I’ve been sucked up by Christmas holidays plus a trip to my dear darling Glasgow, where I like to return from time to time. But now I’m back on the islands...

where we’re having the craziest weather spells: freezing cold days even with hints of snow; mild temperatures with subsequent summer-like thunderstorms; violent downpours of hail; glorious sunshine…you name it. There’s not getting bored!

But I wanted to tell you about my adventure on the ferry.

23 December: time to go and spend time with family over Christmas. I was about to book the helicopter to Foggia when a friend of mine here told me she would be taking the ferry to Termoli, and then the train down to the same stop I would be getting off. So I thought: why not do the journey together? so I did: booked the train, and off I went by ferry.

We left the port of San Domino at 4.30pm together with around 20 more people, and were scheduled to arrive in Termoli around 6pm tops.

Haha.

Around 6pm we were told that we were stuck outside the port, 2 sea miles away from Termoli, and couldn’t advance or retreat due to…fog. I mean, fog is just one of those things the south of Italy never, ever gets! and yet…there we were, unable to move, with fishing boats preceding us apparently stuck 7 metres away and unable to see the edge of the harbour. From the ferry we couldn’t even see the lights of the city, the fog was so thick.

We couldn’t go back: all we could do was wait for the fog to lift. And we waited…we waited…we waited… So much for the train my friend and I had booked!

By 8pm people were getting hungry and rather upset, so the staff on the ferry opened a few panettoni and distributed them to us for some festive cheer.

The last available train my friend and I could catch was just before 10pm, and we eventually figured even that was gone. By 10 they told us from the bar that we could take what we wanted free of charge, so at least we were all well fed.

I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea of sleeping on the ferry: I rolled my coat up to make a pillow, and was unable really to feel aggravated by the whole situation. It was really nobody’s fault: just a nuisance, but nothing anyone could help. If we were stuck out there it was for our own safety, so…whatever. I had my book, my computer, I even had pyjamas if I wanted! and I was with friends, so we were in this together.

We finally managed to disembark when it was gone 11pm! my friend and I headed to the Hotel Corona, which is conveniently located opposite the train station and is fairly used to hosting people from Tremiti when these kinds of mishaps come about; we had a nice sleep before getting on the train at 8am, just in time to finish our Christmas purchases for New Year’s Eve.

Oh, and on the left is a disheartened me on the ferry, and on the right is a happy me crashing on the hotel bed.

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