In Rhodes

Apologies if there are repeats of info... I lost my blog posting from yesterday and I can't remember what I've already said!
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Last few thoughts about Turkey..

We splurged on a meal in Marmaris (in the non-touristy area) where we got to try about 5 different dishes. They were all very good! Lots of spinach and interesting spices and he threw in a salad for free - good salesman ;^) Total was about 20 TRY and we were stuffed. We were reluctant to eat in restaurants during our time in Turkey because we thought we might get ripped off and wanted to keep costs low, but the 2 sit down meals we had were very good and no one cheated us at all.

When you stay at non-hostels, people seem to trust you to pay the bill before you leave... you don't leave your passport with them during your stay (in fact, it is good to keep your passport with you in case the police ask you for ID which happened once on a bus), and they don't ask for a credit card imprint as in Canada. It appears they assume you will just pay and they can trust you.

We saw a lot of security guards/police wherever we went in Turkey, but we never felt unsafe (except for maybe from carpet salesmen ;^)

Another nice thing about Turkey is that it is an Islamic edict to have public water available, so you see taps where you can help yourself to drinking water. The tap water is safe to drink here, but like in NA people seem to like bottled water. The taps sometimes come out of elaborately decorated little buildings.

Saw marble being mined during the last few days of our trip. You see it used rather generously on steps, in bathrooms, tabletops, etc. (in this part of the country) even in rather ordinary places.
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Yesterday we took the ferry from Marmaris (Turkey) to Rhodos Town (Rhodes, Greece). The ferry was quite expensive (40 + 40 port fee TRY) for a 1 hr catmarin trip. (I think TRY is the short form for Turkish Lira.) Oh, I forgot to mention before we had to pay $60US for a VISA when we entered Turkey - Canada is the most expensive of all countries! The rates seem to fluctuate based on how relations are between Turkey and other countries as they used to charge $100US for tourists from the USA (now I think it is $20).

The ferry ride was pleasant, and it reminded me of taking the ferry around the gulf islands (but drier).

After going thru customs, we inquired as to the frequency of ferries to Crete as we thought we'd like to go there next (or Santorini, but Crete is somewhat of a hub). They said they only went once/week (though we later found out other companies went more frequently) and that the next sailing was Saturday. We didn't think we'd like to spend 9 days in Rhodes, so we booked cabins (38 euros each) for an overnight trip tomorrow. Unfortunately we are in separate cabins (sex segregated - otherwise it would have been 2x as much) but it is still cheap I think for a 15 hour trip.

We were then touted by some hotel owners, but we had read not to trust them and didn't like the looks of them anyway. Armed with our Rough Guide and a map, we entered the old city and found a nice place called Niki's to stay at for 30 euros/night (shared bath) but nice and clean with breakie. Not as posh as Efe Apart but we're not in Turkey any more and we expected prices to be higher. But it is still much better than a hostel! Got mixed vibes from the owner as to whether he trusted us or not, but he seems to be a nice guy with good english.

We spent yesterday & today wandering around the old city (which still has its wall intact - you enter the city through specific gates - cool eh?) Tim was again in his glory pointing out the slits from which to shoot arrows at invaders, marvelling at the thickness of the walls, looking at the moat, towers, and soaking up the atmosphere. The city is indeed very impressive and worth the visit. I'm still having trouble walking down the narrow streets where cars/bicycles/motorbikes motor along at high speeds, and as usual, I always become disoriented and don't know how to get back to the pension. Today we walked to the restored hippodrome (sp?) and small theatre where they did not charge admission - a nice change! People were even jogging around the hippodrome (and around the old city walls too) for exercise.

There are more tourists here so we've been talking to some of them. We found a tiny little square near where we are staying (in the old city BTW), but away from the very touristy tourist shops. There we saw people gardening in their pajamas (locals no doubt) and then met a rather kooky lady from Texas. She fed about 10 cats(there are *lots* of cats here!) and offered all sorts of advice about Greece (then she tried to tout her services as a massage therapist). Then we wet a couple from Deep Cove BC who were very nice and who might know Tim's ex-coworker at Dynastream (or at least his family anyway).

Near our pension we found a cheap place to eat (2.20 euro for a gyro), run by a guy who looks strikingly like Richard (except that he is greek and has more hair, all white). We call him the grump greek 'cause he is. ;^)

Parts of the old city cater to the day trippers who want to shop, but the cajoling to sample their wares is very tame compared to Turkey.

Young women here dress like any westerner or rather hip european and you see them working in the shops (big difference from Turkey were we saw very few women working). The vibe is more relaxed than Turkey and feels rather western (you can talk to men and smile hello to them and not worry about them thinking you think they are the cats meow).

As far as finding things which make us happy... we had a cappuchino (sp?) (TH) (TH for makes Tim happy, JH for makes Joanne happy) in a non -touristy part of town (JH), then found a supermarket (JH!!!) with cheap food (JH!!) which we bought for our ferry journey tomorrow. Explored a fair bit of the non-touristy part of the new city where 'normal' people live (JH).

The new city seems to be normal to posh, but we had a hard time locating the supermarket or fruit stands. Lots of people speak english here (more than Turkey).

So far, oddly enough, I like Turkey better than Greece, but I'm probably still getting used to Greece. Also, we find it usually takes us about 2 days to get oriented to a new town (around which time we leave - go figure). Greece will be a bit trickier for us to plan than Turkey since we are dependant on less frequent ferries than normal(since it is off season). We think we will spend some time in Crete then go to Santorini, but that is subject to change without notice.