Friday 22nd - Dubrovnik to Bari

Slept well again. We had to change room yesterday morning for our last night here because the room we were in had already been booked for Thurs night - no problem. Our first room had a gorgeous view out towards the castle, but our second room had a lovely view up the hill to the fort above the Old Town. Breakfast, packed and out of our room by the required 10am. We couldn’t find the pendant John has been wearing (Maori bone carving) and recall we haven’t seen it for a few days. We are pretty sure it had been in our first room here and wonder if it may have been nicked by the cleaner/owner of this place. It might still turn up in our bags but we have had a good hunt for it. Not to worry. The owner here is a slightly dubious character and we had some interesting chats with a young Irish woman who was carefully avoiding his amorous advances.

Only a two minute wait at the bus-stop for the bus to the ferry terminal. Had a few hours to fill in though boarding was supposed to start at 11am. No bag-drop at the terminal so lugged our packs to the nearest café and parked up for an hour. The espressos were back to a reasonable price here – 7 kuna (about $1.75). You typically pay about 16 kuna for one in the main street of the Old Town.

We really enjoyed Dubrovnik and are a little sad to be leaving it behind but we feel we have given it a pretty good go. By contrast, we are keen to find out what our impressions of Italy will be when we get back there.

Tiny Karen, huge ferry

We boarded our rather large ferry at 12.30 and it set sail bang on 1pm. The sea is so flat it’s amazing. No swell whatsoever. Spent most of the crossing reading. For some reason we thought we were docking at Bari at 5.45pm but upon  checking it was to be a 7hr sailing and we arrived on time at 8pm. Was getting dark. The main objective was to find a place to stay for a night, preferably near where the bus was due to leave for Naples early the next morning. Wandered  around for a bit, a few dead ends so ended up hailing a taxi and getting dropped at a pension listed in Lonely Planet. We didn’t fancy wandering around Bari too much in the dark and there were plenty of seedy looking men hanging around. The footpaths are filthy and we couldn’t wait to get out. The room was fine for just one night. After checking in at 9pm went straight out again to try and track down tomorrow’s bus stop to Naples. Through an underpass to the other side of the railway station but no luck. Picked up a horrible toasted sandwich thing for dinner and home to bed 10.30pm.