Ferry to Corfu

We did a long drive on Saturday from the lakes in the middle of Croatia through Slovenia to Trieste, Italy. We were hoping for an overnight ferry to Corfu, Greece. When we got to Trieste, the men at the ferry dock told us to drive to Venice and take the ferry from there. They made distasteful faces about their ferry having to stop in Albania. We thought if they didn’t think we should take their ferry, we really should listen.

We figured we could race to Venice before the sun went down and if the ferry was gone, we’d get to enjoy some time in Venice. On a Saturday night. On a holiday weekend. We suspected rooms would be tight and envisioned having to splurge for a 4 star room. Something over the top with a really nice bathroom. Or we could make do with a noisy hostel if we had to.

We found the hotel we had stayed at on our last visit but they were full. At the next stop they told us Venice was very full and they had just called three other hotels trying to help out some other travelers. As we left, he said “every room can’t be taken. Just walk around”.

We walked many of the neighborhoods, canals and bridges. Afterwards we realized we had searched for four hours. Venice was lovely but full.

After midnight we went back to our car and drove back to the mainland. We set the GPS for the Holiday Inn we had seen five hours before on the way in. They had a room and we stumbled in and slept for 5 hours. For some reason they charged us 125 euros instead of the max rate of 265 euros. Jules didn’t use any of my negotiating skills and she got a better than 50% discount on a night when all rooms were booked. Hmmm...

It all ended well with us drinking tea and coffee in the morning while holding cabin tickets for the Corfu-bound ferry.