A Barracking in Bari

Day 29 (Wednesday)

Our ferry wasn’t due to leave until 22:00 and we had to be out of room by 11:00 so we had to do a lot of waiting around with our luggage today.  We went from a cafe to restaurant and drank and ate very slowly.  The last bus we caught in Croatia was actually quite empty.

At Gruz port we stationed ourselves at another cafe and waited until we could board at 20:00.  After we set sail we tried our best to get some sleep but it wasn’t easy on a ship full of Italians.

Day 30 (Thursday)

When we got to the port of Bari most people didn’t seem in any hurry to disembark.  After the long walk to passport control we could see why.  Hundreds of tired people trying to squeeze through one small door.  If you let the tiniest gap appear in front of you or (heaven forbid) you politely gave way to someone a small elderly Italian woman (of which there were dozens) would jab you in the back.  After a particularly vicious lambasting I tried to explain that I was British and polite queue etiquette was part of my DNA but that wasn’t received very well.  A one point Tracey managed to quickly move into a small gap and received a ‘Bravo, Bravo’, we couldn’t tell if they were being sarcastic or not.

Our room wasn’t quite ready when we got to our hotel so we left our luggage and went for a wander.  I wouldn’t make a special effort to go to Bari for a city break but it’s a nice enough place.

Goodbye Dubrovnik (the waiter behind is for Auntie Joan's shed)

 We thought this was our ferry

 But this was actually it.