For my fall break, while all of my friends went to exotic locations all around Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, I decided to stay in Greece and travel to Rhodes and Santorini, completely alone. As one of my professors described it very beautifully, I needed to get out of this Petri dish of people. So off I went.
After my 15 hour ferry ride, I stumbled off the boat, exhausted and confused as to where I was in the Rhodes town. After about 20 minutes of wandering around with my pack on back and without any sleep, I realized that the map I had did not show the harbor I was docked in. I was off the grid. Have no fear, Intuition is here! Somehow I made it to the tourist office and then from there to my hotel.
After setting down my things, I walked along the deserted beach to the aquarium. It was really neat and a relieving change from the overload of archaeology sites I've been going to in the last few weeks.
Sea Anemones
However, you can take a girl out of an archaeology site,
but you can't take the archaeology out of the girl. I soon found myself in the archaeology museum wandering around and marveling at all the sculpture and mosaics. This may be one of my favorite museums, yet. It was a converted 15th century hospital for the knights on the islands.
While you can easily get lost and the rooms aren't the best for "flow," the architecture of the
building rivaled the pieces it was used to display. Many times, I caught myself oh-ing and ah-ing at the building itself rather than the beautiful mosaic in front of me.
That night, I hung out at a quaint little coffee shop right near my hotel. I talked a lot with my waiter, Armand, and he invited me to take me up to the Acropolis and show me around the next day. My own personal tour guide!
The next morning came a little too soon and I woke up to sounds of crashing thunder. It was a monstrous storm. I hung out at a [different] cafe until it passed then met up with Armand that afternoon. We made our way up to the Acropolis and around the stadium. We ended at this gorgeous scenic road that looked over the entire city of Rhodes. It was quite windy and cold, but I was having a blast.
The Acropolis of Rhodes
After Armand and I parted ways, I explored the Old Town a bit more and found a great pizza and tea shop (weird combination, I know, but somehow it worked) called The Walk Inn. The owner was a Greek-American who grew up in Baltimore. Apparently I was the third girl from New Jersey who ate at his place today. Watch out, We're Invading!
The next day, I was going to pick up my ferry ticket for Santorini and just relax at a cafe and people watch, my absolute favorite activity. When I got to the travel agency, there were a few problems. Actually, just one big problem. There was no ship. Because of the huge storm the day before, the ferry was unable to dock. The next one would be coming on Monday. WHAT?! I'm stuck here? No thank you, that answer does not suffice, please try again. The travel agent was quite helpful though and was able to refund my ticket and get me on a plane back to Athens that night. A one hour flight versus a 15 hour ferry, for about the same price? Count me in!
Although I was not able to see Santorini, I experienced a lot of Rhodes and was able to detox from the overstimulation of constantly being around people. All in all, it was a successful fall break!
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