Chapter 27: Toarmina: Paradise island and a little too much vodka

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Chapter 27

Paradise island and a little too much vodka

The night before meant they didn’t actually get up until 2.00pm. Today was never going to be fruitful. Everything was shut, the medical centre didn’t do vaccines (which they needed to boost) on any other day but Monday. All the travel agencies were shut on Saturday, and even the internet was closed. It was fairly fresh and windy in Toarmina thought the sun was shining so Martin suggested having a lazy day at the beach. There was a beach they hadn’t seen yet, which was desribed as very picturesque and a post card paradise.

Another cable car nightmare for Maya, and a short walk of 132 steps brought them onto a truly scenic beach, with no sand but the surrounding little islands made up for it. They strolled for a while and eventually ended up on sun loungers (free) listening to the waves crashing on the beach. A war of attrition on the pebbles as the high sun shone down upon them. Unfortunately the sun slid behind the hills and took away their warmth forcing them to return back to the town via the cable car. Another moment of anguish for Maya! By the time they reached the top, the internet place had opened up and Martin downloaded the next lot of photos.

They were a little famished by now and found a different pizzeria where they quite literally just had a pizza and wine and left. It had nothing to do with the food or the place, they just didn’t feel like hanging around. They returned to the hostel where it appeared they had acquired some neighbours. A bunch of Italian lads acting like five year olds were making one hell of a racket, though it wasn’t exactly late. Maya wasn’t up for Tiffanys and felt like she needed some time to herself to chill out.

So Martin went off to the place on his own. It was fairly busy and after the obligatory REM and many requests for Queen, he was slowly getting a little tipsy without realising it. He thought rather stupidly that it was time for a change, so he bravely got up and sang Marco Masini’s “Vafanculo” (Screw yourself!) in Italian. The reception this time was a little mixed, top marks for the Italian language proficiency, but the sentiments of the song didn’t exactly go down too well, a polite ripple of applause was enough to suggest he had overstepped the mark. Wanting to redeem himself he went up to put some more songs on, but he was told the Karaoke was finished and the salsa music kicked in.

Martin quietly crawled away, a little subdued and perhaps a little humbled by his linguistic enthusiasm, and most definitely a little drunk. Maya had in the mean time been slowly but surely getting more and more irritated by the Italian lads who even tried the door handle to her room at one point (which she fortunately had locked) Around 2 am the noise finally subsided as the group went out to annoy the locals instead. Martin’s head was slightly spinning and in no time at all was in the land of nod, with his walkman on his head. It had been a very strange ending to their stay in Sicily and in retrospect, perhaps the final return to Tiffanys had somewhat soured the experience. Nonetheless Toarmina had been a joy to behold. Highlight: The beach. Acommodation: OK 50 euros per night.

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