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#100 A unplanned night on the sea

Imechapishwa: 03.04.2022

goodbye"), it was always funny. They were especially happy about my presence, because out of the approximately 150 people in the dining room, only about 8 were women. The conversation with the Albanian-Italian couple next to us, who were visiting family in Albania, and the Italian grandpa opposite us, who had been going to Romania for 22 years (why and what he does there, we unfortunately didn't understand), was very funny, despite the lack of common language skills. Interestingly, (almost) nobody on the ferry was going to Greece as their destination, almost everyone was heading to Bulgaria or Romania. </p><p>Shortly after 8 pm, there was food (various kinds of meat or fish with fries and pasta with meat). The truckers were happy about the free meal, which was paid for by the company, and took everything once. However, communication with the kitchen staff was not easy either, so I couldn't say that I just wanted a bit of fish and got three portions of fish slapped onto my plate. In the end, there were stacks of bread and half-empty plates on every table. There is definitely a lot of food waste here. The only dessert available was apples, but as one of our new friends explained to us: "Bulgarians don't eat apples. We eat meat." So we were given five apples directly as a gift, as well as some of the free drinks. Our neighbor also gave us a dab of particularly delicious, typical food with his fork. A kind of mashed potatoes with an interesting, undefinable spice. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/6ba7d1e8d93b3b15f695cdac5fe1c1c7_large.jpg' alt /><figcaption>We ate up our plates, of course, and got some apples as well.<br /></figcaption></figure><p>Somehow the whole thing reminded me a little bit of a school trip for adults. Nobody followed the rules. The ship's captain in uniform walked around regularly and pointed out the smoking ban, but the smokers usually just held their cigarette under the table and nodded, or extinguished it only to light it again the next second. Even those who went outside to smoke usually didn't make it there and gathered just in front of the door to smoke. With almost 150 drunk men in one room, it was so loud that the announcements on the speakers could not be understood at all. I think there was once a reminder of the mask requirement, which no one followed. But eating, drinking, and smoking doesn't work well with masks either. Despite that, our Bulgarian friends were aware of the corona situation, they told us that they get tested once a week and discussed with the captain on board whether more tables could be made available to better maintain distance. </p><p>At 10 pm, almost everyone disappeared into bed in an instant, leaving behind a huge mess and silence. While cleaning and tidying up was going on around us, we lay down on the long padded benches and slept surprisingly well. After a short night, we saw Greece for the first time shortly before arrival. We drove into the sunrise and admired the black mountains against the red sky. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/5ab5a346167383f1e9188f69f4fdc85e_large.jpg' alt='Hello Greece!' /><figcaption>Hello Greece!</figcaption></figure><p>When we finally got off the ship, it was already 8 am (local time), but it felt like the middle of the night. We lay down for a few more hours and felt like after a night of heavy drinking: everything smelled of cold smoke, the head hurt from the schnapps, and we had slept too little. But I would do it again next time. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/f2453d315db03a416aa087c31244fb80_large.jpg' alt='our ferry' /><figcaption>our ferry</figcaption></figure><figure><img src='/uploads/81fa827f7b411881986041cbcc9057c1_large.jpg' alt='Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.' /><figcaption>Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.</figcaption></figure><p><br /></p><p>Day 163 - Total tour 12,179 km</p><p><br /></p><p>---- Subscribe ----</p><p>If you want to subscribe to our blog, you can either sign up with Vakantio and click on subscribe or send us a message and we will add you to our own distribution list. We are of course also happy to receive feedback! </p><p>Email: querfeld2@gmail.com</p>
goodbye"), it was always funny. They were especially happy about my presence, because out of the approximately 150 people in the dining room, only about 8 were women. The conversation with the Albanian-Italian couple next to us, who were visiting family in Albania, and the Italian grandpa opposite us, who had been going to Romania for 22 years (why and what he does there, we unfortunately didn't understand), was very funny, despite the lack of common language skills. Interestingly, (almost) nobody on the ferry was going to Greece as their destination, almost everyone was heading to Bulgaria or Romania. </p><p>Shortly after 8 pm, there was food (various kinds of meat or fish with fries and pasta with meat). The truckers were happy about the free meal, which was paid for by the company, and took everything once. However, communication with the kitchen staff was not easy either, so I couldn't say that I just wanted a bit of fish and got three portions of fish slapped onto my plate. In the end, there were stacks of bread and half-empty plates on every table. There is definitely a lot of food waste here. The only dessert available was apples, but as one of our new friends explained to us: "Bulgarians don't eat apples. We eat meat." So we were given five apples directly as a gift, as well as some of the free drinks. Our neighbor also gave us a dab of particularly delicious, typical food with his fork. A kind of mashed potatoes with an interesting, undefinable spice. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/6ba7d1e8d93b3b15f695cdac5fe1c1c7_large.jpg' alt /><figcaption>We ate up our plates, of course, and got some apples as well.<br /></figcaption></figure><p>Somehow the whole thing reminded me a little bit of a school trip for adults. Nobody followed the rules. The ship's captain in uniform walked around regularly and pointed out the smoking ban, but the smokers usually just held their cigarette under the table and nodded, or extinguished it only to light it again the next second. Even those who went outside to smoke usually didn't make it there and gathered just in front of the door to smoke. With almost 150 drunk men in one room, it was so loud that the announcements on the speakers could not be understood at all. I think there was once a reminder of the mask requirement, which no one followed. But eating, drinking, and smoking doesn't work well with masks either. Despite that, our Bulgarian friends were aware of the corona situation, they told us that they get tested once a week and discussed with the captain on board whether more tables could be made available to better maintain distance. </p><p>At 10 pm, almost everyone disappeared into bed in an instant, leaving behind a huge mess and silence. While cleaning and tidying up was going on around us, we lay down on the long padded benches and slept surprisingly well. After a short night, we saw Greece for the first time shortly before arrival. We drove into the sunrise and admired the black mountains against the red sky. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/5ab5a346167383f1e9188f69f4fdc85e_large.jpg' alt='Hello Greece!' /><figcaption>Hello Greece!</figcaption></figure><p>When we finally got off the ship, it was already 8 am (local time), but it felt like the middle of the night. We lay down for a few more hours and felt like after a night of heavy drinking: everything smelled of cold smoke, the head hurt from the schnapps, and we had slept too little. But I would do it again next time. <br /></p><figure><img src='/uploads/f2453d315db03a416aa087c31244fb80_large.jpg' alt='our ferry' /><figcaption>our ferry</figcaption></figure><figure><img src='/uploads/81fa827f7b411881986041cbcc9057c1_large.jpg' alt='Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.' /><figcaption>Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.</figcaption></figure><p><br /></p><p>Day 163 - Total tour 12,179 km</p><p><br /></p><p>---- Subscribe ----</p><p>If you want to subscribe to our blog, you can either sign up with Vakantio and click on subscribe or send us a message and we will add you to our own distribution list. We are of course also happy to receive feedback! </p><p>Email: querfeld2@gmail.com</p>
#100 A unplanned night on the sea
#100 A unplanned night on the sea
Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.
Morning sunrise in Igoumenitsa - we're going to bed now.
The trucker's evening set - today in paper cups, as there were no other cups/glasses in the onboard restaurant.
The trucker's evening set - today in paper cups, as there were no other cups/glasses in the onboard restaurant.
We ate up our plates, of course, and got some apples as well.
We ate up our plates, of course, and got some apples as well.
The trucks are already waiting to go, but we have priority.
The trucks are already waiting to go, but we have priority.

