We woke up to a sunny day and a totally calm lake this morning. Our host brought breakfast which also included some red and green dyed boiled eggs as it is Orthodox Easter Sunday. His wife had made some delicious little biscuits filled with honey. We sat on the terrace and listened to bird song. The calm was suddenly disturbed by a sharp cracking sound and we looked around to  see that a wooden pergola beside the house had partially collapsed. I had earlier considered having breakfast there but decided the view was better from the terrace. Had we been under it there would have been no harm to us but it was a sharp reminder that you never quite know what's going to fall on your head .

When we were sitting in the car about to leave, our host came running up and presented us with a jar of honey from his mother's bees. The kindness of strangers is always a surprise and a reminder that we live in a world where random acts of kindness can still happen.

The drive south to the Bay of Kotor was beautiful and we arrived at 2 p.m.  We had quite some difficulty finding the house as it was not where booking.com indicated it was. We finally located it after about half an hour of frustrating search. The booking information said that we would be met at the property. We couldn't find anyone and after 45 minutes of wandering around in the heat I tried sending a text. This took so long because I had to top up my NZ One account and  for some reason they refused to recognise my card. On the second attempt it worked and the text was sent.

Not long afterwards we spotted a man on some steps going up to another house. He shouted something which we did not understand but it was obvious he was not in a good mood. He disappeared for a while and then came towards us brandishing his phone. It was the owner if the house. I started by saying that we had no information sent to us to find his house and there were no signs to help us find it.

He then pushed his phone in front of my face with a whatsapp thread open and said "this is how I greet my guests' as he scrolled through multiple exchanges from other guests.
"But I did not have your whatsapp number so I could send nothing to you."

This raised my heckles in two counts.

1. My phone number is shared with Booking.com so he could easily have messaged me on whatsapp

2. All other hosts had sent all their relevant information on the Booking.com message app.

I pointed out that he could easily have messaged me through Booking,Com. He ignored this and repeated again that he did not have my number and Whatsapp had been fine for his 6000 other guests.

I was pretty fed up by his aggressive manner and the frustrating attempts to find him and his house and made the fatal mistake of raising my voice and shouting at him,
'So this is all my fault is it?"

At this point the dam burst and he started to  lecture me heatedy. The tirade went on for quite some time but the summary is;
1. The house we had booked was worth 2 million euros and belonged to his father and he was not allowing anyone to stay in it who was unhappy with him,
2. He allowed guests to use his private beach and sunloungers which anywhere else would cost 100 euros a day.
3. I would give him a Booking.com review rating of 1 out of five
4. I had shouted at him and he was not allowing us to stay in his apartment.
5. He had missed his lunch waiting for us.

I was incredulous, but decided that tactical retreat was called for to calm the situation. I told him that I apologized and hoped he would understand we were tired and frustrated and that communication had been difficult but that we try and start again.

He was have none of it.

" I learn in my life that nobody means apology. The only way you are sorry is if I cancel the reservation."

I reaslised that he was entirely serious. I tried another apology but he was adamant. There was no way we were staying in his apartment. I was tired and dispirited and didn't want to spend any more time being humiliated by a man who had so obviously made his mind up.  I was already running through the implications of having to find another apartment in a nice location on Easter Sunday at 3 p.m in the afternoon.

I said to Gill that any further discussion was a waste of time as the owner was already walking away from us.

At this moment Gill did something truly extraordinary. She marched determinedly after the man, drew herself up to her full height and stared him in the eye.
"Look at me. I'm a woman in her seventies. Aren't you ashamed to leave me with nowhere to sleep tonight." Gill can be quite fearsome when she needs to be.

I was totally gobsmacked, as indeed was our antagonist. I had never thought of playing the Joseph and Mary gambit. It was a stroke of sheer genius. He made a pretence of consulting his phone to avoid answering directly and then suddenly said, "Follow me".

Minutes later we were admitted to the apartment with jaw dropping views from which we had so nearly been banished.


He somewhat awkwardly pointed out all the amenities and then left. Gill and I heaved a huge sigh of relief.

About an hour later there was a knock in the door. It was our host. He was now smiling and as if nothing had happened told us about the best fish restaurant close by and where we might buy groceries if we wanted. We had a friendly and animated conversation in which he told us that he had travelled the world as a sailor and seen many, many, many places.  By the end we were not quite slapping each other on the back but it was hard to believe that earlier in the day we had been at each other's throats.

It's nice to make friends when you travel! It also reminded me of why I married the most amazing woman I have ever met.