Fare Well Greece

So now we have completed our fitness training and heading for Turkey. Not sure if octopus, pasta and ouzo followed by gelato is the best choice for training but perhaps we have the carbohydrate loading at good levels.

 

Rhodes is an interesting mix of history, tourist travel and sunny living. The streets were a bit too touristy and busy, especially when Queen Elizabeth was in town for the day but we did manage to avoid most of that side of things and to see the parts of the city we were interested in. Staying in the old town for 4 days was a good decision as it gave the time and space to plan our activities.

 

We have caught up with summer. It finished last weekend and we hear the direct flights from Europe to here finish in the first week of November. The shops are closing earlier each night and soon they will either close for the season or open only when cruise boats are in town.

We spent almost a day in nearby Lindos but found it to be somewhat too busy, even at this time of year when the season is ended. And the only rain we have had arrived just as we selected our lounge and umbrella in anticipation of some swimming training.

 

 

 

Greece is still an eclectic mix of the world's people. We have mixed it with Germans, other Anglos, Scandanavians, Moldovites, Bulgarians, Romanians, Albanians, Italians, Turks, a few Arabs and of course Greeks. We have loved the fact that, unlike countries like France, one can get a meal or a drink almost any time of the day and nothing is too difficult for visitors. The French would do well not to close up and go home for lunch and to think more about just where their euros are coming from. Maybe their deficit will be big enough to encourage them to change their French ways before we get back there.

 

Meanwhile, people here seem to be bit like the Irish in that whilst things might be tough, one just gets on with living. The Greeks love a laugh and a joke. And they are good at teaching us the language in a friendly way.

 

So fare thee well Greece and onto non European Europe in Turkey. We are thinking of becoming temporary Kiwis whilst there, given current circumstances in the country of my birth. 

 

Looking forward to a few Turkish hill climbs-not.