The Road to Rhodes

I knew as I was getting to the end of the European portion of my trip, I'd be slightly pressed for time but I still wanted to visit several different parts of Greece. I didn't realize how many islands there were and how large the country actually is so I did a Google search for suggestions of where I visit. Before I got to the country, I had decided on Rhodes, Athens, and Thessaloniki as they were three places on the top ten cities to visit in Greece according to one site. The order was determined by flight prices which is why I flew to Athens first and not Rhodes just to fly past Athens to Thessaloniki a day after landing in Rhodes.
But anyway, discussions about flight paths can be saved for another day. Since I had barely slept the night before (I thought I was able to sleep almost anywhere but this flight proved me wrong), when Victor, whose wife, Larisa, has the Couchsurfing profile, picked me up from the airport, I was quite sleepy and tried really hard to keep it together. When, I walked into their house, it was amazing because their dining room area was filled with instruments - a piano, a drum set, a cello, and so many others! And I would come to find out how musically talented they all were.
Their son, Aris, was up and cooked some crepes for me and while I had tea, I chatted with Victor and Larisa about my travels. It was really weird but cool that a Couchsurfer that had stayed with them had also stayed with Mehmet and Deniz, my hosts in Athens. Such a small world! Well I learned that Larisa is Romanian and she and Victor decided to move to Rhodes from Athens because they liked the island life more and since Aris grew up in Rhodes, he is the complete opposite and is entranced by the city life and wants to go to New York and study music at Juilliard. It was very nice chatting with them but my eyes were getting very droopy so I went to take a nap and semi-met their daughter, Nefeli, who was still sleeping in the top bunk.
When I woke up, I heard some jamming downstairs and so I went to check it out and at the top of the steps, I could see Victor on the piano, Arie on the drums and Nefeli on flute. It was amazing how good they sounded and it is so cool to me that one of them can just start playing (usually Victor) and then the other two would be able to jump in and catch whatever beat and flow he had started. After jamming a bit, Victor and Arie started to hit around a badminton birdie around the house and Victor kept encouraging me to play because it's "in my genes." I hit the birdie around a bit with
Arie before I met Andreas, another Couchsurfer but is also there as a person for Workaway from Romania. We were all going to meet another Couchsurfer in a part of the island called Filerimos I think and have lunch so we all piled into the van.

Family jamming

When we got there, I met Fernando, who was a Couchsurfer from Barcelona who had been staying with the family already but had left to explore earlier in they day. Together, we met Tony from England who had been in another part of the island and would be staying with the family as well. As one large group, we got to a nice Greek place and I got some local brew and gyros with halloumi, a hard cheese. We learned something about the difference between what gyros are to Greeks in Athens versus Greeks in Rhodes and I think it had something to do with the meat being in the pita or not and I thought that might have been why the waiter and I had some difficulty understanding my order when I was in Athens.

Lots of fries in my gyros

After a delicious lunch, Larisa and Andreas took the bus back to the house and Victor drove the rest of us to Petaloudes where we saw peacocks, followed a path to where people could pray to Jesus, and saw an amazing view of the city. it was really cool when Victor would drive along the coast and point out where Turkey was in the distance. I never imagine islands to be very big but I was continuously told that one day was not enough to explore Rhodes which was very lucky of me to have Victor play chauffeur for us.

Trying to catch the view from the van

Turkey in the distance

Peacocks in the north of the island

Feeding old kalouri to them

Arie tries to get one to eat from his shoe

Path to the cross

Beautiful views of the island

Fernando, Nefeli, Victor, and Aris hiding

The flag of Greece and Rhodes

When we got back to the house, it was still a beautiful day for a swim so we got on our suits and walked a few meters to the Aegean Sea. Although there was sand for the most part leading up to the sea, it was also very rocky and in order to actually get to the water, one must quickly bypass the pebbley barrier. Once I hit the water, it was quite chilly but as always, the body gets acclimated quite quickly and it was very nice to get a swim in. We didn't stay for too long as it was getting darker and chillier but it was pretty cool to have just gone for a dip in the Aegean!
After everyone showered up, Arie asked if I wanted to cook dinner with him so I was more than happy to oblige. We looked at what there was in the fridge and there was some leftover rice and lots of different veggies so the quickest thought that came to.mind was fried rice. There was also chicken that needed to be cooked so Arie came up with a recipe for some sort of creamy mustardy chicken and it was really delicious. It also seemed like my fried rice passed the taste test and everyone was quite content. The meal wasn't complete without dessert so Arie and Fernando whipped up some sort of apple crumble to finish off the meal.

Jamming before dinner

Cleopatra, a frequent visitor

Cooking up some dessert

Apple crunch dessert

After clearing up the table and having a bit of down time, Victor started playing the piano and quickly Arie and Nefeli responded. I had mentioned that I used to play the flute and Nefeli had another flute laying around but I'm no good with improvising so I played a note here and there but didn't get much out as the flute was a little tattered itself. Eventually, Tony joined in on the bass guitar and Victor set up the microphone so that Fernando and I could join in on vocals. I didn't know many of the songs they had music for but when we looked up lyrics to some songs, they automatically knew how to play the background music to them. It was incredible how talented this family is. We started out singing some tunes by the Beatles then Adele and when we sang "I Will Survive," I was following Nefeli because she was still playing the harmony so I kept repeating the refrain and when we finally ended it, Victor remarked how he didn't remember the song being ten minutes long. It was a good time, even though there was much confusion and it was a fun way to end the night.
The next morning, the children were off to school so no jam session to start the day. I had a yummy breakfast with Greek yogurt (it's still called Greek yogurt in Greece) and granola before heading out with Victor and Fernando. We quickly swung by the Pyrgospito, this historical house the family bought and are now looking for funding to fix it up. I think it was really cool because they want to turn it into a guest house but also a performance space which matches directly with their interests.

Breakfast

The Pyrgospito

This historical house needs some serious TLC

Victor then took us to Apollo's Temple and we walked down to a stadium from an Olympic Games that was recovered and restored. There was a rope around a small amphitheatre but without anyone watching, Victor pulled us into the middle to show us where the actors would stand in one spot so that their voices would be amplified to the whole audience and when we tried it, there really was a huge difference. As I walked around, I grabbed what looked like berries off of a tree and a guy shouted something to me so I thought I was getting in trouble and although he turned out to be the security guy, he just wanted to tell me about the different plants there were. The berry-looking things were really olives and when I asked, I was informed that I couldn't eat them because they would taste really bad. He also showed me the little herb garden that had thyme and rosemary and mints. The security guy was telling me more about the plant life there before Victor and Fernando caught up and we walked into the little museum that was there.

More lovely views from the van

Apollo's Temple

Amphitheatre

Looking down to the Olympic stadium

Stadium seating recovered

View from the stadium seating

Inside the museum, we read about the Olympic games and how different sports were judged. It was really cool to see how the runners were kept honest with contraptions made to act like gates that could be all opened at once without any machinery. I love how creative mankind is and it's amazing how far we've come. I enjoyed learning about the Olympic games and the people associated with it before we went on our way to Old Town Rhodes.

Learning about the Olympic Games

Olive trees

Old Town Rhodes was very cute. As we walked around different spots of open area, Victor would point out where Nefeli had performed before and I could tell he was very proud of his daughter. After walking around the castle and the old cobbled streets, we passed through all the tourist shops and down to the Colossus statue that is actually made up of two parts on either end of the water to show where he placed his feet and how colossal he actually was. We sat there, at one side, for awhile as we chatted and watched a guy struggle to fish. Victor translated a conversation for us when another guy walked over to the guy we were watching and throwing jabs at him by asking him about how many fish he had gotten and asking him to watch his line because he was going to step away and if he didn't catch any fish, he would share what he had caught.

Entering the castle grounds at Old Town Rhodes

Not sure what construction was going on

Walking down the cobblestone road

Restaurants lining the streets

Jewish memorial

Nefeli performed here before

Walking out to the water

So beautiful!

Colossus statue

Watching this man fish

It was really peaceful looking out into the water and just watching this fisherman repeatedly pull his line out of the water to readjust and continuously add some sort of bait to the hook. We sat there for quite a while talking about birthdays and the Chinese zodiac before we left and when we did leave, it was nice to see that the fisherman did successfully catch at least one fish.
When we walked away from the Colossus statues, it was nearly time for lunch and it was kind of decided for me that I was cooking, which I was more than happy to do. Larisa had double checked with me several times to see what to buy for lunch but I didn't even know what to make yet so I told her whatever type of veggies and noodles. When I got back, she had bought two different types of noodles and I had an array of vegetables to choose from. In the middle of my experimental kitchen, the kids came back earlier than they would normally because they had school elections that day and nothing else. Arie helped me cook up some chicken again and I ended up making some take on a Chinese fried noodle dish that I really like but with it being my first attempt, it didn't come out as expected. Tasted pretty alright though.

Cool stone mosaics

Leaving Old Town

Look at this cool tree!

Driving back to home base

Mon-Mon's Nom Noms

Tony was set to leave on a flight that evening as well so Victor was going to drop both of us off at the airport. After lunch, I played some badminton with Arie before he decided to turn it into a game of hitting Victor with the birdie whenever he got the chance. Victor seemed to be in no rush to get to the airport which I came to find out why later but we hung out at the house until about an hour before Tony's flight. We got to the airport with no trouble at all and after saying our farewells, I quickly got through the small airport to the terminal that would lead me to my flight for Thessaloniki. Although it was a quick little visit to this island, I felt like I saw a lot and got enough of a taste to definitely want to go back.