Wednesday, August 17, 2016

 

Hidden treasures of Sussex: a walk down the River Ouse


Despite being Sussex born and bred, I’ll readily admit that there are parts of our county where I’ve never set foot. So, armed with an OS map and a picnic, I walked the River Ouse from Lewes to Newhaven one sunny Sunday. The whole walk is about 8 miles long including the detour via Rodmell and Southease, and took me four hours including stopping for a pint and lunch.

Getting slightly waylaid by the ruins of Lewes Priory, I made my way via the delightfully-named Cockshut Road to the Ouse, and then turned south along the riverbank. The A27 veers away from the river toward Beddingham Junction, reducing the roar of the traffic to a background hum, the soundscape now one of birdsong, the buzz of insects and the rustle of the breeze through grass.

There’s no bridge until Southease, so to get to Rodmell without doubling back you need to be on the western bank of the river, offering panoramic views toward the cliffs at Lewes, Mount Caburn and along the valley. When Northerners may scoff that “those aren’t proper hills!” they’re missing the point: while they may not be spectacular, the roll of the Downs and the overlap of the green and golden hills have to be some of Britain’s most beautiful sights.


After an hour or so the path to Rodmell peels off to the right, with the track passing Monk’s House and leading up to the main road where you’ll find the Abergavenny Arms. I had an excellent pint of Harvey’s in the garden and walked ¾ of a mile down the road to Southease.

This is a nasty bit of road with a 50mph limit and pedestrian-unfriendly, so it was a relief to return to the footpath which leads into the tiny village of Southease. It’s an idyllic scene with historic houses and a Norman church with an unusual circular tower, wooden beamed roof and the faint fragments of 13th century wall paintings.


After my picnic in the churchyard I walked on to rejoin the Ouse, where there’s also a well-used cycle track. After a couple of miles the riverside path directs you back to the road - another unpleasant stretch with cars bearing down on you until you reach Piddinghoe village. This is another charming village with a second Norman church with a circular tower, and an unusual house converted from a kiln.



Back to the river and not long now to Newhaven past the incinerator and marina toward the mouth of the river. The bridge leading to the railway station is tantalisingly near, but it takes a further frustrating 15 minutes to negotiate your way out of the dockyard, and round the pedestrian-hostile road system to the station, where you’ll find neither a decent pub nor a train at the time of writing, thanks to Southern Rail’s cancellation of the service with a rail replacement bus back to Lewes.


It’s a lovely walk apart from the two short stretches with traffic and as it’s flat it’s an easy one. If, like me, you’ve never actually stopped off to explore the villages along the route, prepare to be wowed by the hidden treasures Sussex has to offer.

 Other loosely related blog posts (VERY loosely related!):

 A Visit to Dungeness Sound Mirrors

 Brighton to Albania by Train

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# posted by Melita Dennett @ 10:10 am 0 comments

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

 

‘DIY - how to be heard above the media noise’ - a talk at Student Media Conference at the University of Brighton Students Union
I was invited to speak at a Student Media Conference at the University of Brighton Students Union in November 2015. Here's a copy of my talk entitled ‘DIY - how to be heard above the media noise’ and in it I look at how should students gain media experience and make their mark in a crowded arena and ask when should you work for free and when should you say “no”?
I’d be interested in the opinions of any other freelancers too.

Should you work for free? Probably not.

