Boats and trains

İ arrived early in the terminal of La Goulette near Tunis for the ferry to Palermo to be certain İ could get a ticket, of course this was pointless. The offices only opened a two hours before departure, but my bus from Tabarka arrived in the afternoon and İ did not feel like wandering through the streets of Tunis. İ had seen enough of Tunisia. When the office finally was open and all the queues gone İ tried to buy my ticket. Unfortunately they only accepted cash Tunisian dinars. İ did not have any also because you are not allowed to export more than a 100 and are not able to trade them outside the country. İ walked back to La Goulette to take the necessary cash from an ATM. The first one was out of order, the second one as well and the third did not except my card. Finally İ found a working machine and put in my card and punched in the proper keys. Than to my horror nothing happened for more than a minute. During that time İ feared had to stay another (semi) week in Tunis to retrieve my card. Fortunately eventually the machine went into action and handed back my card and the requested money.

The voyage to Palermo was comfortable and İ managed to sleep quite well on 4 neighbouring chairs in the Rome room. Palermo was beautiful, but quiet, it was Sunday morning. The only problem was that the few İtalians İ did meet, did not speak any English and could not help me with the directions to the train station. However İ soon ran into two American travelers with a Lonely Planet who also were searching for the station. İ helped them read the map and together we found the station. The train ride was beautiful, luxurious nearly empty carriages and to the left (when facing in the direction of the head of train) great views of the sea (sometimes only three meters away) and to the right views of mountains and villages. In Messina the train with me in it, embarked a ferry and soon we arrived at the Italian mainland. İ tried to find a cheap hotel, but did not succeed. Propably my view of cheap shifted slightly during my stay in Africa. İ decided to try to take a night train to Bari. Although not easy it was possible, but meant İ had to wait for two and a half hour in the middle of the night somewhere close to Napoli. This of course was no problem. İ even almost missed the train because at the last moment they changed the platform the train left from and İ was not aware of it. In the morning İ arrived in Bari. With the ferry to Patras only leaving at 18:00 İ had plenty of time to explore the town and harbor. İ found out they Bari fishermen have a special way of cleaning the underside of their boats. With their feet in the boat and head in a floating dustbin they could reach even to lowest point of the boat. It looked funny though.

Sleeping on the boat to Patras was less comfortable then the one to Palermo, but much better than sleeping in a crowded night train. The floors of some decks were covered with carpet, what made a fine sleeping surface. If they had not wakened me at 4:00 to tell me İ had to disembark, İ would have had a nice night of sleep. When İ finished packing in hurry, it turned out it was not the final destination yet so İ could go back to sleep. The bus brought me to famous Athens. İ already had chosen a place to stay and this time it was easy to find. My brother text messaged İ should stay a while in Athens, so he could spend some well deserved free time with his girlfriend İljoesja before İ would stir things up. This seems not hard to do, Athens is a big city and supposedly there is a lot to see and do. İ was bored with it after 2 days though and took the ferry to Rhodes 2 days early anyway. Maybe the city was not what İ wished for, but that did not apply to the roommates İ had the second night. The three Americans shared their wine and cookies with me and we had a wonderful time. We even managed to get a warning of the police for being to loud, which we were not of course, but that might also have been because the police station were all around us and they had nothing (better to do). İ had planned to watch the final of the champions league, İ was particular interested because İ was in the final of the paidiagames champions league as well. My team did excellent without my attention, Taco text messaged me that and Barcelona and my team Victoria Ceilero had claimed victory. A good night. The next day İ went to Piraeus to take a ferry to Rhodes.