Barbara has an appointment at Kalamata hospital this morning, and they are dropping us off at the bus station for our bus to the port of Patras, from where we have booked a ferry to Bari in Italy
Obtaining information on Greek buses is not easy, but I believe there is a bus at 8:30 am. If I try to book tickets online, I am told that no busses are available. I did this exact journey five years ago, so I am pretty sure a bus will be running
But it does mean an early start, and I set my alarm for 05.30. Neither of us has a good night’s sleep. Are we suffering from travel anxiety? I hope not, as we have a lot of traveling ahead of us
The sun has yet to rise when I get dressed, have a cup of tea and eat some figs and yoghurt. My job is to take Jumbo out for an early morning walk, and he’s delighted to see me. We trot along the mountain tracks at a brisk pace, returning after half an hour.
I finish the last of our packing, just as the sun comes out from behind the mountains
It is also my job to drive to Kalamata, along winding roads with sharp bends and a low sun reflecting off the road and into my eyes
We get to the bus station in plenty of time to buy tickets, say our final farewells, and go to the loo – it’s a 3.5 hour bus journey, and the bus has no toilet
Vera tries to sleep on the bus, with some success. The guy on the back seat is endlessly and noisily playing with his prayer beads. The guy immediately behind us has sinus problems and is breathing very loudly. It’s not the greatest of bus journeys, but the miles glide by
The bus stops in Syntriada and a lot of people disembark. We suspect that this is a toilet break, but there is no announcement to indicate this, or its duration. Vera decides to brave it and go to the loo. I remain on the coach to make sure she doesn’t get left behind. Vera returns safely, and soon we are on our way again. The spare driver does a headcount to ensure nobody is missing
Vera had taken off her socks for her loo break, and now they are missing. We spend ten minutes playing find the sock, but without success. With a bit more planning this could have made the whole journey a more entertaining experience
The bus journey turns out to be 4.5 hours in duration, which means we have 2.5 hours before the check-in deadline. Our priorities are to procure food and wine for an on-board picnic, find a taverna for lunch, and get to the ferry port
We find a bakery for a variety of randomly chosen pastry items, I suspect it’s the same one that I used five years ago. We find a supermarket for a couple of bottles of red
and stop at the first likely looking bar for some kebabs, chips, and cool beer
It takes an hour or so to walk to the ferry terminus, and we pick up our tickets
It is Vera’s turn to cause a security scare, as her nail file looks suspiciously like a blade on the x-ray machine. My pen knife sails through unchallenged
We have a small but very nice cabin, we have paid extra to have a window
There’s not much happening on board, it’s very quiet, so after some of our pastries, wine, some games of Rummikub, we have an early night
Both slept really well, the gentle throb of the boat’s engine is obviously very conducive to sleep. Today’s clothing based game is Find My Knickers. Vera thinks she has left all of her underwear in Greece as they are not in her luggage. Eventually they are found, stowed away in Vera’s sun hat. It's lucky that we are travelling light, and the number of places to hide things in our luggage is limited
Breakfast is the remains of the pastries, which we eat on deck, watching the Italian coast pass by
We pull into the port of Bari, and after waiting for what seems an age we finally disembark.
After getting out of the port area we head into the narrow winding streets of the old city towards our B&B
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