Chasing A Ferry By Train

Since we decided to come to Europe, Joel and I have been longing to go to Tunisia, and as has Dan. It was a must on itinerary as our future travel plans all depended on us going there; Dan even had to get a flight to Tunis to London. But getting a ferry was nowhere near as easy as normal. Instead, it was a mammoth quest of titanic journeys, constant disappointments, nervous waiting and hectic haggling. It is definintely an experience I will not soon forget.

On our last morning in Salerno we went to a travel agent to book a ferry from Salerno-Tunis, and we were quite confident that we would get it (after all, we were of the opinion that everybody does not flock to Tunisia). However, we were disappointed to find that the ferry was completely full and there was only a ferry once a week. As we had to go to Tunisia, we then went to a different and more helpful travel agent, who told us that we had to go to the actual harbour to book our ticket for that day. He also told us that he was quite sure that there would be plenty of room. Full of hope and happiness, we trudged in the soaring heat to the harbour. Upon our arrival the ladies at the desk were more than helpful in processing our information for us to get tickets. This led us to believe that many tickets were still available (especially as the 2nd travel agent assured us of the same thing). However they then unsuspectingly broke our hearts by telling us that it was completely full for the Salerno-Palermo journey. We were quite disappointed, but then later they again filled our hearts with hope by telling us that the Palermo-Tunis journey was not full. As I mentioned, we simply had to get there, which left only one option... to go to Palermo and get the ferry there when it arrived early the next morning. This meant an arduous 9hr day-train ride from Salerno all the way to Palermo (in Sicily). As crazy as it sounds, we were indeed chasing a ferry around Italy by train; effectively travelling across half the Italian west coast to try get this ferry from Palermo. We arrived in Palermo very late at night and still with a few hours to spare before we decided we should line up. Unable to find any accomdation, we had to rough it out quite uncomfortably having sporadic sleep in the train station. Not the best way to recover from a long day's journey.

Still very sleepy and exhausted from the previous day's days struggles, we unenthusiastically woke up early the next morning and got to the harbour 2hrs early to ensure we had tickets for the Palermo-Tunis leg. After nervously asking a staff member if there were tickets left, once again we were out of luck as he told us that it was also completely full. You can imagine our immense disappointment. We had just gone on a long journey across literally half of Italy to get here, then slept extemely uncomfortably in a train station, woke up very early, walked for 30min in the early morning humidity with our heavy backpacks; only to find that it was all for nothing. We had failed again. You can imagine that by now, after 2 days of trying and failure, we were started to get frustrated. Little did we know how much more frustrating things would become. But again, we did have one last hope, so we put our names on the waiting list. Another 2 hrs we idly and impatiently waited before they finally started to give out these extra tickets. Eventually it got to us, and we were all shaking impatiently in hope that they still had room. It was pretty tense. But as if our quest would end here. We on a string of bad luck, and it didn't look like it was going to end. AGAIN what little hope we had left diminished the immediate second when we were informed that yes, you would not believe it; the ferry was completely full. We were devastated... all this waiting, all this travelling, all this effort... FOR NOTHING!!! Absolutely nothing. Our emotions were crushed to a pulp. Disappointed is truly an understatement. But like the times before, we were still given a slight ray of hope; they had a spot left! But one spot and one spot only; there were 3 of us. But this was certainly better than nothing, and we considered it a small victory in this ongoing war. We grabbed this opportunity with both hands; deciding that Dan should take this one spot and go to Tunisia by himself for the moment, as he needed to get his flight soon. Luckily he had Giovanni so he was not truly alone (Giovanni was this really strange and dodgy guy, who ended up being Dan's hero).

