A bag of mixed luck has led us to good things ... namely, Croatia

First, I got food poisoning. A night of vomiting and a day of mild fever, followed by a fever that left me thinking Mike had gone somewhere for 20 minutes when in fact I had been asleep 6 hours. As a result, we stayed north of Bari for an extra day.

After two nights at a B&B (La Perla delle Saline) in Margherita di Savoia we made it the 85 km along the coast (mostly not so beautiful...) to Bari. There, we went to Bari Backpackers hostel, which we had emailed, and were told our bikes could not be accomodated. We were told to see if the docks had a parking lot that could store them.

Skeptical, we went to the docks and decided to check the schedule for the ferry to Croatia. I joked to Mike, "what if there is one that leaves at 11 tonight and they only leave three days a week: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday." Turns out, almost. The last boat for four days left at 10 pm, boarding in under 2 hours!

We are now safe at a hostel in Dubrovnik, which is sunny and gorgeous. We plan to get some rest after an overnight ferry on which we slept on the deck, then tour the city.