren't for the heat/humidity. On the bright side, Elena was able to pick up the new Harry Potter book (my birthday present) on the day it came out.

Our second ferry left at 8pm and arrived at 12pm the following day. Ironically, we weren't able to get a bed on this ferry so we ended up sleeping (well, sitting at least) on "airplane style seats" specifically designed to be the most uncomfortable sitting experience possible. On top of that our seats (47 and 48) were not only not in the same row but about 7 seats away from each other. Mmmm, logic. On the brightside we met a lovely Perthian (?) girl, Annalise, on the boat who had been even more unfortunate than us by landing herself a deck seat. Yeap. An outdoor seat. On an overnight ferry. Those crazy Italians...

Richard at the hotel in Bari
see all photos »

After arriving in Patras, Greece, it was a 2 hour bus to a crossroads town and then a 1 hour bus to Nafplio - finally arriving at about 6pm. What a great way to spend your birthday :(