Hurry Up and Wait

...contd....

After our through the night don't hang about drive, we arrived at Igoumenitsa ferry port at 10.30,  plenty of time to check in for our booked passage on the 14.30 ferry to Brindisi - only to learn that the ferry was cancelled.  I can't adequately explain how I felt at this point, at least, not in polite language. No explanation given, and apparently, no advance information sent to Mark who'd made the booking. The best they could do was put us on the 1am ferry Sunday morning. 

So, Instead of a lovely afternoon crossing on this beautiful weather day, and a leisurely evening meal in Brindisi before our overnight stop in a prepaid non refundable hotel there -  we were stuck in Igoumenitsa for the next 15 hours.  I can't even tell you how the time passed or what we did  - except that we drove around the port area to try and find a cafe - no luck - so parked and  strolled the sea front - which was lovely - and snacked from our vittles stored in the boot of the car.  By late afternoon we returned to the ferry port where absolutely exhausted, having had no sleep since Thursday/Friday night, Rufus and I went into the terminal building and found some bench seats where we both took a nap. Mark preferred to snooze in the car.

By 7.30pm or thereabouts we'd gone through security (absolutely no issue with the dogs at customs at any time this entire journey) and were waiting in the loading area for the time to pass agonizingly slowly until the scheduled 10.30 boarding - but then this became a trial too for the ferry was delayed and we didn't board until 1am 'tomorrow' morning. It was 3.15am before the ferry we started moving and were able to put Igoumenitsa behind us.

A second sleepless night with just snacks and snoozing. Both dogs were impeccably behaved throughout this entire slog of a hurry up and wait day.