Back in the olden days, if you had something to say to the world, you found a typewriter and spent hours in the photocopying shop, then slaved over a hot stapling machine before trying to foist your words of wisdom on a frankly disinterested public.
If you were a photographer without access to a darkroom, you took your film down to Boots to collect a week later, or if you wanted to save 50p, you sent it off for development and waited two weeks, eagerly opened the envelope, admired your blurry shots, shoved them back in the envelope and stuck them in the shoe box under the bed.
Today everyone has the equivalent of that shoebox or the photocopied manifesto except now they’re pretty much all online and nobody seems content to leave them gathering the digital equivalent of dust that so many of them frankly richly deserve.
So - I’m going to take a look at how to get yourself heard above the noise in a crowded marketplace of people shouting “Me me me! Look at me!” all the time. I’m also going to look a bit at the vexed question of how much free work is too much, and when to say no.
We don’t just have a digital footprint these days, we have bloody great size nines. And if a potential employer follows your footsteps, what are they going to find? So I also want to look at some ways to make yourselves more employable and how to avoid those digital bootprints leading to a disaster.
Let’s be honest - there aren’t all that many jobs now. Many traditional journalistic jobs have been eroded or cut altogether. But there are still jobs - they may just be slightly sidelong and you may need to think a bit laterally.
So these are the days of DIY. At the risk of sounding a bit wanky, if you’re aiming to get seen, you have to create something that some might call a “brand”. (OK, sorry, it does sound a bit wanky).
When you’re starting off, your online presence is the first place a potential hirer or employer will go to see where you’re at. Those pictures of you at a brothel with a madam and some lines of coke chopped out on the table will come back to haunt you (hello George Osborne!). So it may be a damage limitation game, or you may be starting with a fresh sheet.
You now have a multitude of tools at your disposal which are pertinent to your chosen media path. And what’s even better, they are all free. So no more photocopying bills, no more visits to Boots’ developing department. But using those tools well and to maximum impact is a different matter.
The first place people usually think of as their profile is Facebook. This can be your major disaster zone. This is the place with pictures of you with your pants round your ankles, drooling comatose at a festival, or sitting in a brothel with a line of coke in front of you. Potential employers WILL look you up on Facebook.


So - if you’re on Facebook, but your professional image is tarnished, to put it mildly, make sure it’s locked down. Facebook is a sneaky shit and keeps changing the privacy settings, so check regularly that your profile is kept to friends only - not friends of friends - do you know who your friends’ “friends” are?. Come to that, do you know who your “friends” are? And please don’t make your profile pic one of you smoking a fat one because that will be publicly visible.
If your personal Facebook is potentially embarrassing or damaging, consider changing your profile name too.
Same goes for email. If your email is blowjob69 @ gmail.com, set up one in your own name that you use for your professional work. Don’t use your Uni email either address unless you plan to be here forever.
I’ll come on to the more specialist sites in a bit.


Twitter is the next obvious one. Again, a Twitter handle that reflects something meaningful about what you want to pursue, or just recognisably with your name. And again, if your Twitter name and feed is toxic, close it or separate it off from your public identity to potential employers.
So what does your Twitter feed say about you? Does it give a coherent Impression of someone who is credible, informed, engaged in their subject areas and ultimately trustworthy?
Do not ever re-tweet something without being 100% convinced of its provenance. Read articles before you share and don’t fall into the trap of knee jerk re tweeting images unless you’re absolutely sure they are what they appear to be.
Here’s a recent example. On the night of the Paris attacks, a guy in New York called Rurik Bradbury Tweeted a picture of the Eiffel Tower in darkness under his spoof Twitter account, “Prof Jeff jarvis” saying “Wow. Lights off on the Eiffel Tower for the first time since 1889.” Putting aside the ethical question of deliberately spreading misinformation, you only need to think for a bit to wonder if the lights have been on 24/7 on the Eiffel Tower through two world wars and really all night long since 1889? Despite that, thirty thousand or so people re-tweeted it.
Or equally people sharing racist memes on Facebook and Twitter - always check emotive images with Google image search and even if it is credible, ask yourself what you achieve by sharing.
Follow key people in your chosen subject field. Do not expect them to follow you back as Twitter is not a numbers game - it should be about quality.
But Twitter is probably your most powerful publicity tool at the moment to show you’re creating engaging content, re-Tweeting relevant info to your followers and having useful conversations.
Now we get onto the specialist sites, according to what your chosen field is. It’s not unusual to have five or six or more sharing sites such as Instagram, Youtube, Mixcloud, Wordpress, Pinterest etc.
But - you need to make a judgment call about what are the best sites for you. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to scatter their content thinly over severals sites in the hope it’ll make you look like you’re more interesting or engaged.
Having current content is everything. If you’ve got a Youtube site with two scrappy videos on that you made a year ago, it’s not really going to back up your claim that you’re a film maker.


You’re not a blogger if your blog consists solely of “Hi” I’ve set up a blog site! Watch this space! Coming soon” and that’s the first and last thing you’ve posted.
Equally you’re not a podcaster if your site hasn’t been updated for three months.
There is no excuse with technology now not to be creating content all the time, which you put up on your own showcase sites - videos, blogs, photos, podcasts. Brighton is a rich source of content and people with opinions about everything.
So concentrate on a narrow number of relevant media platforms which you keep updated with fresh content, show you off to your best advantage and keep your profile focused on what you say you’re about. No employer really wants to hire a Jack of all Trades; they’d prefer an Ace of one or two.
Keep an eye on what’s current and where your chosen industry is going. For example, Vimeo is seen as more professional and less cheesy that Youtube, but has nowhere near the same number of contributors.
Pro photographers tended to use Flickr but then Instagram came along, which may or may not have divided pros from people posting up snaps.
And as an aside, did anyone sign up for Ello which was supposed to rival Facebook?


