Wed
27.Nov.2013
Rhodes, Greece
Wednesday. Laundry day in the weekly rhythm of my life here. I have not been
taking pictures of the landromat; let's look at some other stuff.
The chef here at Home Sweet Pub makes a tasty shrimp saganaki. The price
depends on which blackboard you read. One of the joys of doing business in
Greece.
In this case it has less to do with variable island pricing, than with
thinking about something else while you write the menu on the blackboard.
I see more or less this view every day before I start to descend my
treacherous stairs to go out. The open window belongs to one of the other
rooms here. Until recently, my friend Aphrodite occupied it, but she leaves
the island when beach season is irretrievably over. Since I come here for
the Winter, we overlap for a couple of months at most.
C'est la vie!
Si! Yo también se la vi!
Mandraki Harbor
Yet another ripple picture of this sightseeing sub. At least the details
are always different. Let's hear it for the chaotic geometry of fluid
dynamics!
When you say "Greek island", most people's first image is of whitewashed
walls and blue trim. That is real, but it is typical of the Cyclades
group, up in the central Aegean. Santorini, Mykonos, places
like that.
Out here in the Dodecanese, tradition runs more to earth tones,
sandstone and limestone.
Water: it drops from the skies, it sloshes and flows all around the island,
it carries the ships that supply us with goods and tourist spending. It gets
the local boat owners over to Turkey and back. A friend's dog is holed up
over there with another friend while his owner is visiting Scotland.
The harbor has no lack of personal boats, and plenty of commercial yachts
like this one, from diving and sightseeing companies. Most of these have
probably made their last trip of the season.
At the large end of the boat scale, the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth
was here a week or so ago. She didn't used to call at Rhodes when I began
wintering here. I expect we are a substitute for some Middle Eastern or
Egyptian port that is no longer a comfortable cruise destination. They
could do worse.
The H²O has been dropping from the skies copiously for about a week, until
today, which felt heavenly just for having sun and blue sky. The rain
puddles aren't lasting very long; this picture was gone by the end of the
afternoon.
Passing the old city's only active mosque during a break in the rain, a
voice inside starting singing, clearly and beautifully. Through the door I
saw a dozen or more worshippers. The singer held a microphone, which he
presently passed to somebody else who began his own song. Standing on the
porch was not very comfortable, and I was not about to crash their
gathering, so I settled for a photo of the assembly of shoes by the door.
They seemed somehow colorful despite the cold grey light of the day.
The planet Venus is in this evening photo. You can see it slightly right
of center if you click on the photo to enlarge it.