Tidbits about Rhodes Trip

1. We saw a black snake crossing the street when we went down the mountain from Profitis Ilias monastery on our ATV. Almost ran over its tail. That was scary!!!

2. The winding road towards Profitis Ilias monastery is pretty narrow and there are no railings on each side of the road (it was a rocky mountain, so if you fall down, then you'll definitely be in HUGE trouble!). Thus my heart was beating fast when we were going up the winding road and a big tourist bus was going down that road. Why? Because I realize that there was little space left for both vehicles when they were side by side.

3. The road signs in Rhodes aren't too good (we found out from some tourist guides that other tourists have been complaining about this problem too) and there aren't any good road maps, either. The problem is that the smaller roads or paths don't even have names (even on the maps), so we got lost a few times. But still it was a fun adventure! :-D Though you'd better prepare some water with you just in case you get lost somewhere in a desert-like place with no people or house in sight.

4. Met two Swedish tourist guides in Filerimos area and one of them asked me, "You're not married, are you?" When I told her the truth, she said, "Oh...I didn't think you were married 'coz you look so young. How old are you, anyway, 20 years old?" She was shocked when I told her the truth HA HA HA HA HA...

5. Strangely enough, it's hard to find a spa in Rhodes. Even before we flew there, I tried browsing for some spas, but there weren't too many that I found. I remember that in Singapore and Bali it's SO easy to find spas.

6. When we were sunbathing at Tsambika Beach, we saw a few people walking around holding a sign: Foot Massage. I didn't ask for the price, though, so I don't know how much it costs.

7. We found many British people either working there or going there as tourists. Strangely enough, there are only a few Asians in Rhodes. The most Asians I met were found in Lindos and I guess they are mostly Japanese tourists.

8. One time we went to a Chinese restaurant and when collecting our empty plates, the waitress (who appeared to be a Thai girl), asked me where I originally came from. When I told her the answer, she said, "I thought so too." I wonder how on earth she could guess that I came from Indo.

9. The first two days I was there, whenever I wanted to say "thank you", I'd instead say "kiitos". It just automatically came out of my mouth. One time this "accidental kiitos" made one waiter talk to us in Finnish. Yep, since there have been many Finnish tourists in Rhodes, most of the people who work in restaurants or souvenir shops can speak a little bit of Finnish. Interesting, isn't it? :-D

10. To answer Burcu's question: The Greek I met there were very friendly people. They loved asking where we came from and if they knew the language, they'd then speak some words or phrases of that language.

Unfortunately I know nothing much about their language other than it sounds funny and they speak SOOOOO fast (even on telly). One interesting thing is that every night on TV there's this weather report girl in BIKINIS!!! Yep...

And we did visit the mosque in the Old Town, Burcu...here're the pics:


And here's the ceiling of the mosque - unfortunately it's a bit blurry.


11. The waitresses and waiters in restaurants and bars in Rhodes liked asking, "Okay?" or "Is everything okay?" after they've served us a meal or drinks (sometimes they asked even while we were still eating or drinking). I find this interesting. :-D

12. Found this Chinese resto in Faliraki area (I think the person who worked there looked like an Indian guy) and I was nicely surprised to see "gado gado" in the menu. I didn't order it, though it's interesting to find an Indo menu there despite the fact that I didn't see too many Asians there he he...

13. At night we can hear crickets in the bushes and in the morning there are birds chirping nearby. Birds love drinking water from our hotel pool. It's just SO cute to see them drink water from the pool (though it's hard to catch them do that on camera).

14. There are some mosquitoes in Rhodes and they managed to suck our blood, too, so we had to buy mosquito repellant and lotion. One of the mosquito lotions we bought smelled SO bad, though it worked quite well. Uuughhhh...

15. When we arrived in Rhodes airport at around 1 am and after we took our luggage, we noticed two gates to get out: one for EU citizens and one for non-EU citizens. I had my passport in my hand, but there was NOBODY there to check it. When we checked in to fly back to Finland, the check-in counter girl did check my passport, but we didn't get any stamp on our passports. They also didn't check whether we brought too much fluid in our handbags or not, so I assume that they're not that strict.

16. We were told that the tap water in Rhodes was drinkable, but the taste might be different due to the high deposit of calcium in it. So we opted to buy bottled water (buying bottled water from our hotel proved to be cheaper, so we bought it from there and stored the bottles in our fridge).

After finding out that bringing just cold water from the fridge to go out wasn't enough ('coz it turned warm SO fast and in the end we had to buy cold drinks from a cafe or resto), we decided to make some ice. So in the evening we'd put about 1/2 of water in a 1.5-litre bottle in the freezer and in the morning we'd add some cold water into it and it stayed cold for a few hours in our backpack. This way we saved a little bit of money 'coz we didn't have to buy drinks all the time.

17. Contrary to Finland, we can't throw tissue into toilet bowls in Rhodes. I'm telling you that after having lived in Finland for a while, it gets hard to get rid of this habit. So everywhere in every toilet in Rhodes, you'll see the sign "Do not throw tissue into the toilet bowl!" (once we even found a sign that said "Do not through tissue into the toilet" and it made us laugh ha ha...). However, every once in a while you'll see some tissue paper floating inside the toilet bowls. I guess old habits die hard he he he...