Day 28 – Rhodes and the Old Town

So I got into Rhodes last night and caught a taxi to the hotel.  Needless to say the driving is crazy blah blah blah.  Greece does seem to live up to all the stereotypes so far – crazy driving, super friendly people, everythings closed on a Sunday, nothing mechanical seems to work, cats everywhere.  I’m really loving it.

I got to the hostel and this man greets me, ‘Hello!  You’re late!’ with a huge smile.  This is Pavlos, my new pal.  Pavlos drives me to another hostel because apparently that’s not where I’m staying at all.

I get put in a lovely old school room with a hot plate, TV and this sign above the toilet:

That is one grumpy toilet.  So either I’m not supposed to flush the paper down the toilet or the person who cleans the bin tomorrow is in for a pleasant surprise.

Strangely enough though there are no blankets, so I barely sleep.  Nevertheless I am loving the place and looking forward to the next week.

This morning I ask whether I can stay another night.  After an intense Greek phone conversation I am picked up by Pavlos and bought back to the original hotel.  Phew.

The first thing I do is get some food as I have barely eaten in 24 hours.  I stop at a delightfully touristy restaurant on the way to the bus stop.  As with all the other Greek people I’ve met so far they ask me my name and where I’m from and ‘No way!  I have family in Australia!’ I have a lovely meal and my new mate Mika insists I come back before I leave.

Then I head in to Rhodes Town to buy a ferry ticket to Santorini, as I am in Faliraki, about 20 minutes away.  I stop in at every single ticket box on the way to the one that actually sells the ticket I need, but as the port sits just outside of the old town it is quite a pleasant walk.

It is ridiculously lovely.  After buying my ticket I venture in to the Old Town (not that I know it’s the Old Town at the time) and check out some touristy shops.  Once again everyone is so very friendly and speaks English really well.

There are your normal things; magnets, postcards etc.  Plus some really weird stuff. But at least now I know where to buy my adult sized Disney princess costumes.

Cinderella and Aurora.  And don’t even ask me what these guys are doing.

Anyhoo I get back to the hotel and have a wee swim in the rather impressive pool (that’s how hot it is, even I – the biggest sook in the universe – get in) and read my Greek island book.  It’s okay, right now, hasn’t grabbed me just yet.

I then get dressed and head down for dinner.  Every restaurant I pass is like a chilled out version of Lygon Street.  Everyone wants me to come in and eat and ‘No way!  I have family in Australia!’

I eventually give in to one place and have delicious ouzo meatballs with pita and sour cream and really really amazing grilled vegies and halloumi.  I roll out of there towards the beach to watch the sunset but annoyingly you have to walk through 2 swanky hotels and the secret garden to get there.  I think it’s their way of saying ‘Ha! You’re poor!’ I was jealous of their impressive water slide until I saw a children’s performance, reminiscent of the Lorne Kid’s Klub and then I felt better.  Before rocking back and forth in the foetal position, haunted those horrible, horrible memories.

The beach is what I think they refer to as a ‘black beach’ and it’s pretty av to be honest.  I don’t understand why Europeans think they can dump their cigarette butts and Snickers wrappers on the sand but its really not cool.

Anyway now I’m back at the hotel on my white stone balcony.  The temperature is perfecto.  Tomorrow I am planning to either see Lindos – a beautiful white washed town with its own acropolis – or the Valley of the Butterflies.  That pretty much speaks for itself – it gets swarmed by butterflies looking for mates.  But I think it mostly happens in August – I’ll look into it.