Pompeii and a Ferry ride to Greece

J We said goodbye to the beautiful city of Rome, which we were finally getting comfortable in, and headed off toward Pompei, via Naples. We stored our luggage at the train station, and once again were shocked at the prices, €3.50 per piece of luggage, for up to 5 hours, nothing (it seemed) had been cheap in Italy. We got to Pompeii by noon, but unfortunately had to be back at the train station by 3:00 to catch a train back in time for the 4:16 train to Bari, the other trains got in much later at night and we figured it would be smart to not get in later then 8pm if we had to hunt for accomodations.

Pompeii was amazing, we had no idea that it was as big of a site as it was. The buildings were incredible, the colors and art that were used to decorate walls, the architecture, and to think this was a civilization that came to a sudden halt nearly two millenia ago, 79 AD. It was awesome walking among the ruins, which because of the preservation looked unlike all the other ruins we had seen so far. Alas three hours wasn't enough time but we had to be on our way, so we ran back to the train station. We arrived at 3:10 and found we had just missed our train to Naples Central station! The next train left at 3:48 and would probably mean we would miss our connection at Naples. So in true amazing race style, we looked at departures and found a train that left at 3:18 that stopped at several places in Naples, but not at the central station, so we asked the guy at the station if it would be possible to go from one of these other stations to central station on foot, by taxi, etc. At first he told us about 3:48 train, but after explaining again our situation he thought about it and informed us that indeed the central station had an underground section with a different name, and the train that left momentairly would take us straight there!

We thanked him and started running outside, the train was arriving but at the next platform. They do not allow you to cross tracks in most stations, so we had to go through the underpass to get to platform 2, we ran downstairs as the train came to a squeeling halt, we made it up the other side and just as the whistle was blown to signal the train was leaving we jumped on (almost simultaneously). An old man who had taken interest in our folley ran along behind us and gave us the name of the station we were to get off at, after the train had left we were both amazed at his generousity, but more at the fact he kept up with us as he was outside the train seconds after we jumped on and turned around (and he was old). Michelle suggested he may have been an angel, I thought he was after my wallet, although he never was close enough to have had the chance, and of course he spoke english, bizzare.

We did catch the 4:16 train to Bari, and arrived just after 8pm. Once there we wondered around for over an hour looking for a place to sleep, we found several budget hotels, not cheap compared to hostels mind you. We even found a decent looking 4 star hotel that apparently was full, that or the lady at reception didn't like the look of two backpackers coming into her fancy hotel. lol

So after haggling at some hotels (yes hotels are open for barganing when you travel during the low season) and finally finding a place that offered breakfast and looked half decent, we settled down for the night. It cost €60 I believe, but that seemed to be the going rate. I didn't sleep well that night, as the head cold I had started getting the night before was full blown by that point. The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast, got some instructions as to where the ferry departed from and took off at 9am, as we wanted an hour to find the ferry and were told to be there two hours prior to departure.

We walked along the fenced in area before the port, and after 10 minutes came to a brown sign with directions. The sign had the word "Porto" with a picture of the boat, pointing in the opposite direction that we had just walked. We turned around, and walked for 15 minutes, until we came to some type of parkade that connected with the port, we attempted to walk through it but were turned around by the Parking lot attendent (mafia). He informed us that Superfast ferries were in fact, at the port, which was in the opposite direction. Very frustrated at this point, we headed back again, past the brown sign, and eventually found an entrance to the port.

We saw many ferrys and started towards them, not wanted to be lost again for another hour, Michelle shocked me by walking up to these two intimidating policemen and asked them if they knew were Superfast ferries were located, the police officer complied and gave us exact directions "blue palace" pointing with his finger. We got to the office, and despite not having reservations we got on the Ferry with plenty of time before departure. In fact, even with 24 beds in both the female and male dorms aboard, we were the only two staying in them. So Michelle stayed beside me in one of the tiny beds. Headroom was none-existant. Still we throughly enjoyed the ferry, which felt like a cruise as we had never been on such a big boat before. The meals (which were reasonably priced for Europe) were awesome, and we soaked in some sun, read our guidebook, and explored the ship. The trip would have been so much better had the hot tub on the upper deck been functioning, but other then crazy canadians who would want to be outside in a hot tub in +10°C weather!?


The next morning, an hour ahead of what we thought was arrival time (thanks to gaining an hour which we were unaware of) we arrived in Patras, Greece. We didn't get a lot of sleep, and one of the ship crewmen woke us at 4:30am, although it was really 5:30am. So at about 5:45am local time we departed the ship, into Patras, which was really dark, and we once again, had nowhere to stay.