Greece - Cruisin, Boozin, Snoozin - Day 4 - July 9th

We woke up early and we were in Rhodes. We actually were going to spend a whole day on one island!

 

We had a tour booked for the morning, so off the boat we got, nice and early, and met with our tour guide, a funny man who's accent we couldn't quite pin-point. He had a spanish look about him, but he had a pseudo-british accent that came and went. And at some point I couldn't get past the fact that I realized he looked like Robin Williams in Aladdin - yes, I am aware he was a cartoon, but the look was the same.

 

We started out our day with a walk through the medival city of Rhodes, in which people still live in. We learned about how the city protected itself from intruders (not one, but 2 moats!) and all about the cannonballs etc. As the sun crept higher in the sky we worked our way through the city before getting into a coach bus and headed off to Lindos, another small city on the other side of the island.

 

On the way to Lindos we stopped at this little gas-station/pottery shop place where we went inside and were taught the beauty of handmade pottery. A guy at a foot-powered wheel demonstrated to us how a clay pot is made, and then, in front of all our eyes sliced it in half!! The point was to show us how REAL pots have ridges from the maker's hands on the inside and factory made ones do not. We were also shown how pottery is painted and fired, as well as how proper REAL pottery will not break or scratch. The latter was demonstrated by first scraping a coin over the face of a plate repeatedly, and then taking a clay urn and SMASHING it on the table over and over again. It's durable stuff. It's meant to be used!

 

In Lindos is the acropolis, which stands upon a huge hill. Yes, another huge hill that we were to climb up. 358 stairs or something like that. And so we climbed. In more scorching heat. The stairs are old rock, worn smooth by thosands of people climbing them for the last who knows how many years... and people were going up as well as down, which made it a long process. By the time we finally made it to the top we were roasting. We passed through the gates and our guide let us go to explore. From the top of the fortress you could see SO much. It was an oven, mind you, but the view was fantastic.

 

We didn't stay up there too long before heading back down the hill to the city core. It was slightly scary walking on the sidewalks which were made of small round stones all laid together in mosaic patterns (I admire the people with the patience to do the work to make them). I was dying for something to eat so we stopped and got a crepe with fresh fruit and icecream. Then we made our way back to the bus.

 

We had to wait for a shuttle to take us back up to our bus (it was up on a hill and it was crazy hot and we didn't want to walk). While waiting there was this old guy, big fat hairy stomach, with his shirt rolled up to his boobs... and he seemed to insist on pressing his sweaty midsection into me repeatedly. Not so much fun!

 

Eventually we gave up waiting for the shuttle and got a taxi, all of 4 euros took us to the top. Probably more than we needed to spend but thats okay. I was away from Mr. Hairy Sweaty Gut and back on the nice cool bus.

 

I think pretty much everyone fell asleep on the trip back to Rhodes. Once we got back to the boat we ate lunch on board and got ready to go to the beach. Dave and I had some laundry to do and we were told to go to a place that would wash, dry and fold our laundry for 5euros. It took FOREVER to find the place. The streets in Rhodes do not make any sense at all. After we dropped off our clothes we headed towards the beach. Again, with the streets that don't make sense this took a while longer than necessary.

 

Once we finally found the beach we settled ourselves on one of the lounges with an umbrella. Before we had a chance to get to the water, a lady came over and started saying "Ticket??" and we told her we didnt' have one. We asked how much and she said 2 euros... and she started filling out tickets while Dave gave her money. When he gave her money she looked in his hand like he was crazy and said 8 euros!!! So we said "eff that, we'll lay on the stones!"

 

We played in the water for a while before I got annoyed and suggested we go buy goggles somewhere. I bought us some cheapo goggles and then we found a new place to swim. In the water we took pictures with my underwater camera and entertained ourselves by chasing fish around.  Eventually we'd had enough and went to pick up our laundry. On the way back to the boat I stopped and bought some shells as souveniers from a boat docked in the port.

 

... more to follow in another post!! ...

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alanna foell : professional photographer : www.afphotography.cjb.net