RHODES part 2

We woke to see a fabulous view across the harbour by simply craning our necks out of the window. It was hot and I realised I'd forgotten a hat. My first job was to buy one. At this point I must explain that my husband hates shopping. The fiasco over the luggage allowance meant we couldn't actually buy anything on the holiday in case we tipped the scales. So I was feeling a bit hard done by. Looking on the bright side, however, a hat is light, and I needed one. So to kickstart the holiday Nick and I parted company and I ventured into the lower part of the old town on my own whilst he wandered off to look at the boats in the harbour.
To my delight I found an area with lots of shops selling hats - there were floppy ones, blue ones, pink ones, green ones, brown ones, spotty ones, stripy ones, crocheted ones, straw ones, big ones, little ones, expensive ones and cheap ones. I hadn't been there more than five minutes when in my excitement to try out one of these brightly coloured hats, I found myself literally flying through the air. The ground had vanished beneath me and I landed in a heap with several Greek shop owners peering down at me in shocked silence.
My knee stung and my ankle felt weird. A Greek shopkeeper who spoke good English helped me to my feet and offered me a stool to sit on outside her shop. I was so embarrassed and realised to my own stupidity, I'd missed a step. But when I looked more closely, I noticed there was no white line or anything to indicate it was there. Perhaps I wasn't so stupid after all. Perhaps the lady who so readily brought me a stool was doing this all the time for the poor old tourists who fell over. She even produced a glass of water and some antiseptic wipes for my knee, which I now saw was bleeding. Oh dear, all I could do was sit there feeling foolish and then I spotted my husband. He was very surprised to find me in such a state, and clinging to him, I hobbled away after thanking the shopkeeper for her kindness.
Really we should have gone back to the hotel, but my mission was not yet accomplished and twenty minutes later, I was the proud owner of a snazzy pink and white hat. Not only that I gallantly walked with my husband to the top of the old town, which was quite beautiful and well worth the hobble. And there were so many shops. It was heaven. We found a taverna down a side-street and ate overlooking the sea, almost. Just a little more neck craning required. What I did notice during our trek through the old town was that there were several people sporting plaster casts on their arms or legs and it did make we wonder if those wretched steps at the bottom of the town were to blame.
On the way back to the hotel we found what must be the biggest umbrella shop in the world. I hoped it wasn't a bad omen. It filled the whole side of the street and was full of incredible umbrellas, the sheer volume was awesome. But if for some unthinkable reason I got bored, I could cross the road and look in the umbrella shops opposite. It was umbrella paradise. I really, really wanted to buy one or two, or three, but knew my luggage allowance wouldn't let me so I hobbled sadly by and still nursing a sore knee and throbbing ankle I went back to the hotel to rest.
By now I was on painkillers. My left ankle and right knee had swollen hugely and the ankle was much more painful than the knee. I kept thinking of all those people in plaster casts and was tempted to go to the hospital for an x-ray, but after a bit more thinking, I convinced myself nothing was broken. I didn't want to spoil the holiday and gritted my teeth and took a shower instead.
The towels were so rough, it was like having a skin scrub and the floor was so slippery, I was terrified of falling over again. The holiday was going swimmingly or at least the painkillers made it feel that way, so I craned my neck out of the window and once more enjoyed the beautiful view.
Our evening meal was taken at a nearby taverna. It cost 27 euros and we were watched continually as we ate by a pekinese. Afterwards my husband let me cling to his arm again so I could hobble alongside him to the harbourside. There we enjoyed a coffee for 7 euros and we decided the coffee was better than the meal (fried pumpkin and cheese for me and seafood risotto for Nick). By this time I was knackered, but Nick still wanted to walk.
Ever keen to explore, he dragged me down to the harbour and checked out the prices of the boat trips to Symi before we went back to the hotel. Then he decided if we were to fit the boat trip in, we would have to go the next day, which meant he would have to return to the harbour to book it. He came back with the good news that we'd have to be up at the crack of dawn. The consolation was that I wouldn't have to walk any further than the harbour.
That night I fell asleep on a hard bed to the sounds of a wailing child, a snoring husband, a humming fridge and air conditioning that needed reconditioning and made a noise all night long. The only thing that went through my head was: it better not rain tomorrow or I will be really annoyed about not buying one of those gorgeous umbrellas.