From Bari to Duress

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we woke up in our lovely air conditioned private room, much to Cats happiness as she is heat sensative and likes to sleep in an igloo....

We got a Taxi to the station with Joe and Matt (the back packs) and a huuuge box of excess stuff to be sent back to Cats. After posting the box which wasn't that hard after locating the post office which was somewhat more complicated, we got onto a train and heard an announement in Italian, to which all the Italians looked a bit peeved with and started to move, deciding it was nothing to do with us we happily carried on, until one lady with minimal english told us that we were to change from the train to a bus. Eventually after about 5 hours we arrived in Toranto where we had to change again eventually arriving in Bari in the early evening. We grabbed a sandwich and headed to the bus to the port, we started at the wrong terminal and had to walk back around to the other ticket office only to be told there that we were again at the wrong office and that we had to go back outside and walk the back way through the door to another office (located almost opposite... I think they were just laughing at foreigners). Even after we found the right office, things did not go to plan, we stood waiting for almost an hour as two ladies in the booth exchanged puzzled looks and hunted through data on the computer before being told that our tickets had been cancelled two days after Cat originally booked them, without being informed of this move.

Hot and frustrated we retreated to the bar for a beer whilst she made phone calls on our behalf. We met a lovely Albania Newcastle man who offered to help us sort it all out and translate for us if necassary. Back down in the ticket office another friendly man called through to head office and had Cat on the phone with an American sitting in his garden, which made us both think that she had gotten straight to the top. He told us not to worry and to just buy some new tickets and that it would be refunded to Cats account, thinking our ordeal was over we headed on to the ferry showing our tickets at 3 check points and being directed to a ferry saying Durress (our destination) on it. We boarded the ferry and made it right inside to the front desk before being told it wasn't our ferry and having to walk back to the other ferry.

Cat spent much of the 3 and a half hours we had before we sailed out on the front of the ship whilst I bag minded and tried to forget I was on a ship for 12 hours with hoards of screaming albanian women and children. The ship eventually left an hour anf a half after it was suposed to stuffed chock-a-blocked with people, there was no floor space left as air beds came out and blankets and picnic baskets emerged....

8 hours later we arrived in Albania.

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