it was all greek to me

went to rhodes last week with jonathan and dorota. it was awesometastic, that's all there is to it.

of course, i was saddened by the fact that i had to yet again take an easyjet flight to gatwick, because no decent upstanding people (hey, i'd settle for an organism that had a spine) seem to be willing to give them any competition. why is this, people? why can't there be something, anything, good and wholesome in the airline industry, however small the oasis; instead of the pure, unadulterated essense of evil that currently holds the monopoly on affordable air travel? why, i ask you, why?

but even notwithstanding the fact that our return flight on thomas cook was an hour and a half late, and the "originally scheduled time" on the tickets had been an hour later than the time that we had received on the itinerary (which is what i was looking at when i bought my easyjet ticket, thinking i had 3 hours to spare), consequently causing me to sprint through gatwick with my luggage and only just narrowly avoid having to buy a new ticket at significant extra cost, the week was amazing.

we booked the trip with thomas cook, who despite their rather sleazy ghetto exterior, in the end, i think did pretty well by us. i mean, for three people: airfair (lgw->rho->lgw), 7 nights in a nice hotel, and a full brunch and dinner every day --- all for 764 pounds (around $480 per person). hey, for a deal like that, i didn't mind the nosebleed flights in the middle of the night (though naturally i would have been happier if they had been on time...).

right, so we got there in the middle of the night on saturday, piled onto a bus, and eventually got dropped at our hotel (last in line, just like always [smirk]). after a few hours sleep, went down and had breakfast, and it was immediately apparent that not only was the food on this trip going to be fabulous, it was also going to be my undoing. all the trappings of the greek breakfast things (bread, sliced meats, feta and other cheeses, olives, cucumbers, yogurt and honey, fruit, jams, cheese pastries, cream pastries, ...) and also the full english breakfast faire as well (potatoes, eggs any way you can imagine, bacon, sausage, beans, toast, granola, fruit juices, ...). wow... after thoroughly gorging ourselves on breakfast, "ricky" (who's name jon and dorota endlessly made fun of afterwards) our 22 year old thomas cook rep (good grief, i feel old), who spoke with a ridiculously thick british accent, gave us a brief collection of hints and tips for spending time on the island, and then attempted to sell us on their prepackaged day trips, which we smiled to ourselves and declined.

we sat by (and alternately in) the pool for an hour or so, and then caught the bus into rhodes town, with surprisingly little wait. of course, once we got there, we realized we had paid 1.70 x 3 of us, when a taxi would have only cost 6 euro, but hey, that's how you learn. walked around the old town some, but were pretty disoriented, so i'm sure we missed a lot. the floor mosaics in the palace of the grand masters were unbelievable. i want to learn how to make mosaics. of course there were also the expected shops everywhere, and we did some browsing, but i don't think anything was bought that day. on the way out, we tried to get information on possibly taking a day trip to turkey from the harbor, but it was all closed up since there wasn't a boat arriving or leaving at the time (slow port, i guess). taxied it back to the hotel, and treated dinner to the same devouring that we had given breakfast. ha.

monday we rented a car. oh, yes, i knew i had forgotten something. on our way out of the airport after we arrived in the wee hours of sunday morning, jon had gone over to ask about a car at one of the booths that was set up in the exit area (i guess the people running those companies know when flights are scheduled to arrive, since they were surprisingly mostly open and doing business). in his words, the lady he talked to had introduced herself as "Necteria, like the nectar of a flower," while "shaking her generous...um...'assets' in [his] direction." she had given him a phone number and promised him a price which we hadn't been able to match anywhere else, so we called her up to rent a jeep. about the time she asked for his name and he told her "Wall," i nearly died laughing when i heard her say on the other end of the phone (just as i had "predicted," but didn't actually thing would end up happening), "Wall, like the wall in your house?" clearly, this woman not only has "assets," but also some deeply seated word association issues.

a little while later, a "jeep" was delivered out front for us. jon was of course intensely saddened by the fact that it was not, in fact, a real jeep, but rather a suzuki sidekick (though curiously marked "jimny" on the back). at least it was 4wd, so he got over it eventually.

damn it, why do my stories always have to be so long? more later...