CRUISE VIGNETTES 56, Ferry Boats

FROM PESCARA TO SPLIT
At Pescara, Italy I was required, or permitted, to stand, push, and jostle in line, jam-packed together from “tosies” to “nosies” (Where is Gina Lollobridgia when she is needed most!), to buy a ticket for the ferry to Split, Yugoslavia. I got the impression some of these Italians weren’t going anywhere, they just liked to “participate” in this kind of line! What a mess. No one was pushy or unhappy if someone got ahead of them, or behind them, or next to them, or perhaps on top of them, everyone just pushed and pulled until they had a chance to buy a ferryboat ticket to Split. What fun!

We paid for a reserved seat, but found that would not have been necessary. The reserved seats weren’t much better than the free ones, and the food we bought in the ship’s cafeteria, wasn’t worth the effort either.

There were doors on both sides of the ship near the stern (back) of the ship. Vehicles drove in the door, made an immediate right turn and drove (several lanes wide) to the front of the ship, followed a U-turn at the bow and continued along the other side towards the back where the other door was located, with each car stopping just behind the one it was following. At least there was no huge door at the front of the ship, that could let the water in, if there was an accident.

Since we were in a vehicle larger than a car, we were directed into a separate line, and were about the last vehicle to load. We just drove straight in the door on one side of the ship, parked, ready to just drive out the other door when we reached Split, Yugoslavia about 9:00 o’clock that night.

Our Journal says: “When we first got on the ship, they let us know we were to get to our vehicle before the ship arrived in Yugoslavia, since we had to be about the first vehicle to get off. These Italians! As we neared Yugoslavia, everyone crowded into the stair wells, and ignored requests by the crew to clear the way. We had to actually step on people to get to our camper. These people can’t get off the ship until our camper leaves, but that didn’t mean a thing to them. In other countries, Denmark and Sweden for example, there would have been no problem, but on an Italian ferryboat everyone pushed and shoved and got nowhere, slowly. It’s a little dangerous under these non-emergency circumstances, but can you imagine a crisis situation.”