The Flying Dutchman

We told ourselves we would just have to come back to Pompeii some day, and see it in depth, as we hopped on the train, and headed to Cilantro, I mean Salerno, where we looked for our bus that would take us to Taranto (Italians pronounce it much like Toronto) (side note from Bonnie: actually they say in like a Chicagoan saying Toronto), which was partway of the way to Bari. We looked around for the right bus, but had a little trouble (there was no signage [huge pet peeve of mine = lack of signage], and the people that we asked knew little English). There were several buses waiting outside the station, and one bus in particular could possibly have been our bus, but I thought it was too early to be ours. As we stood outside looking confused and lost, a man stuck his head out of the back window of the bus and said "Taranto?". We nodded yes and he motioned that this was the bus, so we asked the driver and, sure enough, this was our bus. We got on the bus and it promptly left, so if it wasn't for the guy at the back, we would have missed it. Also, the guy looked an awful lot like the guy who had shared our couchette with us, and had made sure we were awake when we got off the train, so there is no other possible explanation other than that he is our guardian angel and is making this trip go smoothly. Shout out to our GA (side note from Bonnie: And another shout out to the sandwich guy….they are friends, we have to give shout outs to them equally)!
The bus took us through the countryside of the extreme south of Italy. We really didn't know much about the extreme south of Italy, so we had no idea what to expect. Turns out, there are snowcapped mountains, which we found more scenic than the Alps (though we hadn't really seen the Alps as it had been kind of cloudy). (side note from Bonnie: Neil claims that Southern Italy is beautiful, I know it is beautiful, he was asleep for a good amount of the time, I on the other hand can’t sleep in a moving vehicle….I am jealous of Neil’s ability to fall asleep in 2 minutes flat) A huge advantage of buses is that you really get to see the area which you are traveling through, since you aren't speeding through on the shortest route possible like a train.
We made it to Taranto (which still sounds funny every time I say it) and then boarded a train bound for Bari, where the ferry port was. This leg was less scenic but I didn't really care (side note from Bonnie: he didn’t care again cause he was able to sleep…..or was being amused by my “I have to go to the bathroom dance), I was a little more worried about the ferry we would have a few short hours to find, get tickets for (if they had any), and catch. I was DECENTLY sure that I knew what time the boat left the dock, but not 100%, so there was room to worry. I didn't tell Bonnie that I wasn't positive we would catch that night's ferry, because I am courageous like that. (side note from Bonnie: this ability to pretend to not be worried around me comes in handy even more as the trip goes on…..stay tuned!)
We got to Bari and didn't know where the port was. We assumed the ferry port would be at the ocean, but we didn't know where the ocean was either. We weren't really expecting Bari to be as big as it was. We spun around in circles for a bit and pieced together all of the snippets of information that we collected from Italians with little bits of English. We soon knew that we had to take the #20 city bus to get there. We got on the #20 and asked the bus driver "porto?" (when in doubt, add an o), and he said no and said "twenty (and then made a slashing motion with his hand)". We looked at him a little confused, and he did it again. This was the extent of his English/American Sign Language, so we got off that bus, and were now more confused and worried than before. We asked somebody else and they were like "Twenty slash" and we were starting to think that the #20 had been cancelled. We eventually found the ticket booth, which was hiding behind another building, and that guy gave us tickets that told us to get on "bus #20/". Ooooooh. The bus was CALLED twenty slash. Why they would even think to come up with such a dumb name for a bus I don't know. 
We finally found the #20/ bus and were on our way, though we didn't know where to stop. We thought it would be pretty obvious what was the port and what wasn't (probably the thing with the massive ferry in front of it) but it turns out this port-o was kind of massive-o. Our bus driver was nice, but couldn't speak English, but there was an Albanian woman on the bus who knew just enough English and translated for us. We got dropped off at one terminal and she led us to a ticket booth (where they spoke English!) inside.
It turned out that we had been dropped off at the wrong terminal, and we were directed to the big blue building down there. LOTS of walking with our big backpacks later and we hadn't made much progress (side note from Bonnie: I believe with the amount of walking we did, we could of got to Corfu by foot). We could see a big ferry which was probably ours sitting in the port, but couldn't find the big blue building to buy our tickets! It was now dark, and we were walking around a port in Italy, not knowing where to go. Someone eventually led us in the right direction (side note from Bonnie: someone yelled at us to the right direction……or maybe he was just trying to talk above the very loud, very large semis that were going to kill us), and we found the building, bought our tickets it was leaving right when I thought it was supposed to) and made our way to the ship. I don't think Italian has a word for signage, because they really don't know what it is or how to use it, so we had to ask more directions, several times. One group of port workers told us to go one way, and then started laughing and told us to go the other way. We were extremely grateful when we finally boarded our ship.
