Greece isn't new to us since we have gone there to vacation before. But it's also a large country with plenty to offer. Our past excursions have taken us to Athens, Milos, Naxos, Santorini and Crete. This time we were out to explore Rhodes!

If you know me at all, you know that I am not one for relaxing vacations. Fortunately, neither is Harneet so we vacation well together. As such, this series of posts is going to contain limited beach stories and more exploration.

On landing in Rhodes, We hopped on a bus that took us to Old Town. We found the little apartment we had booked and after settling in headed out to grab some dinner and roam around the old town.

Before we did so, we went to a pharmacy to grab a covid test and make sure we were covid free. At my current job, I work a lot with rapid diagnostic tests and have administered so many of these. As I looked at the instructions we had, omg, I felt grateful that I do what I do. They were truly miserable (and in Greek). With the help of Google translate and my experience running plenty of these tests, we managed to complete them and were glad to be negative! Phew! Additional upside, the pharmacist gave us a recommendation for a local restaurant to try for a dinner.

We headed to this cute place called Avocado and ordered some delicious food there. I also got some Ouzo which from previous trips to Greece, is one of the few alcohols I enjoy.

After dinner, we walked along the sea taking a longer path back to the apartment. All of a sudden, as we were walking, my palms started itching. 5 minutes after that, I broke out in horrible hives all over and by the time We were back, I was quite the picture. I will not share any descriptive images here but I was so grateful that I had one last Allegra in my bag that I took. Looks like I may have developed an allergy to Ouzo and had to avoid it the rest of the trip. Hence continues my saga of continuing to suck at drinking.

We spent the next day in Old Town. Exploring all of the historical sights there. We walked along ancient forts, visited cathedrals and the palace of the grandmaster. In the palace, the beautiful geometric artwork was buried under layers or earth, dug up, and restored. It is still displayed in all it's glory. The treasures displayed here date back to 400-600BC. We walked down a street called the Street of the Knights which is the best medieval preserved street in Europe. Gives you perspective on how miniscule we are in the space time continuum.

This post wouldn't be complete without talking about Megan! As we walked down the pristine beach, we spotted an enormous yacht called Megan that was docked there until we left. It was luxurious and there were Mercedes waiting for the owners. Harneet was enamored and made us stare at it every day. Turns out it belonged to a woman who is the head of Norwegian Cruises (richest person in Israel) and she and her daughter Megan were on vacation visiting Rhodes and Lindos. We were almost in the company of modern royalty 😂.

Let's now talk more about the food. I am a big big fan of Mediterranean food and am super picky about it. Likely because I grew up in Kuwait and have been spoilt. The tricky part this time was my preferred vegetarianism. That greatly limits your options in Greece. However, if you are willing to be creative, just order a bunch of mezze and you will be super satisfied. On this second day, we were lucky enough to find a hidden gem in Rhodes. Tis Mammis Sou had a vegetarian menu and an actual vegan moussaka which could compete with any meat moussaka any day. To add to that, when you spice up mashed feta and eat it with warm toasted pita, you can experience heaven in a plate. Even Harneet couldn't help picking at my food. He ate an old family recipe of a lamb stew cooked for 24 hours. Keep an eye out for me attempting a vegetarian (maybe not vegan) moussaka in a future blog post. In the interim, here are some mouthwatering pictures.

Also, pro-tip. Most restaurants will give you dessert on the house. At this place, we had a lovely narange preserve served to us.

Musing for part 1: The thing that always amazes me about Greece is that it is a complete tourist economy. As we roamed, we noticed that people work really hard with stores and restaurants opening around 10am and closing at 11pm. Also, everyone is super nice.

So that was our jam-packed day 1 night and day 2. Tune in tomorrow for more on Rhodes.