Parallel Rhodes (Part IV)

Before our final day on Rhodes, we ventured out into some of the oldest parts of Rhodes town, creatively called "The Old Town" and spent a good part of the morning and afternoon there. The Old Town is the original fortress that protected Rhodes for centuries from all sorts of invaders and it changed hands multiple times when some combatant or another would cramp up and not be granted a time out. The Turks, Crusaders, Greeks, Nazis all held this part of Rhodes at some point or another and all of those factions had some role to play in shaping Old Town. The Crusaders were the ones to originally fortify the outer walls to what they are today. You look at this section of Rhodes and all you see are walls stretching for hundreds of yards and wrapping around the city. The town is still formatted in the style most commonly associated with Medieval towns and architecture. High stone buildings, beautiful catholic churches and long narrow streets that, although quaint now, had to be teeming with piles and piles of human waste back in the day. Amidst all of this though, are elaborate Turkish fountains crafted during the Turkish occupation where the language of the conquerors is still visible when not violently scratched out by vandals. Right next to a specific Turkish fountain was the former Temple of Athena that once stood gloriously defiant amongst the Medieval backdrop now lying in ruins with columns and artifacts just barely visible in the tan stone. Three conflicting cultures and evidence of the their makers all encapsulated in an area no bigger than a courtyard.

A lion devouring the head of a bull. The grave marker of somebody really awesome.

That was all the beauty of Old Town, and it truly is a must see for anybody visiting Rhodes. Until this point however, I haven't really elaborated on the title of these series of posts. Maybe I got distracted or just maybe I liked the sound of the pun better than the actual subliminal meaning behind it. Who knows? Old Town though is the perfect example of Rhodes' cultural clash. Old Town has been almost completely converted into a tourist trap. I understand the economics of it, with Rhodes' economy so reliant on tourism, why wouldn't you but to defile a city like this with commercialism was very disappointing. I half expected a Medieval themed bouncy castle to be present in the middle of the beautiful stone streets with a sign erected above it saying "Ye Old Hoppy House." Vendors occupied buildings that you know must have been something extraordinary to witness back in Old Town's prime. Of course the glamor of Medieval life portrayed so famously by Disney is hardly accurate everything in town must have been rather gritty and the smell must have been noxious. Either way, there is a rustic beauty in even the most primitive of lifestyles, especially in castles. To see such things as an elaborate Turkish banker's home turned into "Dave's Wi-Fi Cafe" was particularly disappointing. I stared at the walls of a place that you know saw thousands of years of bloodshed and history and wished I could have been that stone for a day or two to witness how much has changed and how much we really don't know. Tourist traps are a problem wherever you go and this isn't my first experience with them, but even at the Great Wall, my favorite moment was at the end of the reconstructed section, staring at the remnants of the wall untouched by man for centuries and left to the mercy of time.

Our final day in Rhodes was a busy, but nonetheless incredible adventure. We climbed back aboard the hellacious diesel contraption that was our tour bus and headed out to see several sites before returning aboard our ferry bound for Athens. We spent a little time at an Archaeological Museum in Old Town looking at tombs and old pottery which was very interesting but not enough to go into super great detail about. Also spent a brief moment at a Monastery that sported some incredibly views of the island and then made our way to the highlight of the day, Ancient Kamiros. Kamiros is an incredibly old Greek city that is still being unearthed and has given historians some of the greatest looks into Ancient Greek culture. The foundations of many houses, streets, temples and bathhouses were still standing and it allowed you to get a vague idea of the layouts of these cities. The craftsmanship was so marvelous that these structures that were subterranean for almost two thousand years, yet were able to resist nature's wrath and survive to be unearthed. I was in awe of the place, not only the city itself but the views it held. The city rose steadily up the crest of the peak we were on and must have been the Goliath of the region when it was at it's best. There was so much history in that place and for the first time I got a feel of just how advanced these people were. I made an earlier reference of the Greek's being the hipsters of history; well, Kamiros was their frames with no lenses.


The ancient city of Kamiros.

By the time we were finished with Kamiros, most of us were pretty beat. We hadn't exactly gotten much sleep from the staying up all night and being forced to sleep in rooms that you could most equate to boiler rooms on the Sun. No air conditioning in the rooms plus 95 degree heat equals sleeping outside on the patio. So, we took the Trail of Tears to the bus once again and departed for the Valley of the Butterflies. Now that might not sound like the most exciting thing, and we didn't think so either, but it wound up being a really pleasant trip. For those of you familiar with Misawa's Oriase Gorge, the Valley of the Butterflies is essentially that populated by the spawn of Mothra. For those of you not so familiar with that locale, take the Garden of Eden and add a crap load of stairs. The hike up 900 meters of stairs wasn't exactly easy but the trip was well worth it. At the top was a locally owned family home that ran a refreshment service out of their kitchen essentially. I treated myself to quite possibly the greatest yogurt dish that I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. Greek yogurt with honey and nut crumbs was the absolute perfect way to cap off our hike. Also at the top was a small church where some us performed a Greek Orthodox prayer and, imagine that, a fantastic view of the island!

Summit of the Valley of Butterflies

We returned to the ferry port and finally had to say goodbye to Rhodes, it was a fantastic trip overall and I'm so happy to have spent just a little bit of time dipping a toe into Greek culture. We left with high expectations for what the rest of the trip would have in store. Leaving on the ferry I was once again thrust into the lives of George Clooney's crew in "The Perfect Storm" as the trip back was not one bit smoother than the one before. Most of my optimism was hence offered as a sacrifice to the Porcelain God...