Definitely join LinkedIn when you have something to say. More about that later.
Get involved in everything.
And I mean everything connected to your course and to what’s going on around you at Uni, whether you’re studying in Brighton or in Hastings. You’ve got a great opportunity here to try things out so roll up your sleeves and do it: not only media but clubs and societies, talks, events, and don’t forget they are all opportunities to create content - interviews, videos, blogs, pictures, all there on a plate.
I heard a great quote once which has stayed with me: “Be a wanna-do, not a wannabe”.
All specialist industries are very small and reputations go round. You MUST have something provable to back up your claims - if you say you're a flim maker you need to have a convincing online portfolio. If you claim you’re a print journalist, have a blog of current writing; even if it’s not a published piece, a blog will illustrate what you’re capable of.
Brighton is full of bullshitters “getting it together”. Everyone’s an artist, musician, DJ, blah blah blah - to which the answer is “Well when you’ve got it together, let me know.” Don’t be one of them.
You have access to platforms here: radio, TV, online journalism. Use them. Having the discipline of a weekly or monthly deadline can be very helpful and they give you regular demonstrable content - for example a weekly article or a monthly podcast which proves you can do it.


I produce a weekly speech show on RadioReverb which I hold on my podcast site and of course Tweet and Facebook about it in advance (and don’t forget your guests will also do your publicity for you) then again when the podcast is up, so I’ve always got that and a weekly BBC Introducing show which is current online.
If you need extra experience then look to the outside world. But you have to match what you say you can do with what you actually do. If you want to work in radio then get involved with hospital radio too for six months. It may not be your passion but it offers lots of opportunities to increase your skills base.
Volunteer. The importance of volunteering for your CV and life development skills can’t be stressed enough. it’ll boost your skills set, get you better known and trusted and enhance your media career as someone who is known to be trusted.
Don’t forget the world around you is filled with stories. Every person you meet has a story to tell. Some of the best stories I get are from people I meet in the pub, at events or via involvement in activities outside my sphere or work.
i do a lot of voluntary work because I enjoy it, it’s of benefit to the people it serves, it’s got me networked into the local community, it gives me opportunities to increase my skills and knowledge base and I get loads of gigs and events for free. But doing it just because you get stuff for free is absolutely the wrong reason - and you’ll soon get found out.
But here’s the other side of the coin - how much do you work for nothing?


Good question. I’ve worked for years in a mixture of paid and unpaid work, and I always saw the unpaid work as beneficial in a number of ways:
Ask yourself - will it boost my skills base - is it a chance to try out something new, learn from it, see if I’m good at it? Will it get me contacts or improve my reputation? Do I enjoy it or believe in it as a cause?
You will constantly be pestered for free work in exchange for something vague called “exposure”. They will say “Of course if you don’t do it, someone else will.”
I would say NEVER work for nothing for a commercial venture if the best that people can offer you is “exposure”. Unless you know there are going to be several thousand people watching, reading or listening, tell them keep their exposure - you can do it just as well yourself, unless you are satisfied that it meets the criteria I’ve just mentioned.
My rule of thumb is to set a rate for your work. This is a bit like how long is a piece of string - what are the local going rates and how much are your skills realistically worth? You’ll need to research the local and national market for this, but do not undervalue your skills.
Using this, you can set a notional rate for any unpaid work. Of course you MUST deliver whether it’s paid or not but decide how much you’re going to do, and tell the person who’s asking you to work.
For example, you may say “My rate for a 300 word article is £50. I will do three for you as a gift and after that I need to be paid.” You will need some resolve in this but it’s always advisable to set limits and you can always review them. Don’t forget with any commercial organisation the favour is more likely to be you doing it for them rather than the other way around.
Networking is something that scares the pants off many people but it’s vitally important. Your face to face interactions with people are your way to sell your personality and skills.
But - be truthful. Be able to back up what you say you can do with what you can prove you do. This is where your online portfolio comes back. As soon as your back’s turned, someone you meet at an event may well be looking you up online. Does what they see there stack up against the glowing report you gave of yourself?
Becoming a familiar face is just part of it - I can think of people who go to everything but do nothing; you have to do it too.
Join or network in a professional organisation where relevant. If you’re serious, I’d recommend you join the National Union of Journalists - it’s £30 for the duration of your course and you get a press card, advice, opportunities for training, conferences and so on.


