Exploring The Islands

Wednesday was a busy day, we left the hotel at 8am to find a taxi to take us to the port so that we could catch the boat going to Symi. The boat was supposed to leave at 9 and we got there nice and early hoping to catch good seats. It turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea, there were no seats near the water on the top floor so we went down to the lower deck to find seats.

We snagged seats near the railing and enjoyed the view for about an hour when Sea mentioned that she had to pee. We asked around and were pointed in the direction of the bathrooms which appeared to be in the inside of the boat, we walked through the doors and were quite shocked with what we found.

The VIP lounge (ok so not really VIP but still pretty cool if you ask me) it was sleek and snazzy with comfy couches galore, this is how you ride in style.
We looked around for a place to sit and ended up crashing a lovey dovey couples party by taking over the end of their couch. We lounged on the couch for an hour or so feeling pretty cool until we noticed that we were getting pretty close to land.

We stepped off of the boat and on to the tiny island, it was gorgeous!!!

There were a bunch of tour guides waiting outside the boat, we found an English speaking one and tagged along with her group listening to various facts about the island. She asked if anyone wanted to see a church and as it turned out, a lot of people did. Sea and I weren't so interested in the church so the guide gave us some suggestions and directions before leading the group away.

The houses were built into the mountainsides and there were staircases going all the way up to the houses. 

Sea wanted to explore the side streets but I wasn't thrilled at the thought of climbing another mountain in my naot, I decided to wait in the shade while she clambered off into the distance. 

I sat on my perch looking down at the picturesque village below me and waited for Sea to return. She came down the stairs twenty minutes later and we headed back down towards the village.

We walked along the edge of the water until we came to another set of stairs that lead into the water where people were jumping into the bay. 

When we went to Lindos we hadn't thought to bring bathing suits with us despite the fact that we were on an island with beaches all along the coat. Most of the people in our group had gone down to the beaches while we wandered about the market place. 

We were determined not to miss out on the next opportunity so we had shoved bathing suits and towels (and sunscreen) into our bags before leaving the hotel figuring that we would find a bathroom to change in if the opportunity arose. 

The sun was beating down on us and the clear blue water looked so inviting, we set off to find somewhere to change. We wandered around for a good while but couldn't find any bathrooms, finally we found a hotel and thought that we were saved. We climbed up the steps to the front door only to discover that the doors were locked. We looked at our watches and noticed how much time we had wasted, there was only an hour left before we had to return to the boat! Resolute and steadfast in our decision we looked around for an alternative and noticed a small alleyway that seemed to be deserted. Years of changing for the pool at summer camp and on the sides of mountains during school tiyulim came into practice and we managed to get into our bathing suits before anyone came around the corner.

We walked back to the stairs and jumped right in, the water was cool and much appreciated after being out in the sun all morning.

We stayed in the water for about half an hour and then got out to dry off and head back to the boat. The news about the lounge had spread like wildfire and there weren't many seats left so we sat up on deck.
The boat stopped again in front of a big church and everyone got off, Sea and I didn't want to go into the church so we walked around for a total of five minutes before getting back on the boat. Since most of the people had gotten off the boat we were able to get a seat inside and the ride back to Rhodes was nice and comfy.
Back on Rhodes we looked around for a taxi to get us back to the hotel when we heard some people mention that they were going to walk to the old town. We asked if we could tag along and they were more than happy to have us along so we set out on an adventure.
We found the old town pretty easily and our new friends bid us farewell and reminded us to stay to the left in order to get to the new town.
Sea and I continued along the coast enjoying the view along the way.

We were pretty tired and the beautiful scenery was distracting, we forgot to keep to the left and ended up walking past the new town and to the edge of the island. 

When we realized that we had reached the edge we figured that it might be a good time to try and ask for directions. There was a nice looking man standing by the big old walls and he happily informed us that we could walk along the walls and straight into town. We followed his directions and arrived in the center of the city a few minutes later. The bus stop was relatively easily to find, we bought our tickets at the booth and got on the next bus.  

The bus dropped us off by the hotel and we got back to our rooms at 8:30, it had been a long but successful day.

We showered and packed our suitcases before climbing into bed and falling asleep.