Burglars and Making Friends (and Enemies)

We arrived safely and I believe are known across the island already due to "someone's" antics. :) Geri's luggage was ransacked by the baggage handlers and she got her Ipod dock stolen. Curiously, they also stole my Splenda. We have narrowed our manhunt down to a baggage handler who likes music and is on a diet. Luckily Geri has travel insurance that should cover it.

We learned from the local youth that the bars do not begin to have anything going on until midnight, and people usually go out until 6am, at which time they get ready for work. The bars are only good on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday, but NOT Monday. We did manage to find some trouble yesterday despite it being Monday. We walked around old town Rhodes, which is a fortress that people live and work in. Everything was closed and it began to rain so we looked for a bar that was open. We found a restaurant that was in a castle and was run by Mikas, a dirty old man. He made us a Greek feast and sat down to drink two bottles of wine with us. I was practicing my Greek when he informed us that the only way to learn a language was through wine or bed, and then invited Geri and I back later to "make the sex". He then taught us dirty words in Greek. We finished our meal and wine and contemplated our offer. We decided to leave and mull it over.

We then were looking for another watering hole around 7pm when we walked past the Greek Bill Murray who was wearing a smoking jacket and ascot. We asked him where we could get some wine, and he said that although his restaurant was closed, he would give us some wine. He then had his employee, a Georgian guy who didn't speak English but only Greek and Russian, pull a table out of no where and set it and four chairs onto the pathway for a makeshift wine party. Although the Georgian guy couldn't speak English, he spoke the international language of love and kept winking at us. Greek Bill Murray asked where we had eaten, and when we told him about Mikas, a pall came over his face. "OH. That place." Intrigued, I pressed him on what happened. Greek Bill Murray was very dignified and would not tell us what happened. After badgering him for ten minutes, I got him to tell us that it was personal, which can only lead me to believe that Mikas slept with Greek Bill Murray's wife.

Greek Bill Murray then sent us to the bar down the street with the Georgian guy who doesn't speak English. We agreed through hand gestures to do some shots, and after about 15 minutes we had to go home. The smart move would have been to go to bed, but we went to the reception area to use the internet and order delivery. After "someone" got into a dispute with the front desk clerk about the internet not working properly, the front desk clerk called "someone" drunk. Although accurate and observant, the front desk clerk stinks. Geri now has to handle all interaction with reception.

Today we are renting a car to tour the rest of the island. Of course, the car is manual, and the last time I drove stick was on the 88 degree hill in Lisbon where the guy behind us had to get out of his car, enter ours, and drive our car up the hill for us. Geri and I are going to decide who is less hungover and by inference, more able, to drive the car today. We are going to establish this by a reflex test where we will throw something at each other and see who can dodge it. If we both get hit in the head, we are going back to bed.

More details to come! I will try to upload pics of the dirty Mikas and the Greek Bill Murray.

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