Trip to Toarmina
I woke up and dutifully waited in the Lobby for the Captain to show up and the rest of the crew. The best thing about a TDY is that when you get stuck somewhere the crew become your hangout crew, like you default friends, first name basis, just for the time being. Susan Was her name and she looked like a younger version of my aunt Sue, her voice we near identical. So we went over to the NEX and ate some cheap food and rented a car. It seems in Europe it’s all about small cars! Very weird, small weird cars. I had really bad gas and I had to sit up front because the 2 other guys Mark and Rob was scared to drive in front with a woman driving. The roads are very narrow and there are a lot of turns and confusing signs...DUH we don’t know Italian! but honestly you can figure it out fairly easily with a little background in French, or any 2 Latin based languages. The drive was adventurous besides the horrible traffic and me wanting to fart REALLY BAD. the streets are rather trashy and the neighborhoods are kinda run down, cars weave in and out like crazy. We saw one dude try and use the shoulder but got caught; the sirens there sound JUST LIKE THE MOVIES! even the cop cars are the weird small "smart cars" we pulled off a exit early I guess and was driving through a city we thought was Taormina but wasn’t even remotely like it. it was still kinda nice and neat to wonder through it. We were looking for parking and it lead us up and very steep winding path up a cliff. And at the end...Taormina Parking Garage...fucking awesome. We park and I make an excuse to get away from the group and let go a well deserved fart! oh it was so relieving. Look out over the garage and it is a glorious view. We start walking towards the city and it is just one of those CLASSIC Italian towns. We turn into the classic tourist, taking pictures of EVERYTHING at first because we don’t even know what lies ahead, but this door is REALLY COOL! IM GOING TO TAKE A PICTURE! shops galore, I was thinking the whole time that Theresa would have a freaking ball here. I was looking for things for her, but im out of touch with her tastes most of the time. The shops are full of food and jewelry, candy, cloths, sunglasses, and most of all Gelato. BEAUTIFUL DAY! just glorious! the ocean was fantastic! the town was booming with commerce, and the smells and music was great fun. Parks, water fountains, hostels and theaters...everything. There was this really cool looking island that looked like a huge meter fell and hit the earth but just stayed there with debris all around it. It had a house right on top of it, and it was surrounded by the most perfect water I have ever seen. Took lots of pictures from high up over it and down by it. Went to an old Greek theater from anchent times, what surprised me about that is they STILL do plays there, and I would be great to see one there because the beautiful city is right behind it. Went down to the beach and there was no sand just rocks! Big flat rocks, pretty uncomfortable, but I went about shin deep in the Mediterranean Sea. Saw some itailain boobs, because they lay on the beach nude, interesting to witness. I had a Blood orange drink, and despite the flys in it, it was SOOO freaking good. Like a normal orange times 10. Had Gelatos. Had pizza and all sorts of other food which was all very good. I bought a sweater for theresa because if i didnt get something for her id feel really bad. The ride home was full of laughter and talking about europain driving. it was really sweet. What a Great Day in my life.