Day Four - Taormina - A trip to the beach

Yes, I know I said a day at the beach would kill me.  So guess what I did today? Yep, a day at the beach.  I spoke to Mauro, the guy whose apartment this is and said where can I find a good beach.  Amazingly (not) he had the solution and made a phone call.  He then spent five minutes asking Google something and it was reassuring to see that even in Italian, Google, Siri and Alexa do not listen and still go off and do their own thing.  Finally, he showed me a photo of a beach buggy, yes like the one in Banana Splits and said it would arrive at 8.00am to take me to a lovely beach, which is part of a beach club.  My initial thought was, how much is this going to cost me.  Then I thought as I am spending money hand over fist at home at the moment, what is another thing to pay out for.  I had no fear whatsoever of what was to come and just prepared my lunch and bag and stood waiting for my chariot to arrive.  I do like an adventure!

A woman shouted to me across the road to say her husband would be with me in a minute. This guy then went to the garage and cranked up the beach buggy.  My initial thought was, how the hell am I going to get into this with some dignity!  I popped my beach back in the back and literally climbed in.  I want you to think of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday when she looks so beautiful and stylish on the back of he moped driven by Gregory Peck; now forget it.  It was nothing like that.  The guy was telling me the buggy was built in 1961 and to say it hit every pothole would be an understatement.  We started to descant, weaving down the road in an S shape motion.  Granted, my hair was blowing but I did wonder what the hell was happening. The guy was telling me that the Sicilians want their own Brexit as they are tired of having to import fruit and vegetables from other EU countries, when they grow their own here.  No matter where you go in the world, it always boils down to politics and power (and mainly men in control of the whole mess).  

Much to my amusement we ended up on the car park at the bottom end of the cable car, the exact spot where I was the other day! My driver (I did not get his name) then told me to walk with this other guy (who did not speak any English).  Down another 100+ steps I finally got to the beach.  The guy who was setting up the sun beds said they did not open until 9.00am.  It was now 8.10am!  I mean, really.  Anyway, he seem to take pity on me and took me to a sun bed.  The beach was shingle and course, grey sand.  This is the problem with a volcano erupting every 100 years. You are never going to get a sandy beach.  For the pleasure of this sun bed I would pay the princely sum of €20.  I did over hear (well I couldn't help by overhear to be perfectly honest) a group of women from London saying the sun beds in the next section are €100 a day.  So I guess I got off quite cheaply.  The daunting prospect of spending all day from 8.00am sitting on a sun bed slowly sunk in.  However, I have to say, it did go quick.  The good thing about being on your own is that you can just listen as no one knows where you are from.  I did not sleep well last night at all. I woke at 3.00am with a blocked nose and my sinuses backed. There was also a storm out to sea (I do not do storms).  I had a thick head all of the day and kept thinking, oh no I hope this is not the dreaded Covid.  However, I do not have a temperature or a cough and can still smell everything, so I guess it is just my sinuses.  I sat and dozed for most of the morning.  I did go in to the sea and it was difficult to keep standing up as my feet sunk into the shingle and a couple of times I got battered by a wave.  Not an elegant look.

I had taken my lunch with me so had that then around 1.30pm it clouded over and started to rain.  Well, not rain like we have at home, just the Peter Kay spitting.  I lasted to 2.30pm and thought stuff this I have had enough now.  I made my way back to the cable car and then had to go and buy some more sun screen as I was running low, plus some mosquito repellent as I seem to be a tasty meal for those darlings.  The usual pop in the Coop and the woman who serves me actually recognised me today and smiled and said hello.  She was probably pleased to see me as her bonus will be on the up this week the amount I am spending in there!

Back to the apartment and I laid on the bed and fell asleep again and I am pleased to say after showing I now feel a lot better.  Just the usual evening, you know the routine now.  A walk into the Main Street, a mooch around then back to my apartment as I have an early start tomorrow as I am going to see a volcano!

As always, with my love.

Karen x