Rodos

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Rodos

Arriving in Rhodes and getting dropped off in the medieval town was unreal. My jaw literally dropped as we entered the old city that is protected by large stone walls. The whole old town is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The nickname for this island is “The Island of the Knights” and walking down the streets there is no question as to why. The architecture is amazing and wandering around transported me back to my five year old mind of what I always thought a medieval town would look like. I was immediately in awe and completely in love.

We found our Hotel and checked in. Hotel Attiki is a beautiful property with a courtyard right in the middle of the medieval town. I absolutely loved our hotel. Our wonderful hosts Mara & Francesco were originally from Italy but had purchased a property in Rhodes and had done renovations to make it into a hotel. Mara had also started an organization in Rhodes to take care of the animals on this island. The hotel has 20 cats and the organization works towards helping sick cats and dogs as well as spaying them. They also feed hundreds of cats. I immediately had 100 questions. After all Mara was living my dream. Living abroad and working with a beautiful organization for animals.

We begun to explore the island and fell even more in love as we got lost in the twist and turns of the old town. In this city we were literally tripping over ruins.

After waking up the next morning we decided to rent a car and explore the island further. Tyler rented us a convertible. However this was not a sleek BMW or Corvette… this was a Smart Car Convertible. I laughed upon seeing it but loved driving around in it for the day.

Our first stop was the ruins of Kamiros. The ruins were from as early as the eighth century BC. It was quite beautiful and wasn’t too hard to imagine the living quarters and temples.

We next made our way to Monolithos Castle. This castle was beautiful. And as I normally imagine what it would be like to be a Disney Princess, I wasted no time climbing to the top and taking a minute to imagine that this was my beautiful castle overlooking the ocean.

We made our way through the mountains to the other side of the island and stopped in Lindos. Overlooking the beautiful bay of Lindos is a huge Acropolis with a beautiful old temple at the top. We ate lunch here overlooking the ocean and enjoying the view of the acropolis.

We made our way up the coast and visited the four bays. One of which had a little cave that had a small chapel inside of it. There was also a cave bar where we had a drink before making our way back to the old town.

The following day we visited the Archeological Museum which was very beautiful. We also visited the clock tower which had a great viewpoint of the city. We wandered around for hours visiting the old Muslim Quarter as well as the Jewish quarter.

On our final day we once again walked around town taking in all we could. When it came time to leave I couldn’t help but feel devasted like I was leaving a little piece of my heart behind. In Rhodes I truly felt a connection and did not want to leave. I reminded myself that Savannah & Libby were waiting at home and forced myself to check out and we made our way to Athens for our final night in Greece.

During our last dinner in Greece Tyler asked me “What was your favorite part of our trip?”. I didn’t need long to answer, I immediately said “Everything”. I later thought well maybe not that half hour where I was scared in Marrakech but everything else. Each part of the trip was a puzzle piece that completed the journey. Each part taught me something about myself and every day humbled me more and more. I feel extremely lucky. Lucky to be born in Canada, lucky to have an amazing family, lucky to have so many friends in my life that support me and accept me & lucky to have a job that allows me to do what I love in life-travel. We get so caught up in day to day concerns that we forget how lucky we are. I also realized that I am guilty of not doing more and not getting more involved in helping. Not only overseas but in my own community. During our volunteer orientation when asked “What do you want to get out of this experience?”, I answered “It’s not about me. It’s about the kids and hopefully they can have fun and gain some knowledge from me”. I left the volunteer stint learning more about life and about myself than I could have ever been prepared for. Instead of making an impact on them- they made more of an impact on me than I could have ever expected. The tiny moments in life are what make up happiness.

Until next time

Jill

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