Get up early to catch ferry to Rhodes in Greece. The exit tax guy tries to charge us 150 lira when it should be 143, but Beck catches him out. We board, the ferry leaves and we wave goodbye to Turkey. We meet an older Canadian couple who are travelling with 3 large and 3 small suitcases between them. At Rhodes a tout takes us to his pension but the room for Louise (Becks mum who will be joining us in 2 days) wasnt that good. We walk around and after a while, I leave Beck under a tree and head off to find a place. On the way to a recommended pension I see the Canadian couple from the ferry and the owner of the pension I was heading for that I recommended to them. They went there as well but its full and the owner is taking them to the pension of a friend of theirs. I tag along and take a lovely room for us and book one for Louise for when she arrives.
I pick up Beck from under the tree, drop off our bags and walk arouns the old city, making our salad lunch at a gorgeous plaza with a fountain made from 3 iron seahorses. We go to the tourist information centre and get Rhodes info, and head out of the old city to see modern Rhodes. We find a street with lots of yeeros and bbq shops and research mopeds to hire the next few days and walk back along the walls of the old city.
We go back to one of the bbq restaurants and have a meaty greek dinner and are a bit shocked at the prices. The euro appears to have had an effect on all of Europe. Turkey prices had gone up by 4 times since I was there 8 years ago, and Greece prices have about doubled, although the exchange rate has gone down so its more than doubled in that time. We go shopping for groceries on the way back to our room and sit with the managers of the pension, Louisa (Dutch) and Guido (Italian) who lived on a boat they would charter out as a living for the last 22 years, raising their 2 children on it. It is quite qa change for them to have a land existence and are still getting used to it after 3 years. They buy their guests a round of ouzo and we sit at the bar with them and their other guests talking about how we all ended up there in our travels.
The 18th is a slow start, a late breakfast in the old town centre and walk the harbour along the old Roman walls along the old city. We sit on a windy bench on the sea and make our salad lunch. We find a web cafe that has sites throughout Europe and a deal for unlimited use for 1 week for 10Euro (about $17oz) which we get. Back at tthe pension Louisa and Guido buy the guests a round of ouzo before we head out for yeeros dinner. Yeeros in Greece is like in Australia but smaller and with chips in it. Nice. We find where the airport bus leaves from so Beck can pick up Louise tomorrow and head home.
The next morning Beck goes to the airport to pick up her mum while I search the web for flights to Cyprus and hotels in Madrid. I go to airport bus stop and meet Beck and Louise and we all go back to pension. We all go out for our first Greek coffee and show Louise around the old city, and the new city. We buy ferry tickets for a day trip to a small island off Rhodes called Symi and to Crete in a few days time, and book a car for the day after to drive around the island. Beck cooks dinner in the pension and we catch up with Louise.
On the 20th we catch a ferry to Symi which takes 1.5 hours. When the ferry lands we get off and walk around a small town with a large monastery. As we are getting ready to go walking around away from the port we are told that this is not actually the town, it is a monastery on the other side of the island and its another 1.5 hours to the town. Lucky we had a toilet stop or we would have missed the ferry to the other side. The monastery had a large Orthodox Greek church with incredible carvings covering one entire wall.
When we get to Symi town, we walk around and see what there is to see after an hour. We have lunch in a small taverna and Louise and I walk to the top of the hill in the centre of the island. At the top are a number of very old windmills, some of which are abandoned ruins and some of which have been converted to apartments. A retired British woman invites us in to see her converted windmill and we are surprised by how bright and roomy it is. We catch the ferry back and Beck cooks another fantastic meal.
The 21st is Becks birthday. Gave her a set of fire twirling chains - she is very happy and knows we'll both end up using them. We checkout, store our bags and pick up the car. Beck goes to confirm our flight out and finds out that the travel agent in Bangkok who we changed all our flights with did not in fact rebook Becks flights and so none of her flights for the rest of the trip are booked. She spens 1.5 hours on the phone with Qantas in Australia rebooking all her flights. We then drive to Lindos, an historic town on the south side of te island although completely tourist oriented. We then drive across to the other side of the island, visit Monolithos (a deserted but stnding castle) and Kastelos (a deserted but not standing castle). We watch the sun set behind the clouds and drive back to Rhodes with a detour up a wind farm mountain where Beck and Louise mutiny and leave the car. I pick them up on te way back down.
At Rhodes we pick up our bags and go to a restaurant Louisa and Guido recommend for Becks birthday dinner. Lots of yummy seafood. We head to the ferry. I sleep across 3 chairs and Beck and Louise head to the booths in the lounge area at about 4am. At 8 I get up, join them in the lounge and we watch the ferry arrive in Sitia, the eastern port of Crete.
posted by flamethrower77 at 11:35 AM
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