Sunday, August 28, 2005
So, the remainder of the journey was spent in Rodos, which was super touristed compared to karpathos, and frankly, not as impressive. (just don't tell that to the hordes of package tourists that go there)
Rodos old town is a castle fortification surrounded by palm trees. Interesting visually, but somehow not as daunting as i want castle fortified walls to be. When i see walls like this i'm thinking grey rainy weather, and a peaty, damp bog surrounding the place. But in rodos, it feels more like a casino in palm springs.
Half of the old town's streets are filled with super kitsch tourist shops ...kinda takes away from the original feel.
The other half are barren, thin, and pleasant to walk through. We tried to wander off the beaten path.
What's greece without the kitties?
Brandon feeble attempt at art
A window i liked.
A looooong street. (of the knights of the templar of palm trees or something like that)
We had gotten the gist of the old town after about a half a day. The rest of the day we spent lounging in cafes and napping. That night we hit some Rodos nightlife which was pretty scary actually. Uber-tanned dutch, danes, and germs all trying a *little* too hard. I think we may just passed a bunch of bars and went home without going into any.
Before that though, i passed this little number. One of the few 'positive' points about scarfing down big macs, is at least you have to get off your fat ass to buy one. (at the least from your front door to your car door) In rodos, you don't even have to bother with that.
Monday, August 29, 2005
It was time to skip rodos town and spend the day driving around the island. We picked up a little green hornet and hit the road.
First stop was lindos, along the east coast. It has an acropolis of its own that had seemingly as many tourists as the one in athens.
The ass' ass. We briefly considered the option of renting a donkey to take us up, but then decided it was just as easy to follow one up the hill.
Could the beach at lindos manage to squeeze even one more umbrella on it?
I like donkeys.
So we paid the 6 euros or whatever it was to actually enter the acropolis, figuring it would be filled with ancient beautiful wonders. Well, upon entering you get to marvel at: a huge jumble of rocks, yippee! (though i'm sure they're a historically significant jumble of rocks.)
We wandered up a little further to find: hey, another huge jumble of rocks! Now i was beginning to see why they offered very little info as to what you would find inside before you were charged.
Up further they had some steps and fake ruins at least.
Having our fill of rock jumbles for the day, we took off down the east coast, turning off the road just before reaching the southern most part of the island.
Now THIS is what i'm talking about. Look to the right: nothin but beach.
Look to the left: nothin but beach.
And to top it off the water was bathtub warm.
Meaning of course, down to the skivvies! (our suits were left at home, not expecting to swim that day)
After the refreshing dip we hit the road again, now coming up the west side of the island.
On this cliff deal there is a little church built (of course) that you can hike up to.
The view from there was real good, ya hear?
After lunching on cat meat moussaka...
We hit some rodos roads doing their best imitation of karpathos.
And when stopping by this mini-village, came across this too-cool-for-words, burnt out, stripped down ???? not really sure what it was. School...civil office...whatever it was if i was a 10 year old i could of spent a summer inside it.
We got back to our hotel to join Mihalis (the hotel manager) watching tapes of his off-roading exhibitions through rodos backwaters. It looked pretty cool and harrowing all at once.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Alas, another verrry early wake up call.
I was privy to some awesome island shots on the way back to athens.
More island beauty from the air.
Our last day in Athens we looked at piles of junk
and at mannequins cut up and left for dead...
And rolled the dice, yo.
That be greece!