We had paid for airline-style seats, which was one step up from the cheapest option, sitting on patio furniture, freezing outside on the windy deck aaaall night. Our tickets gave us access to a large room filled with airline seats, with a T.V. at the front that played super cheesy Greek soap operas, and then switched to I Know What You Did Last Summer. I don't know which was worse. There weren't many people on the ferry, luckily, so there was enough room that everyone could lay down over three seats and sleep properly. 
We were starving, so we took advantage of the on-board restaurant buffet. Complimentary?? Not so much. Whoever owned this boat knew that they had hundreds of people trapped on a boat for 9 hours, so they would have to eat something, and they could charge as much as they wanted. We learned the hard way that every single slice of bread that you eat is 60 euro cents. The food wasn't even very good, but it was edible (side note from Bonnie: it was edible when you put copious amounts of ketchup on it…..thank goodness they didn’t charge us for that too!), which is about as high as our standards are able to go. 
There was a surprisingly cheap and large bottle of "Avra" water, so Bonnie bought (side note: this was lovingly named Avra I for future reference). We did some exploring around the ship trying to make our way to the top deck (haha or the poop deck if they have one, i don't even know what that would be). We opened a door onto the helipad at one point, and we were pretty sure we weren't supposed to be there, so we bailed (side note from Bonnie: After this we sat down in our airplane seats to “sea” (hahah-I spelt this wrong when typing and now I have decided to keep it this way) a presentation on what to do in case of an emergency on the boat, we were the only ones on the plane….I mean boat…to watch it…..I am know trained in surviving the Titanic.)
Now, the gross part of this story is that, if you have been paying close attention, you will have noticed that tonight we sleep on a ferry, the night before we slept on a train, and the night before that Bonnie slept on a plane and I illegally slept on a couch. So, you do the math and you realize that: we haven't showered in several days. (side note from Bonnie: We smelt like a mixture of airplanes, trains, buses, and sweat……yummy) Miracle: the ferry has showers. YES. You do not know how much we both need this.
Bonnie goes for a shower and I decide to defer until the morning, so I can be clean for Greece. She comes back a couple times because the shower is always taken when she gets there, but finally goes and decides just to wait outside. In the meantime, I am REALLY into I Know What You Did Last Summer (don't think I am serious) so I'm not paying attention to the time. I eventually notice that it has been nearly an hour, and Bonnie is still not back. I know her mom would probably be mad at me if I let her get kidnapped on a ferry to Greece, so I go have a look-see about the ferry. I can't find her around, so I get to the showers, and find Bonnie, who has finally just finished her shower. I can let her explain the extremely awkward situation which caused her to be so late. (side note from Bonnie: So apparently, in Europe, the sign that says Women’s Washroom, it merely there for show……first time I walked into the bathroom there was a 12 year boy changing his clothes with what I believe was every other woman in his family (aunts, grandma, and mom) [Sidenote from Neil: It was probably more embarrassing for him than for you.]….second time  around 20 year old man walked in to talk to a girl…..and then I found why the shower was constantly in use….after the third time of walking in and out of the bathroom, I decided that I was just going to wait it out. After waiting for 40 minutes listening to the shower be turned on, then off, then on, then off, out walks a woman…..and then a MAN. There is no better way to explain the situation other then….AWKWARD. Since I was in such distress about needing to shower, I did use the shower, but I believe I came out of there feeling even dirtier then I was before. And then walks in a fourth guy who was wondering where the heck I had been for the last hour.

We get some hours of shuteye in (side note from Bonnie: I finally slept!!!! I am never going 48 hours without sleeping again!) but then we are rudely awoken in the morning by being told over the intercom to prepare to exit (side note Bonnie: BEEP, BEEP, BEEP), because we will be in Greece in half and hour. AS IF I forgot to factor in the time change! No shower for me, but at least Bonnie doesn't stink any more...(side note from Bonnie: doesn’t stink anymore but is nowhere near being cleaner)
We dock in Igoumenitsa, Greece, and step onto land. It is so early that the sun doesn't show any signs of rising any time soon. We are now at a large port in Greece, at night, and once again have no idea where to go. We are told that the terminal for ferries heading to Corfu (that's us!) is a kilometre away, so we decide to go the easy route this time, and take a cab. Our cabbie takes us right up to where we buy tickets for our next ferry. Bonnie LOVED that one kilomtre cab ride, so she pays him double what he asked for (side note from Bonnie: okay so in my defense I was still really tired, and it was dark, but its okay, with the extra money I gave the driver he probably bought a nice bottle of wine for his wife for Valentine’s day….I may have brought a baby into this world)
We buy our tickets and stand between all the semis and cars waiting to board and walk onto the ferry. It is about an hour and a half ride and the sun is up as we arrive, and walk onto the island of Corfu (side note from Bonnie: The boat ride there was gorgeous, we got to watch the sun rise with the sea and mountains as our scenery, also Neil bought probably the best looking sandwich in the world and I am still wanting to go back to get myself one. Note to all: if you are ordering food, first see what Neil gets…he can find things that you never knew existed).