Rhodos

Early in the morning I arrived in the beautiful town of Rhodes. It has a well preserved old city center with ancient walls and the works. I decided I did not want to linger in the city as I did not accidentally run into Taco and Iljoesja. I decided to hitchhike south along the east coast. Most cars on Rhodes are rented by tourists and I found out that they seem not keen on taking hitch hikers or at least me. So I did not get very far from Rhodes city. I could have taken one of the buses but decided to just stay at the beach I hiked to while trying to get a ride. Early next morning I woke up with the feeling my upper lip was huge. It must have been stung by a insect. If it really was as it felt you can see at the picture I took to assess the damage as no mirror was near.

From the beach I now took a bus back to Rhodes city, having no confidence in any people willing to take me (my lip would not have helped me I guess). Now I decided to walk down the west coast to Lalyssos, the place Taco and Iljoesja rented an apartment. Again I could not find a nicely priced hotel and I now choose to sleep in the hills. I had settled nicely but had to text message Taco as he wanted to pick me up the next morning in Rhodes-city. This of course gave away I already was on the island and I was promptly invited for dinner, which I did not turn down. I wanted to meet them badly. Although I had frequent contact with Taco the previous months it felt really good to be goıng to fınally meet him and Iljoesja after the these months.

It took me a while before I could find them, also because I had not written down the name of the apartment complex correctly. When I walked past it, the name resembled the name on my note but I dismissed it as the place to be. It took some text messages to eventually get me at my desired destination. Their first reaction to me was that I lost weight. I had not really noticed that, I always was thin (skinny), may be they just had a incorrect thicker image of me. Iljoesja had dinner ready and we ate on the balcony, so I immediately could work on my weight

The next days we took it easy with a few occasions of activity. We twice rented bicycles for a day. They were only slightly more expensive than buying a bus ticket to Rhodes-city where we had dinner at the nights we rented them. At the same time it is fun to cycle especially at the seaside at dusk. One night our diner was paid for by my brother‘s parents so we ate slightly more expensive than the night before. After sleeping the first night at Taco and Iljoesja’s (T&I) place I decided it was better that I slept on my own, they also deserved a nice holiday of course. We did a little tour through the village in search of a cheap room, the cheapest turned out to be the one we visited first. Although still expensive in my view the location was pretty good, being just a couple of hundreds meter away from T&I. Other activities were few, we did some sightseeing in Rhodes-city a small bike tour and played some games of “boonanza” and once “Carcassonne”, Taco and I fooled around the swimming pool with a foam rugby ball, after an hour all other guests had left. Iljoesja every morning prepared breakfast, Taco and I should not have let her, she already did the too much, but it was so convenient. My apologies Iljoesja, I am not a bad person, just a bit lazy. On the 24th of May I got going again. After breakfast with T&I, prepared by Iljoesja, finished by a home made ice coffee, I took the bus to Rhodes city to take the ferry to Marmaris, Turkey. Iljoesja has made me a “survival” bag, with food and drinks. I had expected the ferry to leave at one o’clock but it sails only at four thirty. I kill the time by reading one of the books I got from T&I and by plundering by “survival”bag. The ferry is a rip off, although you almost can see the Turkish harbor and the trıp takes less than an hour a ticket costs 31 euro plus 19 euro taxes. At arrival a visa needs to be bought, it is not expensive, ten euro, but in total it cost me 60 euro to go to Turkey. It better be worth while!