Day 15 - Ancona

It's pay day!! Get those timesheets ready, suckers! I haven't done a lick of work this pay period, and yet for some reason I'm getting a chunk of dough automatically deposited in my checking account (hopefully - this is the first time. Thanks, Debbie!). I've never really understood why I should get paid for not doing any work, but I guess I shouldn't complain. (-:

I had an excellent but rushed dinner (mousakas - see photo) in Igoumenitsa before walking to the New Port, which is well outside the city limits (whose bright idea was that?).



I checked in and the woman told me to go to Gate 7. I went looking, to no avail. I went back to the desk and she said I had to go outside. So I did. Still no Gate 7 (or any gates) in sight. I went back. She gestured at the ground and I repeated that I had to "go down." She agreed, then I ran around the building looking for a staircase or elevator downwards. Nothing. I went back. She told me that the boat hadn't even arrived yet and when it did, it would be docking at the spot along the dock where a "7" is painted on the pavement. No gates in sight. Very frustrating. But the boat finally came (see photo - well, that's actually a different boat, but we can pretend).



I woke up on the floor in the corner of the aft lounge when the bartender turned on the television. It was seven o'clock Greek time and six o'clock Italy time. The sun was just rising (see photo), but my view was through a fogged-up window.



A few hours later, we docked here in Ancona, Italy (see photo). A much different look than Greek or Turkish towns, that's for sure.



I found the laundromat listed in my guidebook and washed my clothes, sitting there in my jogging shorts and raincoat (my least-smeggy things). A shower at the train station (5.16 euros - must've been a precise exchange from lira and they still haven't upped it). And now I'm feeling like a real person again with clean clothes and a clean body. Maybe a nice dinner on an old Italian piazza is what I need now...