With Dan gone, things now turned to Joel and I still trying to get to Tunisia. Before while waiting at Palermo, as a backup plan Joel had called a travel agent in another Sicillian town of Trapani (2.5hrs by train from Palermo) who informed us that a ferry left the next morning for Sousse (about 2hrs south of Tunis). So now we again another slight ray of hope... I've repeated that phrase so many times now! And like so many people before her, she assured us that there was room. By now, I was increasingly doubtful of our chances given our repeated failure at the hands of "assurances", but we really had nothing else to go on. We had to go onwards to Trapani to get this ferry. We had no other choice but to persist in our quest, despite the fact that our quest resulted in failure at every corner and after ever endeavour. It couldn't possibly get worse. But oh yes, it did. First of all, upon arriving at Trapani Joel and I were unable to find any affordable accomodation, so once again we had another unpleasant sleep in the train station. One sleep in a train station is more than enough to make you incredibly exhausted, but 2 sleeps! After nearly 3 days of walking and waiting, no showering, and worthless sleep in train stations, I was definitley not feeling the best or the most enthusiastic the next morning (to say the very, very least). We had a dim light of hope that we would get on the ferry, but ONCE AGAIN this hope was destroyed. Once again we were disappointed to learn that no ferries were actually leaving that day, only the day after (going to Tunis). The lady we called had given us incorrect information!!! How could it get worse??? By now Joel and I were just so frustrated with our journey's happenings that we couldn't actually put effort into being frustrated. Mentally we were down and out. Instead of being angry, I just dropped my head in loss of hope. I had no energy. I mean, can you imagine that we could come so close, to just fail... AGAIN??? What was happening to us. Both of us ready to give up, but Tunisia and Dan still called. So Joel and I still trudged on despite all these numerous setbacks. We finally found some accomdation and the entire day was spent recovering from the journey so far; we watched Baywatch in Italian... nothing more needs to be said. And despite this recovery day, I was still exhausted the next morning when we woke up. It took me more than a day to recover! That's how exhausted I was. It was the 3rd time since I started travelling 10 weeks ago that I hadn't had a shower in a nearly-4 day period (freestyle travelling can be a dirty business!).

The next morning we lined up to get this ferry and this was very mentally challenging. Considering out mental state, the last thing we needed was a monumental 2-hr stress session. This ferry mainly consists of Tunisians going back home after working in Italy, and Tunisians have an orthodox method of lining up. Upon arriving at the counter we did not find an organised, one-man line for tickets; but instead a massive pack of people pushing and shoving and shouting in Arabic. With no other option, we immersed ourselves in this pack, stupidly but innocently hoping that we would work our way to the front. But this strategy proved to be immensley ineffective. Instead of progressivley working our way up the line, we stayed in the same place for about 2hrs. Tunisians at the back, left and right of us kept passing their passports and money to the front to one guy... who ended up buying tickets for everybody! This annoyed us greatly as we had not come all this way to miss out on this last ferry and last chance to meet up with Dan in Tunisa. All the frustration and exhaustion from our adventure was just compounding infinitely and it was sucking the life and energy out of us. But we weren't going down without a fight yet! Being quite small and much more agile than my large Tunisian counterparts, I quickly ducked and weaved beneath all the arms and around bodies in front of me to snatch a spot at the front. After much pleading on our behalf, the ticket lady then looked into our eyes with pity and saw that we were filled with nervoussness, tiredness and frustration with the mornings proceedings. And so she processed our tickets, with our pale faces smiling peacefully and contently; full of relief. Sweet Victory. We didn't just get the ticket, glance at it and then walk off as one would normally do... instead we jumped up, hugging, embracing and frantically checking our tickets again and again to make sure that we were not wronged in any way. Despite all these failed assurances by others, for once we assured ourselves that this was the end, and for once we succeeded. And our luck changed from that very moment as we steadily made the way to the Promised Land; Tunisia...

And so ended this colossal quest for the Brave Three (as we now liked to be called :P). As you can see it was a 4-day nightmare which involved so much tiring travelling, nervous questioning, agitating waiting, uncomfortable sleep, unwashed and filthy bodies, sparse "meals" which resulted in seemingly unquenchable hunger and thirst (kind of at least :P), not to mention the penetrating heat and soaring humidity of the Sicilian smmer. Never-ending disappointment, devastating heartbreak and failed endeavours lurked, pounced and unfortunately succeeded at every corner. All these things piled onto each other made it quite an exhausting and mentally challenging adventure... but after all that we still had to push ourselves to keep trying to get that ever-evasive ferry. Our numerous failures just compounded on each other, rapidly defeating our mental strength. Stupid ferry! Yes, I know that getting tickets for a ferry sounds like a simple thing. But this was a totally different situation. We repeatedly had no other option than to rely on dubious information, and every time we relied on it we missed out and it crushed had any little hope that remained from the last failure. Everything we touched went wrong; during this time Joel also wanted something from the Post Office, and after lining up it closed just as he was to be served; we went to buy post stamps in Palermo but due to some problems with the post office the entire town had run out of postage stamps (???!!!). It was a challenging time. But still, all 3 of us will look back on it with crazy, but fond, memories. So many battles were lost, but in the end we were persisted and we triumphantly won this war with the ferry. It is never full if you never give up!

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