Lessons learned and how it applies to Rhodes!

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It's rather amusing that I start this trip reminscing about things that have gone wrong and taught me lessons along the way, from Egypt and the don't just rely on your sense of smell for buying food, because goat brains and onions small heavenly, to Thailand and the hotel receptionist giving advise "Lady, no want go Chaing Mai, bad flood" only to find out that a dam burst and Chaing mai was under 4' of water when I arrived.

So here we are on our way to our long sought vacation and what does stupid me do on the flight from Toronto to London? I lost my Kindle (e-book reader, with over 400 books on it! Now I am finding out any one English language paperback is over $15 USD!). The lesson here, for those who missed it on T.V (like me) is don't take Ambien if you don't have 8 hours to sleep, you know like the commercial tells you! DUH!! I try to track it down to no avail, it's gone, leaving me with no entertainment and the prospect of two weeks staring at the ocean waiting for something to happen. SOMEBODY SHOOT ME! If this was not bad enough, we luckily manage to get an earlier flight to Rhodes from Athens, avoiding a 6 hour lay over...Whoo Hoo! Hold your horses, now comes the fun part, the boutique hotel set up a private rental car (read real shady...you pay cash in the parking lot and they give you directions for where to leave it when you are done). This was a new one for me in that normally, it is a rather lengthy experience to fill out all the paperwork, prove you are street legal, have insurance etc. Apparently, despite it being a relatively new car, NOTHING! O.K., so the car isn't where it is supposed to be when we get in but we are early, so we go to call the hotel and find out that we will need a phone card to use the local phone. Guess what, apparently selling phone cards at the airport is not done anymore, so we have no way of contacting them but to use my US cell. So, despite the cost, we try and guess what, AT & T sucks here too! After begging some nice woman at Avis to call, we finally get the guy with the rental car to come and drop it off 20 minutes later. We are given a nice general map of the island and directions (which he changes like 5 times during his half Greek dissertation and we are sent on our way). It is supposed to be a straight drive but some government official (read Mayor elected for 12 years) decided that the road needed updating, so it is no longer a straight drive and where we are is not on the map, it is dark, there are no street lights and the temperature as well as tempers are rising rapidly as neither of us has slept in the last 24 hours well, despite my Ambien experience. We finally find the old Medieval City of Rhodes. Cars are not normally let inside but since it is after 9pm, we can go in to drop our luggage off. The roads are very narrow (obviously cars were not part of the design model) and many dead end or become unpassable after you get part of the way down due to narrowing. We get lost again and again and again. So, as the female in the car, it falls to me to ask for directions. Everyone either does not know the hotel or says "go right make a left a right and another left at the trees, no go left, to the trees, no at the fountain...." After 1/2 hours we finally find the hotel, which is a lovely 6 room facility built around a courtyard and in the heart of the Medieval City. My lesson to impart here is that a good map and preferably GPS is a must if arriving in dark and unfamiliar places. Better yet, just schedule to land in the daytime. It is much more stressful to drive at night in unfamiliar surroundings than during the day. The hotel staff spent the next two days trying to help me get my Kindle replaced, which I should have before I get to Morocco thanks to them and my Mother who was amazing! Although the whole experience probably cost the amount of the thing in phone calls, I at least can be happy again!

We spent the next day just wondering around the Medieval City, and Rhodes Town, which is huge. The city is a labyrinth of shops, restaurants, museums, embassies, and private residences. Most of the city has been rebuilt using original materials. It is like no other place I have seen. Rhodes Town is much different. It is a port city with sprinkling of older and new buildings. The highlight for me in Rhodes despite being surrounded by amazing history was this pirate bar. Honest to goodness, there was a full size boat with tables on the poop deck and a pool to swim in. While we didn't stay, it certainly made quite an impression! Actually, I am a little jaded because I had already seen the Medeival City on another trip.

The next day, we decided to take our rental car and go around the island, see the castle at Monolithos and hit one of the beaches. Unfortunately, we had torrential rains. We skipped the beach and still decided that it was a good thing that we had both our beach towels and bathing suits on and had the forsight to bring umbrellas. Monolithos castle, was really not what one would describe as a castle if one had seen Crac de Chevaliers in Syria or Kerak in Jordan. It was more like a run down fort with a church in the center. The highlight however was the view for me and the gift store for Eric. Eric apparently is undeterred by drinking floor cleaner and keeps buying local alcohols. This brings me to another lesson. Alcohol that isn't availiable at a BevMo and is either made in someones yard or bathtub should not be consumed. I learned this particular lesson in Thailand as well, when in a hilltribe villiage, the "local moonshine" made the rounds only to be followed by rowdy singing finally by serial vomiting. I am happy to say, Eric neither sang , nor vomited but for me it's better to be safe than sorry!

We left Rhodes with fond memories, no beach time, very little shopping and pretty muddy clothes. It was fun but not what we had expected. Next stop Mykonos!

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Photos

Street of Knights
Complete with cobblestone paving this is one of the main streets that has been kept as it once was, free of commercial enterprises.

Palace of the Grand Master
One time reside3nce to the head honcho of Rhodes.

Keep your hands off my codpiece!
This nice suit of armor came complete with a tag indicating just where we should keep our hands off. As it happened that location was lacking in armor!

Two omnipresent parts of Greece
The scooter and the stray cat.

I think there must be a contest for most interesting gelato sculpture!
Well, what can I say, normally it's related to flavor, coconut has a coconut on it. This was just interesting!

Monolithos Fort?
It was much less impressive when you got closer!