May 4th Manfredonia to Brindisi

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Dreamt about a German man on the campsite – tall, grey skin to match his hair who strolled to the shower block as if he missed his swagger stick looking arrogant. If he had a glass eye it would be the one with humanity in it..I digress

Quick visit to the supermarket & off. I'd forgotten about Italian men – they think they are a cross between Casanova & Mario Andretti. Unfortunately, Andretti couldn't ....

Then Cathy cocked up the satnav again...inner peace out of the window which was handy as they had to be open due to the heatwave that had arrived, 35*

Next to the road the landscape was olive trees & vines for miles then just oilve trees, some of which had trunks 5' – 6' in diameter. Saw lots of little round buildings with conical rooves which we assumed to be olive stores. Lots of poppies again too.

Into Brindisi to the port & ended up in the Albania dock due to there being no signs. Found the correct place where we got our tickets then made sandwiches & coffee for the crossing. Lots of Bulgarians about. Helped a French couple out with what's what with my school boy French. They were looking for an expert – unlucky

Huge cruise ship in port – no appeal to us. Onto the ship, up 2 ramps & parked up on the uppermost open deck.

Met a young Mexican girl (24) who was looking lost who also needed help, but thankfully she spoke English with an Amerivan accent. She'd bought a ticket which she thought included a shared cabin to be told that it was just for the crossing. Anyway, she sat next to us on the couchettes. The plan being that we could slip our ticket to her if challenged – which we weren't mainly because the ship seemed full of Bulgarians who hadn't reserved any seats either. What a noisy lot – very rude too..

Then Madame Gomez said that she was getting off the ship & not visiting Greece after all; bizarre.



Slept fitfully listening to our ship mates shout at each other & drinking stuff from bottles in paper bags whilst we sailed to Igoumenitsa, Greece

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