B a r i :

  E x p e r i e n c e s :

Bari was the first city I re-visited on this trip. I had been there before back on October 17th, 2001 on my way to Naples, Italy and, oddly enough, didn't take a single photograph while in the city. I suppose that, at the time, I thought that there was nothing worth spending film on. Although Bari is a large bustling port city, it is relatively clean. On my first visit to Bari, I spent three hours exploring from the time I got off of the ferry from Montenegro to the time I hopped on a trian destined for Naples. On this trip, I had relatively a LIFETIME to explore the city. From the time I arrived by plane from London to the time I climbed aboard the ferry to Croatia, I had a whole nine hours of time to take a look around.

One of my goals of this trip to Europe was not to relate back to my first trip; to have new experiences to ruminate over. And what am I doing here? Talking about the similarities to my first trip! But it ends here.

When I landed in Bari, I had the company of Trevor, a 20-something free spirit from New York on his way to meet his father in Dubrovnik. Since we were both heading towards Croatia via the same Jadrolinija ferry, we decided to explore the city together. It didn't take but a few hours to realize that we were different types of travelers. Trevor liked to check things out at a steady pace, while I stopped at anything that caught my eye to photograph it. We seperated and went our own ways, appreciating our brief encounter, but knowing that we'd enjoy our journeys better on our own.

But my solo exploration of Bari would not be for long, for a met yet another backpacker in Bari to travel with (if anything, this is the common theme of my trip). "That's a big backpack" was all it took to start a conversation with Deborah from England. Five hours later, I ended up sleeping with her. Ok, ok. Before you jump to conclusions, I should explain that nothing happened. Deborah was a lot of fun to explore with, but there wasn't any romance whatsoever. When purchasing my tickets for the ferry, I assumed there would be a room of reclining seats I could sleep in as the boat made its way across the Adriatic Sea. However, after spending the early evening exploring Bari's Old Town with Deborah, we boarded the boat only to discover that the "deck ticket" I purchased meant I had to sleep in either the bar, the resturaunt, or the outdoor upper deck! Since Deborah and I seemed to get along so well, talking for a few hours in the bar, she invited me to sleep in the empty bunk in her small room. LIke novelist Chuck Palahniuk would say, she was a Very nice "single- serving friend."

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