All Roads Lead to Rhodes

Thursday

The first excursion day! Not only was I in a different country, cruising around the world, I was doing it with friends and family, what better way to do it? We had docked in Rhodes, Greece which is a small island and met up after breakfast to exit the ship and procure cabs to take us to the beach. We opted not to go to Lindos, the most famous beach simply because most famous translates into most crowded. Instead we went to Faliraki and I don't regret it for an instant. The water was beautiful and deep enough for swimming in some parts, it wasn't too hot, and there were pebbles everywhere and yes I started up a foolish rock collection again because there are no rocks like Grecian rocks. You only hit the sand if you swam out to it some 20 feet from the shore. There were many dips and hills under the water so for some reason, you could stand up on the sand 20 feet from the shore and have the water only come up to your chest. It was marvelous to say the least.

Faliraki!

After 2 and a half hours, a blowup toy purchase (not me but one of the crew), a pomegranate smoothie and some free wifi, our taxis came back to pick us up and take us on a little tour of the island. We drove around and saw a very old, mostly ruined acropolis and a large amphitheater with supposedly excellent acoustics.

Taxi tourists

The theater

The last stop on our tour and as a result, our final destination via taxi, was the Old Town section of the island. This included a small museum-style gift shop and a marketplace with lots of homemade and tourist-y gift options and food. There were a million little trinkets and I ended up purchasing a couple simply because the price couldn't be beat. There were a pair of tasseled sandals I saw that I'll never forgive myself for not purchasing. 

Old Town

Cruise party member potentially getting scammed...

Gorgeous doorway

Old Town selfie

All of the lights

I'd never seen a penis-shaped bottle opener before and almost refused to believe the friend telling me about them until I walked over and saw them with my own eyes.

They exist! And in such detail

Nothing was as different as the man with the bacteria-eating fish who would clean whatever body part you stuck in their tank. I did my left hand to test it out and it was the oddest tingling sensation, like a million little suctions all over. I would probably have done it but some other people in my party were vehemently against it and giving attitude so we left. I got henna which I've always wanted to do, from a girl who also did cornrows for 20€. You can imagine my surprise and mixed feelings about that. 

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We stopped for lunch and got real falafel wraps that were so much better than anything I've ever had in New York. Leave it to the ones in New York and I'd tell you I don't like falafel wraps. 

Authentic falafel wraps are amazing

Back on the ship, a couple of us went to enjoy the $109 spa-access deal some of us had purchased that lasted for the duration of the cruise. It was so nice to sit and relax in a jacuzzi not crammed full of people and kids and to lay out on heated stone seats afterward (way more comfortable than it sounds). 

Finally, it was on to dinner. We knew there was a dance party to be happening later in the evening so those who wanted to attend made sure to dress appropriately. Dinner itself was good and I only had 1 dessert like a good girl. 

When you think "dance party," being young and healthy you think "DANCE PARTY!!" Since this cruise was more family oriented and you were almost never not tripping over some child in front of you, this party was on the tamer side. There was lots of clapping and synchronized steps and jumping. Suddenly, a little later into this party, a bass dropped, a third of the people on the floor got uncomfortable/out of their depth and left, and more actual dancing started taking place. A friend and I left this party to go check on another one we'd seen on the schedule of events but when we got there, it was so dead we never even stopped walking. We headed back to the original dance party and stopped for coffee for me on the way. Once that party ended, we all (about 9 of us) headed to Havana bar to close out the night. We took a detour to get pizza from the pizza bar upstairs then arrived at Havana on a ship. The music was pumping and we all enjoyed ourselves. We stayed on after the music stopped and most of the crowd left and ended up playing some of the most intense group games I've ever played. The stress levels were very real that night but it was all in good fun.

xx