Croatia to Greece - a tale of 2 ferries

This is Jacqui, reporting liiiiive from Olympia!
Ok, sorry, my crazyness on this post can be mostly blamed on the loud super cheesy dance remix music being played by the internet cafe I'm in. Ice, ice baby....I love it of course, haha.

I've been waiting to visit Greece ever since grade 6, when we learned about the gods, Trojan war, etc. Then taking a Greek mythologyy class in 1st year only fueled my excitement! And now I'm finally here!

Let me back track a bit...last I posted, we were waiting to take the bus to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The bus was uneventful, one of the non-occuring events being sleep, haha. We arrived super early and trekked around searching for the hostel...finally we found it, and a few meters away we were intercepted by Mama Maria an older, very sweet Croatian woman. She convinced us to stay in her private accomidation, boasting a better breakfast and cheaper prices. It ended up being a good decision, though, the room wasn't that great. She ended up doing our laundry for us somehow, haha, and helped us cook dinner in her kitchen. It was like visiting some distant relative, haha, I'm glad we stayed with her.

Dubrovnik was very interesting, the whole old town is surrounded by high walls to protect it from attack. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the walls, which give an amazign view of the city. It ended off with having a beer with some guys from Vancouver at a cafe right below the walls by the sea. That night we went out and partied with a crew on a kontiki tour, they provided some good drunk entertainment, haha. I can only imagine that this is what the praktikants seem like to other travellers, hahaha.

The next day we took a ferry to Bari, Italy. It took most of the afternoon, which was nice because we got some good sunbathing in on the ferry deck. Unfortuantly, I was a bit hasty in applying sunscreen, and missed some spots, resulting in a bit of a burn. It's already fading into a tan though, so yay. Man, I'm gonna be so tanned when I get back to Calgary! Mwah ha ha...

After an uneventful night and day in Bari, we boarded the 17 hour, overnight ferry to Patras, Greece. Of course, we are too cheap to get anything better than on deck, so the first task upon boarding was to find an awesome sleeping corner. We scored some couches, and claimed them with our sleeping bags, and then spent the evening reading, and playing cards. We had a awesome picnic dinner of tuna and veggies, and even classes it up with a bottle of wine! The waiter befriended us, and gave us a free shot and offered to share another bottle of wine with us, haha. He was nice, but early into the night he got busted by his boss, who yelled at him to go to bed, so we were left alone, haha.

The next morning we awoke from our semi-comfertable couch sleep and quickly (we arrived earlier than we thought!) packed up our bags and stepped into Greece! We wanted to make it to Olympia that day, so after a few bus rides we were ready to check out Ancient Olympia. The ruins were awesome, though, most of everything got destroyed in an earthquake. It still is amazing how much is still visable, and how they let you just walk right around in everything! We raced on the sprinting track, and wandered amidst the temples of Hera and Zeus. Many statues were preserved in the nearby museum, so we saw some of the sculptures from the site, they were really cool.

It was an exciting, yet exhausting day, and I am happy to finally be showered and clean. Tonight we stay in Olympia, and tomorow we're heading to the southern coast for some beaching (I'll be more careful with the sunscreen this time!)

Cheers,
Jacqui :)