Trip to Rhodes #1

Hi, everybody! I've missed you all. We got back home from Rhodes already on Monday morning, but we got SO tired and yesterday I spent a long time resizing and uploading pictures and writing a long email to my parents. I don't know where to start, actually. So many things to tell ha ha ha ha ha...but OK then, let me start from the beginning.

On June 7th, 2009, we drove to Oulu and arrived at the airport 3 hours before the flight. The flight was delayed an hour since there was so much air traffic going to Rhodes and since Rhodes' airport was small, some of the flights had to be delayed. So we had to wait an hour after getting inside the plane. Mind you that when we left Oulu, it was only 9'C there. We arrived in Rhodes at around 1 am. It was actually good that we had a night flight, since then the temperature in Rhodes was only around 24'C. Not too hot for us to handle. A bus took us to our hotel ('coz we paid already for it through our trip organizer) and we slept right away.

The first two days we just had breakfast at the hotel, then swam and sunbathed near the pool and then take a walk around the hotel area. To be honest, when I first got there, I was rather surprised to see it so arid (esp. compared to Finland and esp. near our hotel area), but then we visited many touristry places afterwards and we got to see beautiful places. But let's take it one step at a time, 'coz I've got tonz of pics to show you he he he he...

Here are some pics of our hotel and the surrounding area:


Below is a pic of the hotel pool. Though it's not too big, but still the water's SO cool that we love swimming there. You can see R2 lounging here on one of the sun beds.


Below is a view from our balcony.


Next pic is another side of the balcony at dusk.


Here are some pics of the area near our hotel. We had to walk around 200 metres to reach the main street from our hotel.



Next pic: Notice the bus stop on the left side of the pic (across the street). It was the bus stop to go to Lindos - costing €3.5/person.


Below is one of the few tourist trains around Faliraki area. You can take this kind of tourist train to go around the area - depending on the routes, it can cost around €4-6/person.

The real bus that goes to downtown Rhodes (which is called "Rodos" - yep, we have to tell the bus driver that we're going to Rodos if we want to go to the city) comes either every 30 minutes or 20 minutes. I think before mid June, it came only every 30 minutes, but then after mid June, it came more frequently. We have to pay €2/person to get to Rodos from Faliraki and it takes around 20 minutes to get there.


Below is a pic of me at Faliraki Beach. Renting a sunbed here costs €3.5/person.


One kissing-couple statue near Faliraki Beach.


The main street near our hotel in Faliraki area. Notice the orange-looking restaurant on the right side? It's called Pancho's, a Mexican resto. We went there twice. GREAT service and GREAT, SPICY food! Highly recommended! :-D


When we asked the waitress of Pancho's to take a pic of us, she immediately lent us these sombreros he he he he he...


Below is a pic of a beautiful-looking resto in Faliraki area. Went there once and the food was great! :-D


One of the clubs/bars in Faliraki area. We never did go there, though he he...


Here's another one. Yabba Dabba Doo!!!!!!!!!!!


This one is King Arthur's Bar. We went there twice to see a free live hypnotist show. Every Friday there's a live hypnotist show at 10 pm. It was hilarious! Unfortunately couldn't take pics or videotape the event. Oh well...



We were at Pasha's Bar in this next pic. I had the BEST cocktail drink ever, called "Grasshopper" (€5). It was minty and not too sweet. Very fresh and yummy, though I didn't drink it all 'coz I was afraid of my allergy, so R2 drank half of it he he he...There's a live music show every night at 9 pm here, an Aussie duo - they sing and play guitars. Great combo!


One night we went to a very small amusement park in Faliraki area and we decided to go up this ride to see the view from above.




We were SO lucky that there was full moon in the sky when we got up there. Thus we got to see this spectacular view. Unfortunately no pic can describe how beautiful it is when you see it for yourself. I stopped breathing for a few seconds when I first saw it...just magnificent!!! The way the waves make the moonlight reflection move about...just gorgeous!



Okay, I think it's enough for my first post. Yesterday I went to the office to ask about my job training contract, but the boss of the place wasn't there, so I have to wait until he gets back. It does seem that they need me to start soon, so I think sometime next month I'll get busy again, doing a 3-month training. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I have an appointment with a gynocologist on July 14th to do a preliminary check-up since I'm not pregnant yet after one year trying. She says R2 doesn't have to come yet 'coz this is just phase one. Well, I hope there aren't too many phases and that they can find out what the problem is (if there is an obvious problem). I'll keep you updated.

Time to blog-hop a bit, then EXERCISE!!! I've gained some weight after the holiday 'coz the food portions in Rhodes were SO HUGE - I didn't want to waste all the food, so I always tried to eat every meal as much as I could.

Oh yeah, almost forgot...the weather in Rhodes during the day while we were there was around 33-38'C. After sunset, though (at around 8 pm), the temperature dropped down to 23-25'C (which was nice). However, due to the heat and the fact that I often wore a hat (or a helmet when we rented a motorbike), it was just hard to have a good hair day he he he he...