Greece: Rhodes

Steve and I are professional ferry riders. I have calculated the time: we have spent over 50 hours of this trip on them.

We arrived back in Fethiye from Pummakle to catch the ferry to Rhodes. It was a small, capsule-shaped vessel named "The Flying Maiden", named for the fact it rises one meter out of the sea as it drives. We settled into seats and tried to get comfy. We decided that some tea would be just the thing. It seemed like a good idea, but the hot liquid in our hands made us keenly aware of how bumpy the boat was. Even though there was a small table in front of us, we could hardly hold the cups up to our mouths without it bouncing around. As we were struggling, a sweet elderly lady came to join us at our table. She was having a similar problem with her coffee and hoped a surface would help.

Her name was Melissa. She is an American-Britt who lives on the island of Rhodes, and had been visiting Turkey with friends; a trip she does often. Her life was fascinating. She moved to Rhodes in the 60s with her sister and began a fashion company, after discovering the island on a holiday with her then-boyfriend. The girls designed clothes and her sister and brother-in law opened a weaving factory. At that time there was no industry in Greece and people were desperate for work. She said her business was great for everyone. Over time their business became a success and she profited. She made her home there and raised three kids. Although the island is beautiful, she said the only thing to do for fun in Rhodes was visit the cinema, although the English movies were overdubbed with loud Greek speaking, and they would have to strain their ears to hear the low-volume English words. She said because of those field trips, her children fell in love with cinema. Her kids are both now involved in the industry: a son who writes screen plays in Hollywood and a daughter who is a casting director in England. She spoke about her life and we listened, drinking up her adventures of living in Greece before it changed for tourism. She invited us to come and see her house in Lindos, which we were excited about.

When we got to the ferry port, we looked out and saw a huge stone wall fenced around the city. Rhodes is famous for its medieval stone castle. It was breathtaking against the blue of the sea.

The first day in Rhodes was spent walking around the old city quarter. Melissa would say the old city has been overcome with cheap Taiwan souvenir hawkers, and is now "absolutely dreadful". But we loved it. To us, it was romantic and exciting, and we looked beyond the flashy stores at the beautiful walls of the city, and the old stone cannon balls littered around. We walked through an ancient moat, now filled with bright flowers and lush green grass. It was beautiful.

In terms of Greek culture, we were surprised at how European it feels. However, because we didn't plan on being in Greece for long, we stuck to the main tourist spots and therefore I can't speak for the rest of Greece, but from what we saw the culture is very modern and western. It sometimes felt like we could have been in Paris or London, except for the Greek food, which is spectacular.


After walking around the city for a day, the next day we decided to rent a scooter and drive to Lindos. We really wanted to visit Melissa. It was a bit of a gamble though, it was an hours drive and we had a ferry to catch in the early afternoon.

The scooter rental place was a small, decrepit looking outfit. Our bike looked even worse. There wasn't a smooth surface that wasn't scratched, and when we started it the engine whined loud, complaining as if we woke it up. We were assured it ran great and took its looks as a warning of the hazards of driving on the island with so many inexperienced tourists. With that we headed for the highway.

The drive to Lindos on the scooter was amazing. The view of the sea was stunning, and when we got further inland we rode over scorched hillsides dotted with green vines for wine making. The city of Lindos is a traditional Greek village spilling over a hillside, shaded by an amazing castle and lookout tower. The waters below dug out a serpentine shape into the coast and looked inviting on the edge of a dark sand beach. We walked around for a bit and then looked at our watches. It had taken us two hours to get there instead of one.... Whoops. We also had to find a phone to contact our sleeping arrangements for the night because our ferry was set to arrive in Santorini after midnight and we hadn't had any luck confirming there would be someone there to check us in after hours. With such poor planning, Murphy's law kicked in and we had to wrestle with the booking agency to get ahold of our hotel to confirm our plans. It ate up our time in Lindos and we decided we didn't have time to visit Melissa. So, grumpily we slumped onto the scooter and headed back. We didn't want to add insult to injury by missing our ferry on top of everything else.

The ride back was extremely windy. It was hard to stay positive after being so frustrated and the cold wind made it worse. Always knowing how to cheer me up, Steve let out a loud howl. In the side mirror I could tell he was making a silly face. It wasn't long until I couldn't help but crack a smile. We spent most of the drive back making strange noises into the wind, and butchering the lyrics to some old rap songs from our high school days. By the time we returned the scooter our bellies hurt from laughing so hard.

We ended up making our ferry by the skin of our teeth. Although we felt a bit rushed and were sad we missed Melissa, we felt we had seen quite a bit. We were just happy to be in Greece!

Next stop: Santorini. Yay for a seven hour ferry ride....

Lindos:

Mmmmm: