Pictures!

I know I haven’t taken many pictures yet, so today I decided to have a touristy day and shop and take pictures in Old Town. While I didn’t actually buy anything (you’re welcome, Dad!) I walked around the main streets of Old Town. I went right after class so everything, like the Grand Master’s Palace, was still open. Museums, monuments, and the like close around 2:30/3:00 here in Greece so this was actually the first time I made it to Old Town in time to see them open. While I didn’t go all the way in since the program will take us one day for free, I got to go a little further in than usual and got some different pictures.

Until now I’ve taken note of how little English is being spoken around me—for the most part the tourists have been German, Italian, Russian, and Scandinavian, but not many American or British tourists. Today, however, there was an explosion of English-speaking tourists; I think an American cruise ship or two must have reached Rhodes today and unloaded a boatload of tourists, since it was more crowded than I’ve seen it so far, a large portion of the crowd was speaking English, and many of those English-speakers were in beach attire. Plus, the waiter at the restaurant asked me (in Greek) if I had just come from the boat when he saw my huge camera.

I’ve been able to use a lot of Greek, which I’m really enjoying. I talk to Despina, various shop owners, the man I bought postcards from, etc. Whenever I try to use Greek in shops people usually ask me about it and then I get to practice Greek while having conversations with them. I also am beginning to recognize people and sort of make friends. Most restaurants have owners or employees standing outside trying to get people to come in, and since I’ve been here a while I’ve spoken with a lot of them and they recognize me too. Today while walking around I saw Greek Alec Baldwin at one restaurant and Yiannis and Nik at another and talked with each of them for a few minutes in Greek. It’s a great way to practice, I say hello to them each time I pass, and they have all offered me great deals if I ever decide to eat there!

Ok, so here are some pictures I’ve taken today:

The first shows the outer wall of Old Town which still encircles this entire part of Rhodes Town. The grass would have been a moat back in the day. The second picture shows Ambrose’s Gate—there are apparently nine total gates into Old Town, but this is the one that is closest and most accessible from where I am.

Once inside, Ambrose’s Gate is really close to the Grand Master’s Palace, a castle that is one of the highlights of Old Town. I don’t actually know too much of the history—I’m waiting to take a tour until I can do it for free! The second picture shows the main entrance to the Palace.

Across from the Palace you can see the Mosque of Sulyman the Great. It was a church originally but was turned into a mosque during the Ottoman occupation. Again, more history to follow! The next picture shows the main square in Old Town. It’s full of some of the pricier and stereotypically Greek food that caters to tourists, and the callers here are really aggressive about trying to get you into their restaurants because there is very little difference between them and their neighbors. They have people out front offering you 10% discounts or a free bottle of wine, and they put their most attractive waiters on the balcony to wink and wave at you and call you up. Underneath the stairs there is our favorite wine shop; the man who owns it is really nice and knowledgeable about wine and you can get wine from Rhodes for 3-5 euro. Most nights, someone in a really bad Shrek costume stands by the fountain—I couldn’t tell you why.

Street leading to a little square in Old Town. Everything is cobbled and usually pretty narrow but there is plenty of greenery throughout. Also cats. Whereas Thessaloniki was filled with stray dogs, Rhodes has its share of dogs but is overrun with cats. I had lunch at the little taverna with the waiters in orange shirts. They were all really nice and pleased I was trying to speak Greek. When I told one I was studying in Rhodes for six weeks, he said “και χρώμα σοκολάτα, ωραία!”, or “and chocolate-colored, nice!” I was really confused for a second but I think he was trying to say it must be really great and it’s not all studying since I’m so tan, but I thought that was a really funny way to say tan and I’d never hear that expression before. I had some yemista there that was pretty good—the ones Tanya, Abby and I made for Papa K were better, though!

And, just for reference, on my side of Rhodes I’m close to the beach. Semiramis, my hotel, is in the foreground there, and all you do is walk 50 meters down that hill and you reach the beach! You can see the gorgeous blue water behind.