Day 117 - 29th August, Saturday - Dubrovnik to Bari.

We were packing up to get going and had a couple more visitors to ‘Bee’s Book Exchange’, and have ended up with about 5 new books which should get us through the ferry crossings ok.
Spent the morning visiting the beautiful old town of Dubrovnik which made a really nice end to our two week tour of the country. Definitely coming back some day. Had lunch near the ferry port and that’s when the irritations began…
Firstly my meal was stone cold and had to be sent back (which I hate doing), then the children on the table of Italians in the back room started screaming at each other and their parents, who just ignored them, so they started running around… we paid and left.
We were guided into one of 7 lanes to board the ferry and then walked over to the supermarket to spend the last of our Croatian Kunas (and take advantage of their aircon). We returned to board an hour later and discovered that all 7 lanes converged into 2 with no supervision whatsoever… with 80% of the traffic being Italians, you can imagine what happened. I could visibly see steam coming out of Ants ears by the time we reached the boat – only to be told that no passengers are allowed to be in the vehicle when it drives onto the boat, only the driver. Everyone else must walk on board (through the same garage deck entrance I might add!?) So the dockside was chaos, kids, buggys, prams and passengers everywhere. We eventually got on board and found each other again, then spent until sundown out on the deck reading. Next we decided to go into the canteen for something to eat; got a tray each of food and wandered the restaurant seating area for a table. All of them were filled with people.. not eating, but playing cards, sleeping or reading. Eventually we found a table with three chairs, no people, but someone’s belongings spread on the chairs. I moved all the items onto 2 of the chairs and sat on the third. Ant pulled another chair from another table for himself and then disappeared to get some drinks. Whilst he was gone, the owners of the bags returned, a mid thirties couple and an old man. The younger guy started on me first, hollering something or other in my face, before leaning over my dinner plate and slamming his tray down opposite Ants empty seat. His girlfriend then sat down opposite me and the old man decided it was his turn to have a go. When the girlfriend realised I wasn’t going anywhere, she shushed her old man and pushed him away from me. Ant returned with the drinks and sat down. All went silent whilst we ate. I am now thankful I don’t speak Italian – the guy would have got more than the pitiful glare I gave him and I would probably have been injured. Instead, I kept my cool, ate my food, apologised for the situation and explained that we would be gone once we’d finished eating. When we did leave, I got a lowered head and hands-on-heart gesture from the guy and an offer of the table, but not the chairs, from the woman. Bloody Italians, can stick their table where they talk from.