AUGUST 2nd

caught the early train to Bari, a port town on the eastern coast of italy. it looked nice and pretty after the filth of Naples, but we didn't see much of it. once we arrived at the station, we jumped on the first bus to the port. once at the port we booked our tickets for the ferry to Patras in Greece. ferry didn't leave till 8pm and we couldn't board till 4pm.

basically twiddled our thumbs till 4 and then jumped onboard. the ship was great (little did we know that we were starting with the best and going downhill from there, but more of that later!). it was like a floating hotel! with our first class eurail pass we were able to book "aircraft style" (reclining) seats at half price (46euro post discount). they seemed quite comfortable and they were in an enclosed area. went exploring around the boat a bit until we got hungry enough and headed to the restaurant. there was a self-service restaurant or a-la-carte but we felt like a touch of class, so went for a-la-carte.

we were the first ones there and there were some really nice looking tables with a view out the window, so we asked the waiter for a table. he gave me a once over and led us to a table far from the windows. :-(

ok, so i was very unshaven and wearing my rather vivid spiderman t-shirt with bright green shorts and had been travelling for long hours on trains and waiting in cafes all day so i looked a bit scruffy, but come on! we later discovered that the part we were seated in was the non-smoking (3 tables) and the rest (maybe 10 tables) was for smoking, thus we were seated where we were. still, you think he could have asked instead of looking me up and down!

during our meal the ship set off. we were soon joined by an american couple, Yvonne and Craig, who were on their honeymoon. they were at the end of about a month in europe, with the plan to spend the last few days in the Greek islands. a greek lady came to eat as well and gave us some advice on good islands to go to, but we were set on Santorini anyway. she actually kicked up a bit of a fuss with the waiter when he wanted to seat her on the third and final table in the non-smoking section but he wouldn't budge.

we both had pasta dishes that were really nice and the bread with olive tapenade was great too.

tried to sleep in our "reclining" seats. they maybe go back an inch more than aeroplane seats do. sleep didn't come very easily unfortunately.