Patra

I wound up in Patra, Greece for the afternoon waiting to catch the ferry for Anconda. There really wasn't anything worth doing there. I spent most of my time trying to find a grocery store to buy some fruit and snacks for the ferry ride, which proved exceedingly difficult. They conveniently have the shopping district within a 4 or 5 block section next to the ferry port, through which I meandered for a few hours. I eventually found a fruit stand and made due. Beyond that, I really couldn't wait to get going.

I was dissappointed to find no other backpackers on my twenty hour ferry ride. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to take the ferry back to Bari instead of Anconda, which had a stop near The Pink Palace. Consequently, nothing all that interesting happened on the ride. The boat actually had a swimming pool, and a "disco bar." But, with so few people on the ship, the bar did nothing more than prevent me from sleeping for a few hours (I didn't get a cabin).

I got into Anconda at 3pm, and spent a half hour or so following some rather confusing street signs to get to the train station before asking for directions. I got on a train to Bologna, which had a connection to my preferred destination: Florence.