Two nights and 37 hours on a ferry

So the word ferry is really just a technicality. We boarded what we would call an elegant cruise ship. State of the art, first-class service with valance lights and all. And yet, we found out that, without a cabin key, we can´t really enjoy its amenities.

Sleeping in the hallways is regulated on this guy, too fine and fancy to let the wild 3rd class run free, right?

We actually weren´t allowed to take luggage through any of the eating areas, the cafe, or the casino. Well, when you don´t have a room to stick your stuff, that makes things a little complicated, no?

We staked out a spot on the deck, under the open sky, which we eventually ended up moving to a spot under the rooftop when we found out that we were getting soaked by humidity. (During the night, water collected only on the uncovered portion of the ferry). Furthermore, I kept waking up because the wind was blowing my covers away - and by covers, I mean my rain jacket and tiny bath towel.

But finding a spot was hilarious. Not because of anything we did, but because we were obviously amateurs at this whole overnight ferry thing. People literally set up tents on deck, others blew up air mattresses and took out bed sheets, and some did both. Other brought pool floaties to sleep on, and then there was an abundance of sleeping bags.
And we all just lined up, one by one, and lay down next to each other. Some gathered chairs around their sleeping area so they could sit the next day. We could not believe it.
Some hung up their towels and clothes on clotheslines on the ferry too. Man oh man.

I spread out my tiny little airplane blanket and my even smaller bath towel on the floor of the deck and layed down, spreading my raincoat over myself as a cover. My backpack became my pillow, along with a couple of clothing items I pulled out of it. Good times.

The boat docked the next morning somewhere before continuing to Venice, and people poured onto the deck. It was pretty crowded before, but I could not believe the number of people that boarded. And we packed in like sardines. There were sleeping bodies everywhere - just everywhere. It´s a sight like I´ve never seen before. Families, couples, groups of friends, anyone and everyone. Why didn´t anyone write about this in our European travel guides?

During the full day on board, people tanned, they swam, they ate, they drank, they played cards, they read, and so many just slept through the sunlight.

We grabbed our valuables and toted them with us, hoping our clothes would be okay sitting on the deck. We wanted to eat, and that was the only way to do it unless we wanted to each eat solo.

We had lunch in the nice restaurant, and dinner in the self service. Amazingly enough, we spent the same amount of money at each meal. Between lunch and dinner, we layed out and read, and after dinner we drank excellent coffee drinks and lost ourselves in literature for about an hour in the cafe. And then we went back out to our sleeping quarters and fell asleep soon enough. So it was a pretty leisurely day.

The next morning, I woke up around 6 am, just in time to see the sun rise off of the coast of Italy. It was incredible. I will not forget the beauty of that morning, regardless of the fact that I had sleep two nights on the dirty concrete deck with sweaty bodies sprawled out everywhere.
I wouldn´t trade the experience for anything.

We watched our arrival in Venice from the ferry window, backpacks mounted on our poor backs. It was the last city on our trip.