Across an Ocean and Back

Against all common sense and parental recommendation we ate a plate of small fish fried, oysters, mussels, 3L of beer, 4 gelatos, and half a bottle of an unknown Croatian aperatif and loaded up on the overnight ferry to Bari, Italy. With this viscious the chum in our stomachs and our deck only tickets in hand we made camp in the child's playpen in the bar. We awoke half hungover to the creaking sounds of children playing on bouncy horses. Italian customs left us with a bad taste in our mouths for the country after a man in a pink shirt who may or may not have been an official accosted Steve for cigarettes as well as asked him to put his bike through a metal detector. We enlisted the help of a local street side melon mechant to point us towards the city center. After taking in the sounds (everyone yelling), sights (no one working), smells (fish), and tastes (gelato+coffee) we decided to load up onto another ferry back across the Adriatic to Patra, Greece. Our planned ferry, on the Ionian King, was cancelled due to a mechanical problem (likely not enough passengers to warrant a profiatble journey). Lucky we a competing ferry company (which we later we discovered was run by the same company) was leaving 2 horus later. Clearly maritime law was in effect, because hoards of teen tour groups got plastered and thus kept all hands on deck awake. Steve and I found a found an adaquate campsite on the starbord side, outside, and adjacent to the staff entrance to the kitchen which greeted us to a stronger horseradish smell whenever the door was open. Upon arrival in Patra we again slipped through customs into the bustling port city, where we embarked on a utilitarian 120 km ride on the national road to Ancient Olympia. After seeing the sights of the ruins at Olypmia and Steve losing to himself in the 192 meter sprint (jog) in the ancient stadium, we are prepared to traverse the Peloponeese to Kalamata, home of the olive. We will then prepare for the biggest climb of the trip over Langada Pass (1543 meters, all from sea level) to Sparta. OOOOPA!