Weekend in Rhodes

I had such a fun weekend!

Friday night Nick, Bill, James and I went to this little place called Despina’s Nick and I had walked by and decided to try. It was so delicious! It was a tiny tiny little place, literally a kitchen in Despina’s house, but it was amazing. She cooked everything up fresh right there—the tzatziki, made from scratch, was the best I’ve ever had, and her gyros and souvlaki were amazing too. She was so nice too—I got to practice my Greek as she asked us about what we were doing in Rhodes and told us about her grandchildren. It was literally like being in grandma's kitchen, homey and confortable and delicious!

That night we went out in Old Town to the euro shot bar. There was a Latin-themed place across the street and since both places were tiny, patrons of both were dancing salsa in the cobbled streets. We ended up sitting on the beach listening to the waves and talking at the end of the night.

Saturday the whole group took a trip around the island to see some of interesting sites Rhodes has to offer outside of Rhodes Town. Most of the group went in the van while Bill, Sarah, Nick, and I rode in the car with Maria.

I love Maria! She is the Greek teacher for the first two levels and is in charge of running everything here in Rhodes. She’s absolutely adorable; the most kindhearted, sweet, and stereotypically Greek woman I’ve ever met. Her laugh is high-pitched, often, and earnest, and absolutely infectious. She brought water and sandwiches she made for everyone and even made the vegetarian take one just in case. I loved riding in the car with her because she would tell us stories about past students, her children, the landmarks we passed, Greek culture, and miracles. She’s an incredibly devout Greek Orthodox Christian and I loved listening to her talk about her faith and the stories Greeks have; they’re so interesting and Maria believes them completely. She told us about pirates in the 15th century who tried to rob a church we passed and stabbed the icon in disrespect, only to be turned to stone. She told us about Paul and Silas stopping in Rhodes on their way to Rome and getting off the boat to spread Christianity, converting Greeks and curing lepers in her hometown of Soroni—a church stands there still today over the spring the lepers washed in and every July there are two weeks of festivals there that all of Rhodes comes to participate in. She told us how in that very church during World War II her husband’s grandfather watched Nazis disrespectfully dive into the spring only to have their skin fall off when they got out. The were cured only when the people convinced them to make a tamas, a promise to the saints, and from then on those particular two treated the natives and their saints with more respect. “This is reality, paidia” she told us solemnly, “these miracles happened here at this very church”. It was so fun to listen to her talk and learn about what’s important to the islanders, and to just enjoy the company of someone so happy!

We first went to Kamiros, and ancient city on the coast that dates back to 5/6th century BC. The history of the place was fascinating; Rhodes’ Old Town dates back to the fifteenth century, the time of the knights, but this settlement was so much older! And yet, it still had bathhouses and running water and 191 massive columns crowning the hill before the temple at the top. It was finally destroyed by an earthquake. In the first picture, taken from the bottom looking out, the land mass you see across is Turkey—you can see it from Rhodes Town too. The second picture gives you a better sense of the layout of the city. This is all that is uncovered, although if archaeologists were to continue to dig to the right of the picture, they would find much more of the city—only a third has been excavated. The Italians did most of the excavation, here and at other sites around the island, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of World War II when they occupied the Dodecanese. Mussolini was actually having a summer house restored for himself on a mountain you could see from Kamiros, but he didn’t have a chance to use it before World War II broke out.

 

Next we stopped briefly at Monolitho’s Castle on the way to Lindos. It dated back as far as Kamiros but was then used in the time of the knights as a watchtower and garrison, keeping an eye out for pirates and enemy ships. The first is the castle from a distance, you can see how it’s high up on a kind of cliff. The next is some of the ruins, and the final is me with the view from the castle—it’s really breathtaking, with a great view of the coastline.

Our final destination of the day was Lindos, another famous town on Rhodes Island, famous for its acropolis, sandy beaches, and picturesque town. Once again, the acropolis dates back to archaic times and was topped with a temple dedicated to Athena, but was made over into a fortress in the fifteenth century of the knights. There were a lot of caves around Lindos—the one directly underneath the acropolis was actually where they filmed Guns of Navarrone—shout-out for mom’s favorite movie! (We also drove by Anthony Quinn Bay on the way back to Rhodes). After we climbed to the acropolis we had free time for two hours. I went with a couple of people to the beaches. This one, on the calm side of the island, was mostly sandy and smooth and clear as glass. We swam around between sailboats and floated easily in the salty water.

The first picture shows the beach we went to as seen from the base of the acropolis. The second is a mama cat and her kittens chilling on the rocks—they were so cute! The kittens were adorable and fearless, tramping around the ruins. The third shows the coast on the other side of the acropolis from the beach—cliffs that look like you could throw yourself off them and a small, enclosed bay. The fourth picture is the cave where Guns of Navarrone was filmed—the picture is not very good, I had to lean out pretty far to get even this though! Next, Nick and I at the acropolis, and then the whole group. Maria is the one in white in the center.

          

Today (Sunday) we took a boat to the nearby island of Symi. Because today was Pentecost in the Greek Orthodox church tomorrow is a bank holiday, and the boat was full of people heading to the island. We stopped on one side for about an hour to see the church of the Archangel Michael before heading on to Symi town. The church was very crowded. There were lots of people who brought huge candles or brooms with them—Maria said that Orthodox Greeks made tamas, or promises, sometimes when they pray. For instance, a woman having trouble conceiving can pray to a certain saint and promise to name her child after him/her if the saint helps her, or a sick person can promise to clean the church named for said saint if they will clean them of their sickness. The people who brought the brooms were doing just that—they would give just one or two quick sweeps, but they fulfilled their promise to the Archangel. “You can put it off, paidia, the saints understand”, Maria told us, “one, two, five, ten times you put it off, but sometime you must keep your promise”. The church was small but beautiful and covered in imagery and icons of the saints. There was a museum next to the church that had bottles and little wooden boats that had come, supposedly, from all over the world; people from around the globe would throw them into the water with offerings or prayers for the Archangel Michael inside and they would somehow find their way to the bay where the church was.

We got back on the boat and went round to the other side of the island, to Symi town, and had a few hours of free time. The town was cute but the beach there wasn’t much to speak of; it was maybe only thirty meters long, the rest of the coast was gigantic rocks of varying roughness. It was still so much fun, though. Nick, Hailey, and I swam along and explored the coast;  the water was clear and warm and there were all kinds of fish, snails, and sea urchins along the way. After a while we found some smooth slabs on the shore and laid out on them; I felt like a mermaid, but beached seal was probably a more accurate description. We half swam half clambered over the rocks back to the beach before heading back to the ship.

The first picture shows the crowd trying to get into the Archangel’s church. Maria was so happy to show us the church, and got us all laminated icons of the Archangel Michael, holy oil for our foreheads, and candles to light in prayer. The next is a picture of Symi island as the boat rounded the corner, the last the strip beyond the beach where we got in the water to swim.

So that was my weekend, exploring a little more of Greek lands and culture. Tomorrow my class is moved to the afternoon because of the holy day, but other than that it’s just business as usual here on my island!