Weekend in Rhodes

In November, Rhodes is mostly empty of tourists, except those who arrive by cruise ship and flood the town on hurried visits supporting the island’s economy with their purchases.

The merchants seem well coordinated with their arrival and open their shops in time to create a bustling market atmosphere along the quaint corridors of the old city.

The ancient city of Rhodes is one of the best preserved medieval cities of its kind and a UNESCO world heritage site. It is when the tourist leave that the city is at its most beautiful, when the past can be heard through the silence.

Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, Jewish and Italian heritage have left their imprint on the island leaving a rich and layered history.

The Colossus, considered the seventh wonder of the ancient world was build overlooking the harbor to celebrate the Rhodian’s victory and freedom over Demetrius of Macedonia.  The statue of Helios, patron god of Rhodes became the inspiration behind the Statue of Liberty.

Time goes on and Rhodes has become a juxtaposition of ancient and new, forever changing and developing.

While planning my trip to Rhodes, I actually was not thinking of any of this. I was thinking of preparing enough food for my family to fare over the three days I would be absent. I was thinking what to pack- I took everything as I could not decide. “You took fewer clothes when we went for a month to Alaska” my husband said, baffled. He had a point. My husband was to man the house while I took off for a long weekend with my friend, Yael, who also didn’t have any extra time to study the rich history of the Island we were visiting. “I want to do nothing” she announced so at the airport we each picked out two of the stupidest women’s magazines we could find as neither of us had any energy to think that hard.

Of course it’s actually quite hard to do nothing so on the first night I dragged Yael to Fotis Melathron, a recommended restaurant in the old city, we wandered around in the completely pitch black vacant alleyways with Yael’s high heeled boots clattered loudly on the pebbled road. We eventually found the prettiest, romantic restaurant, but ……..

this is strange, where are all the people? “Hello? Is anyone there,” we called out hesitantly.  Like on cue, out popped an immaculate waiter ready to take us to our table as if waiting especially for us. Yael made the mistake of being adventurous “I would like the risotto with the catfish”

“Catfish?” I asked as we were very far from Louisiana. So she squinted at the menu again, “Eh, cuttlefish? Risotto with cuttlefish”

“It’s a little bit different” said the waiter and he hurried away.

Meanwhile we enjoyed bread, green salad, roasted eggplant and a lovely fish soup but when Yael was presented with her risotto she looked like she was about to faint. “I can’t eat this!”

“Taste it!” I urged “you might like it”. Ha ha! it was easy for me to say, I ordered a nice grilled sea bream. She took the tiniest nibble, a nanobite into her mouth but immediately turned white “Sarah! It’s Alive! I- CAN- NOT- EAT -THIS!”

Of course it wasn’t alive, but the little tentacles decorated her tar black rice was enough to freak her out completely.

So she called the waiter “I am really, really, really sorry but I cannot eat this!” I quickly propose to switch meals as since my trip to China I am a bit less squeamish (it was quite tasty in fact).

After that we ate only Greek pastries such as spanakopitas and lots of cappuccinos while watching the world go buy. We found the most delightful bakery shop called koukos cafe with all kinds of delicious sweet and savory pastries.

In other parts of town many of the hotels and restaurants were boarded up for the low season but the Imperial hotel, a decrepit building on an unlit street looked like it was last opened during the heyday of Audrey Hepburn.

If I ignored the language, the Greeks we encountered could have been the same as those living in Israel, as globalism has reduced the differences. Dress, body language and even the style of talking all reminded me of Israeli and the Mediterranean mentality.

Before we flew back home we visited the beach for one last time to breath in the tranquility before returning to the fast paced norm of our lives.