Research your chosen medium. What’s the word count for an Argus article? Will BBC Sussex take your 30 minute documentary or welcome a proposal for a heavy rock show (at the moment, no for either of those). So target appropriately and gear your work toward the house style and audience of each media outlet.
So what are employers looking for? Someone who can do the job they say they’re going to do. Your online presence is your CV. They want to work with someone who fits in - again you need to create the online image you want to project, backed up by content.


Reliability and professionalism - delivering the goods - that starts at day one. If you’re assigned to write an article for Hastings and St Leonards Herald which needs to be in by 3pm tomorrow you get it in. I can’t call up the boss at the radio station and say, “Oh sorry, I couldn’t get the programme together this week, maybe next week…” and expect them to be fine about that.
One final recommendation I’d make is to join LinkedIn. It’s the place where you meet other professionals working in your areas of interest. It’s the place where you hold an online CV that makes you look like a serious candidate for the job you yet don’t know exists. Make sure your profile accurately reflects your chosen career path and isn’t too scattershot.


I know people working in radio and they’ve also added television, blogging, social media, copywriting etc etc and I think - really? - I’ve never been aware you’ve done that? Only add the skills you can convincingly actually demonstrate you have.
Don’t forget all these tools are free. Using them well is challenging but you can do it with care, thought and time. You now have a more powerful armoury of journalistic weapons than at any time before in history. A camera and recorder in your pocket, global platforms for your work, access to resources here, a million and one  great stories all around you - use them well and you’ll succeed.

There are no excuses - seize control of the means of production and go and do it.

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# posted by Melita Dennett @ 9:18 am 4 comments

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

 

Brighton to Albania by Train, Days 1-5 Dijon - Geneva - Turin - Bologna - Bari


Day 1 Eurostar - Paris - Dijon

Weds 3rd June


You can’t beat train travel. Sure, it’s slower and waaay more expensive than flying, but the stress levels are lower, there’s no hanging around at carousels when your bag is invariably the last to be spat out onto the conveyor belt, it’s friendlier and you have the experience of the shifts in landscape, architecture and people.

Another part of train travel that I love is the planning involved: how long it will take to reach a destination in time to camp down in the hotel then go out to explore, changing trains and planning an arrival over days rather than hours.

I planned to travel to Albania over six days, stopping in France, Switzerland and Italy, followed by a ferry to Albania, then a week in the capital, Tirana and on by bus to Montenegro and Croatia, flying back from Dubrovnik (OK, I cheated in that last bit by flying back).

Cinema, Dijon
And it was farewell to the miserable English summer with the joys of the Eurostar to Paris. An efficient Metro change from Gare Du Nord to Gare de Lyon in 20 minutes then two and a half hours down to Dijon, with a curious arrangement of allocating seating for all the people with reservations next to each other, while the rest of the carriage was empty. Maybe they thought we'd all become jolly good travelling companions, rather than juggling elbow room and being careful not to encroach further than your "own" quarter of the table.
To see more pictures go to my Flickr site.


Creepy in Dijon
Hotel le Jacquemart is proper old-school French: a 17th-century building with rickety wooden stairs, threadbare carpets and a room in the garret up three flights with a shared loo and shower, but it was great - location and price both perfect, in the heart of the old town with a view over the rooftops.

The Beaux-Arts Museum in the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy dominates the Place de a Liberation, a semi-circular open space in front of the town hall, and I found a great people-watching eaterie just off the beaten track where a carafe of red wine went down a treat and I bonded with the righteously stroppy waitress over the rude behaviour of two Italian diners.


Day 2 Dijon - Geneva

Thursday 4th


Up early and out to the market to stock up on lunch, and parked down at the market coffee stall with an espresso admiring the lush array of produce on offer. Why are British markets so poor quality? The strawberries were carefully individually arranged, there were huge tasty beef toms, fantastic fresh veg, the sweetest cherries, seafood and cheeses, and all at a good price.

