I Can See Turkey From My Balcony

We arrived in Rhodes today and I am completely excited to be here. The flight only took 45 minutes which was refreshing and I got some nice reading time in as well.

So far it has been pretty cloudy/rainy here but I know it will brighten up soon. A couple of us went out to lunch when we arrived and walked up to an area of Rhodes City that has an entire street of pizza and souvlaki eateries. Some of the girls and I stopped at one of the pizza places to grab a quick slice and just enjoy each other’s company. The food was great but it was the couple that owned the eatery that had my attention.

Eating Pizza at Mama and Papa

They are called Mama and Papa and they don’t speak English. They don’t speak Greek either…They only speak Italian! This was certainly a change from what we had experienced in Athens and the other places we have visited. The culture of Rhodes is a little more of a variety, not really a melting pot, but Rhodes gets influences from many other places. For one….Italy. Mama and Papa pride themselves on being the original Italian eatery in Rhodes. They taught us a few words in Italian…which was very entertaining. Imagine how I have to pantomime everything in order to ask how to SAY that. At one point, I was trying to ask them how to say the food was delicious, so I walked up to them and said, ‘how do you say…’ and then rubbed my tummy and said YUMM..like a goofy American. They laughed WITH me and said ‘buono’ and we enjoyed the moment. They were so friendly and we easily broke down that language barrier.

View from the balcony...it's too dark to see Turkey. 

Another major influence in this area is Turkey…understandable since I can SEE Turkey from my balcony. Tonight at dinner there was a large table of Turkish people across the dining hall enjoying their conversation over mousaka. In areas of Athens we saw graffiti in Arabic hinting at the Middle Eastern and Turkish influence in Athens, but here it is a lot heavier. From what I have experienced here in the few hours I have been here, I already consider Rhodes to be a small melting pot with a variety of cultures and I am excited to do some real exploring in the city over the next week. I just wish I could take a day trip to TURKEY!