Saturday, September 1, 2012

Anthony Quinn Bay and Bar Street in Rhodos Greece

After a short 1.5 hr ferry ride on the Flying Poseidon, we were finally in Greece!  We were herded through like sheep waiting to get through the immigration.  We negotiated cab fare to our apartment and the cab guy actually dropped us off at the wrong place which was by the beach, another 15 minutes walk with all our luggage in the hot blazing sun.  It was definitely not a great experience, I was certain I was going to give up backpacking.






We were greeted by an nice older Greek woman who showed us to our apartment.  I was so relieved when I saw the place we would be spending the next 5 days.  It was nice to have a "home" and not have to move around for the next couple of days.

The apartment came out to about $120.00 a night for 2 bedrooms with insuite bathrooms in each, a full kitchen, living room, patio, and most important, a swimming pool!  After splitting the costs, it was only $60.00 per a couple per a night, cheaper than most hotel rooms in the area!




We went out to grab a quick lunch to satisfy our growling stomachs.  The Mo and I split a "special burger" and potato "jackets" with beans and bacon at Mike's bar.  I know its not exactly Greek food but I plan on staying on a tight budget in Greece since the dollar exchange rate is weaker compared to the Euro.  Pretty much everything is 25% more in US currency in addition to the already marked up prices in the touristy beach town.

We returned back to meet our Greek American property owner Steve.  He was the nicest person we have met on the trip so far. He gave us a quick tour of the island and took us grocery shopping to pick up some food and supplies that we would need for our first night since we didn't get our car rental yet.



We took a dip in the pool to cool down and spent some time relaxing poolside from all the traveling we had done.  It was nice to just relax for the day without having an itinerary.




After the sunset, I prepared some appetizers for us to enjoy with drinks on our patio.  I made sauteed calamari, spiced chicken wings and fried sardines.  Syn made a great garlic pepper sauce to compliment the sardines.










We pregamed and enjoyed our snacks and Helen and I finished 2 bottles of red wine before heading to Bar street.  We walked around as bar promoters tried to lure us in with drink specials.  We stopped by a bar which was offering 2 drinks for 5 euros (a little of $6 USD).  After the drinks we weak, we moved on.










We hit up Jamaica bar and got a round of drinks.  We ordered an apple spice flavored  hookah, waterpipe for smoking tobacco.  We had lots of laughs before stumbling back to our apartment.  The boys ran out and got us a late night snack of a pork gyro and we all passed out.


What a great first night in Greece!