Beaux-Arts

I had plenty of time for a visit to the Beaux-Arts although it took me about 15 minutes to find the right entrance. Although it’s free, you can’t just go in any old where as you will be shooed back, but finding the correct door proved a bit of a challenge. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting  on the ground floor which is largely 17th and 18th-century monstrosities of flabby cherubs, naked musclemen adorned by wisps of gauze, the endless rape of Sabine women in overwrought gilded frames, the saving graces being the medieval works including fascinating portraits of the Dukes of Burgundy. It wasn’t til I got to the top floor that I found the far more interesting 20th century works but bizarrely it was chucking out time at 11.37am which was a little mysterious.

Train delays meant I missed my connection in Lausanne on the way to Geneva though I only arrived 45 minutes later than intended. I must remember never to trust Google maps (I always seem to forget this) as I fannied around for ages outside Geneva station trying to find the street of the hotel, only to find Google maps had the name wrong.

“Hotel” Gervais is actually more like a hostel than a hotel: very basic, cheaply furnished small room with shared loo and shower (that’s fine) but plagued by the sound of air conditioning units across the street and the rattle and clang of trams at the nearby main road, but as it was so hot the windows had to stay open.
Geneva station

Strolled up Lake Geneva in the 33 degree heat to the water spout and up the jetty where you are finely sprayed when the light wind changes direction, which was welcome in the heat. The one bonus of the hotel was a free transport ticket so I hopped on a bus up to the gardens which were cool, tranquil and beautiful with tall pines, water features and shaded pathways.

Checked out some eating places which were wildly expensive and was beginning to despair of finding anything other than bars where the entire clientele looked like they'd walked out the pages of American Psycho, all shiny suits, shoulder pads and designer handbags.
Water spout

However, experience dictates that backs of stations are often a good bet to explore for the more rough-and-ready end of life, and I struck lucky. Place Des Grottes is a rowdy crowded square where everyone was enthusiastically drinking and eating local cheese and meats from huge sharing platters, happily sitting in the road and being served wine from barrels. You could never imagine such a scene in Britain other than it being accompanied by the watchful eyes of police and moaning neighbours. I had a glass of wine, paid in Euros, received change back in Swiss Francs and thought I was being ripped off for not getting Euros. Whoops. I felt such a berk not to be aware that Switzerland’s not in the Euro!

After the food and drink vendors packed up and the square cleared, 
I followed my nose and came upon my holy grail of drinking: 
La Galerie is the perfect old men's bar where geezers argued loudly with wild gesticulations and knocked each other's drinks over, one appeared in army fatigues and bellowed 'vive la revolution!' at every lull in the conversation, and another shirtless man bore a Kalashnikov tattooed diagonally across his back. It was like a more extreme version of Brighton's Evening Star, except with biere Blanche and an evening hot enough to sit outside.

Day 3 Geneva - Turin

Friday 5th


Hopped on a tram and spent the morning exploring Geneva old town, then took a lunchtime train to Turin. I’d chosen to stop in Geneva for the spectacular views on the train line down to Italy and they didn’t disappoint. Past lakes, through snow-capped mountains and lush green valleys with a great collapsing warehouse on the riverside at Bellegarde, on a slightly more convoluted journey than I’d originally planned, changing via Chambery and Oulx, arriving at Turin Porta Nueva late afternoon.

Walked the bank of the Po in Turin which lives up to its name aromatically. And is there any city in Italy which doesn't have swathes of town planning and architecture designed to glorify Mussolini? The restaurants along the Piazza Vittorio Veneto are touristically priced so I cut into a side street and came upon a quiet square with tables sheltered under broad trees and enjoyed a triple shot of Campari with a prosecco top up which set me up rather nicely. Feeling very smug about speaking pidgin Italian, which I'd picked up from three weeks reading a teach yourself book, but the basics seemed to work well enough.
For a full picture set, go to my Flickr site

Candle lit demo
Needless to say there followed an evening of bar hopping, taking in Bar Blah, a lively rock bar, then in a darkened back street chancing upon a semi-derelict warehouse with a dance floor and a group of Angolan capoeira performers, encountering a loud and lively street demo of candle-holding marchers protesting about what appeared to be education cuts and ending at a likely-looking bar with an array of dozens of beers in the fridge where you simply helped yourself and paid at the counter. Most of the clientele were students, all drinking out in the street, but nobody pinched any drinks, nobody acted like an arse, and nobody called the police to complain about the noise. Yet another refreshing change to the drinking environment we’re used to. Guess our lack of tradition of street culture means nobody knows how to do it properly. That and the curse of Fosters and vodka with Red Bull.

