Bari was never a part of our itinerary. The plan was to leave Rome on Sunday, take a long train ride to Bari and catch a night ferry headed to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were super excited to get to Croatia. Not only had we heard that in Croatia we'd find some of the most beautiful beaches on the Adriatic, but we were meeting up with friends from home! Mel, Keaton and Caiti would plan to arrive in Dubrovnik just one day after us. Little did we know, Croatia was not to be in the plan just yet...
The day started out overall stressful, when we arrived at the train station to find out that the train was completely full. Since we have Eurail passes, we usually are able to hop on most trains without making a reservation. It's different in Italy, where reservations are a must. We thought we gave ourselves a good amount of time arriving almost two hours early to make these reservations. They were already all booked. Usually this wouldn't be such a problem as we would just catch the next train, but we had to get to Bari in time to catch the ferry! We had already reserved and paid for our spots on the boat, and we had people to meet on the other side. We were determined to get on this train, so we made reservations for about half way there and then hoped the rest of the way could get figured out. Zack ended up having to sit outside the bathroom for a couple hours and then we transferred onto a train that did not require reservations (but also made a million stops along the way). This stretched out our trip to be a little longer than expected, and we arrived in Bari with an hour to spare. We figured out which bus to catch to reach the port, and ended up sitting on the bus for what seemed to be an eternity while the driver hung out at the station with the other drivers. We were told you could not always rely on the bus schedules here in Bari. Zack was super anxious at this point, almost getting off and asking the driver to get going, while I sat there telling him it'll all be okay (of course). Finally the bus arrived at the port, and from that moment on, it was a complete mad dash. We had been travelling for already ten hours, were extremely thirsty, and I felt my back sweating onto by backpack. It was already dark out at this point, and it boggled my mind how there were no directional signs, when there were at least three different boats we could have hopped on. At this point, I was just trying to keep up with Zack. We first ended up running to the wrong boat. An employee pointed us in the right direction and we started sprinting towards the correct boat. I knew we were cutting in close when (I was already about 20 feet behind Zack at this point) a man saw me running and asked me where I was headed. In between breaths, I yelled, "Dubrovnik!!". He looked down at his phone for a couple seconds, and then looked up in a panic, yelling "go! go! go!", pointing me towards the right boat. Zack and I both agree that we felt like we were on the Amazing Race. Kind of cool, but mostly stressful and exhausting. Haha. We finally ran into the station, only to find out we had missed "check-in" by 10 minutes. It was 9:40pm and the boat was to leave at 10:00pm. We didn't even know we had to check in. Totally our bad, but totally frustrating. The next ferry didn't leave for another two days! We knew nothing about Bari, had no accommodations and not much money to spare. After pleading with the employee to let us in, I think she started to feel bad for us. She then spent the next 45 minutes with us, phoning different hotels to find out prices and trying to find us a good deal. She was so sweet and nice. I wish I could have understood what she was saying on the phone to all these people she was calling. It must have been quite convincing because the next thing we knew, the owner of "Hotel Crystal" was on his way to the port to pick us up! He did not speak a word of English, but was a charming older gentleman who genuinely seemed to want to help us out. I got the giggles on the ride to the hotel and could not stop laughing... I think the 11 hours of travel stress was getting to me. We then passed a pizza joint called "Titti Twisters" and then even Zack couldn't stop laughing. It may be vulgar, but some comic relief was definitely what we needed! The hotel was nothing special, but was clean and a place to rest our heads.
As frustrating as this experience was, we put it behind us and decided to make the best of our stay in Bari. Here, we discovered a small Italian beach town with a spunky local personality. The old downtown was absolutely beautiful, and the beaches were fantastic. We strolled the pier in the evening and checked out the local fish market in the morning (where we were quite daring and tried raw octopus! It was better than I expected, if you're wondering). Bari is also the home to Saint Nicholas, the saint who began the whole idea of Santa Claus. Almost everywhere you go in Bari, you'll find a picture of Saint Nicholas. Locals even carry photos of Saint Nicholas in their wallets. We also visited some underground ruins while we were here, which now are covered by the old town. We ended up loving Bari! Small, relaxed, and eccentric.
Proof of our experience eating raw octopus! There were many buckets of raw seafood all down the pier, but these looked the most intriguing. When we told this man we'd like to buy one, he picked one out of the bucket, swiftly tore off some of the skin and guts (we think?), tossed them over his shoulder (literally) and tore off a tenticle for us to try. There's no turnng back at that point! We actually didn't mind it, and I'd probably eat it again if I had the chance. Definitely not as chewy as I expected. The locals eat this with just a spritz of lemon.
Looking down at the ruins.
Neat - my husbands dad is from Bari.
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