March 26-27, 2022: Brindisi, Igoumenitsa


J. We had imagined the crossing to Greece differently. We had specifically chosen the shortest ferry route between Italy and Greece, from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa, which was supposed to take from 1 pm to 10 pm, and we had booked the trip on Saturday, when the weather was supposed to be good. We had planned to enjoy the sun and the view of the Mediterranean during the day and be in Greece in the evening.

But it didn't turn out that way. The night before, we received an email that the departure is postponed to 4:30 pm. We were already in Brindisi and had nothing else to do, so we joined the many Bulgarian and Romanian cars and vans full of people at the ferry terminal from one o'clock. More and more cars and a few vans arrived, but there was no ferry in sight yet. It wasn't until after 4 pm that it docked and started unloading. A few hours later, we were allowed to board the ferry. We were used to the last ferry between Spain and Italy, where we had many waving marshalls guiding us in with millimeter precision. The guidance here couldn't have been more different: except that we should drive up the long ramp to the open deck, we were not told anything. We joined the cars standing crosswise on the deck and stood next to a huge pile of old mattresses.

The trucks are already waiting to go, but we have priority.
The trucks are already waiting to go, but we have priority.

We set off at 7 pm. Only now did we realize that there is a one-hour time difference to Greece and that the time change to summer time is today. After our nine-hour crossing, it would feel like 4 am for us, but it would already be 6 am in Greece.

Since we had planned to drive during the day, we didn't have a cabin and managed to secure one of the last tables in the dining room. Instead of spending the crossing on deck in the sun, we spent the evening in a smoker's pub, which we hadn't done for a long time. Our neighboring table quickly filled up with a large group of Bulgarian truck drivers who immediately invited us to beer and self-brewed schnapps from plastic bottles. The schnapps is the Bulgarian national drink and every family distills their own, they told us. It is also not drunk from schnapps glasses, but from paper cups. (And I had wondered why the men didn't drink their water directly from the bottle, but from paper cups.) I was glad that not everyone offered us a taste of their own family schnapps, I sipped on my mug, filled with at least three schnapps glasses, all evening. According to our new Bulgarian friends, the schnapps had "at least 50% alcohol", but tasted surprisingly good.

The trucker
The trucker's evening set - today in paper cups, as there were no other cups/glasses in the onboard restaurant.

When we said that we come from Hannover, everyone nodded, because they all knew the traffic jam on the motorway near Hanover. Although only a few truckers spoke a little English, and most only knew individual words in German ("load and unload

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