Bologna by night

Day 4 Turin - Bologna

Saturday 6th

Breakfast of double espresso and freshly squeezed orange juice at a pavement cafe then hopped on a tram (trams are so civilised!) to Piazza San Giovanni with a terrific exhibition of Tamara de Lempicka at the Palazzo Chiablese, contextualised by extensive photos and film.

Quick beer - a molto piccolo of 2cl with a somewhat “generous” head hence very quick indeed - then failed in my plan to pick up the No.7 historic tram which trundles through the gardens and down to Porta Susa station. I waited almost an hour getting irritable at the tram stop just to find it was re-routed so I huffily walked instead. A temperature sign informed me it was 40 degrees so that called for another beer by the station.

Dull train ride through semi-industrial hinterlands of sheds and suburbs, but arriving in Bologna was a delight. I was welcomed effusively by the host at the place I was staying, AB Studios, which I was delighted to find  was decorated like a tart’s boudoir and just two minutes’ walk to the Old Town.

Le Stanze
Colonnade, Bologna
I loved Bologna - definitely a must to come back and spend more time exploring its twisty back streets, historic colonnades, tiny bars and very lively atmosphere. Thanks to a tip from a friend I went to Le Stanze, a church-like bar with walls painted to look like frescoes. The aperitivo buffet is a staple feature of early evening life, where you pay a Euro and help yourself, though to my eyes there wasn’t a Euro's worth of anything veggie there anyway. Next stop a lively pizzeria in a buzzing square where I had a most curious “white pizza” - essentially a pizza base with salad chucked on it. The added “piquante” sauce I liberally splashed around was a bit of an error though, as combined with the heat of the evening, it left my head sweating profusely. 


Backstreet Bologna
What are the chances of bumping into people from Hurstpierpoint and also finding you have a mutual acquaintance though? After a very pleasant conversation and exchange of Facebook contacts I went for a wander to see the leaning tower of Bologna and found half a bottle of Bacardi special reserve in the street (who mentioned hepatitis? Fie!) So that was nice.

 Street life in Bologna is lively, to say the least: hundreds of people gathered in the square, chatting, drinking, playing music, a couple of cops hanging around nonchalantly but nobody causing trouble, being moved on or complaining about the noise. The old town is car-free at weekends too apparently, so I must return as there’s definitely much more to experience.












Day 5 Bologna - Bari

Sunday 7th


 Sunday was a leisurely morning spent wandering down to the station for  a seven hour journey to Bari on the east coast and an overnight ferry to Albania. The carriage was almost unbearably sweltering. I fell into conversation with another passenger, Terezia, and when the guard announced that there were actually some air-conditioned carriages, we ensconced ourselves in a cool compartment for the remainder of the journey, managing to make myself understood reasonably well in Italian, combined with plentiful hand gestures.

Terrific journey trundling down the Adriatic coast, and one of the real pleasures of train travel as the scenery and architecture changes. Bari is on the “heel” of Italy, and consists of little more than the port and a bus depot, though actually getting to the ferry seems an unnecessarily complicated process.
Bari port

You have to take the 20/ bus - the “/” is important as the plain old No.20 goes somewhere altogether different - then I made the mistake of getting off somewhere looking remarkably port-like with a couple of other people, just to find it closed (OK, I should have asked) and then had to walk fifteen minutes to the pedestrian terminal, the wheels on my suitcase now decidedly wonky after the beating of the past few days on hot cobbles.

Once at the terminal a minibus appears to take you to yet another terminal, where you convert your paper ticket into a proper one. I asked the woman in the kiosk where to go next and she waved a vague hand toward the road. I waited thirty minutes not knowing exactly what I should be looking for, asked again where I should go, and this time she directed me back to the minibuses which then take you back to the place they initially picked you up, which turned out to be the actual ferry terminal. Quite why it involves so much to-ing and fro-ing is a bit of a mystery.
Ferry 'cross the Adriatic
Anyway, I was finally ensconced on the ferry and had a “luxury” room with a loo and shower, which was very welcome after the long train journey.

I appeared to be the only non-Albanian on board, with families camped down on blankets in the stairways, truck drivers snoozing in chairs in the bar and men smoking furiously on deck while the women stayed inside guarding bags and children. 

Next post: Albania

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# posted by Melita Dennett @ 1:28 am 1 comments

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