Rhodes Old City

Took an overnight ferry from Crete to the island of Rhodes for a few days. Onboard the ferry, I found some clear floorspace in the card table room, which I commandeered as my sleeping area. This is a photo of me on the floor. The combination of the low-pile carpet, bright lights, and arctic temperature of the air-conditioned air made restful sleep challenging.



Disembarking the ferry in Rhodes was an interesting process.









Some of my random photos of Rhodes Old City.






























An incredibly dense shop (below). The path through it is so narrow that passing someone can be dangerous.



The simple apartment that I rented was within the fortification walls of the old city.



The view from the apartment's rooftop deck.

Location:Rhodes, Greece

Crete, part 3

As I've mentioned earlier, the food that I've had in Crete has been wonderful. One experience that stands out was a small taverna in the tiny village of Kato Symi that is famous throughout Crete for it's lamb chops. The family raises the lamb themselves, which they roast around an open wood fire (shown below). The aroma of both the wood fire and the slow cooking lamb was intoxicating.







Some random food photos from the past week.










The Church of the Ayios Georgios in the ancient town of Phaistos.







Spent three days in the small coastal village of Matala... lots of hiking, eating, sleeping, swimming, and cliff jumping. Really beautiful place. Forgot to take photos. Here's the main parking structure in Matala... in harmony with the natural surroundings. I was impressed with it.







One of the friendly local goats in Ferma.






Is that a smile?




This is one of the local villagers, who had lots of interesting stories to tell. Fortunately my Greek friends we there to translate. He's 84, takes no medications, hasn't seen a doctor since 2007. His diet consists primarily of legumes, vegetables, and fruits (all of which he grows himself), along with some occasional chicken and fish.




On one evening song and dance broke out at one of the local tavernas.










Yesterday we drove high up into the mountains in southern Crete to participate in the annual St. Mary's Name Day Panayiri village festival. Everyone was having fun... great food, awesome traditional live Cretan music and dancing in the village square.

Location:Greece

Crete, part 2

Enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the spectacularly beautiful Vulisma Beach in Agios Nikolaos. The little grass-roofed bar on the sand played reggae all day. So relaxing.









Mousaka, the Greek version of lasagna. So tasty...



An authentic village salad... particularly good in Crete. I have at least one of these everyday, sometimes two.



John's sister Evie came with us to Crete... I captured an interesting photo of her eating grilled octopus and drinking ouzo on a particularly warm windy night.



Spent a day wandering around the little town of Agios Nikolaos.









Had dinner at a great little taverna in the town of Makry-Gialos. Great company and food. I may have had a tad too much raki that night.






One evening we decided to barbecue... we ran across Beelzebub hanging out on the side of the road near our place and we asked him to cook the meat for us, figuring he knew a thing or two about fire. As expected, he overcooked the lamb.



The Perseid meteor shower is currently taking place, so a few nights this week we stayed outside until the early morning counting shooting stars.

Location:Greece