Sir Mickey’s Land
Ever been to a real medieval city? “When you approach the walls of the Old Town of Rhodes, you are about to enter the oldest inhabited medieval town in Europe.”
With it’s rambling, stone streets and tall maze of walls you’re going to get lost. And if the rambling streets don’t lose you, you will get lost in the maze of shops and stands intended to please and take your money. If you’re not alone, better plan a way to meet up when (not ‘if’) you get separated.
You know, I try to never sound disrespectful or ungrateful about my journeys, I am thrilled and so very fortunate to have had everyone of them. But after wandering around in this amazing medieval place, I yearned to see what it was like without the ‘Disneyland’ of sales and tourism that had overgrown it’s mythical looking walls. Instead, I found myself expecting to see a Greek speaking Goofy and Mickey Mouse. I just wanted to get lost, away from the overly crowded streets, away from the shopkeepers who I knew desperately needed my business, and away from the heat.
So I wandered and wandered and found this. I am pretty sure I was outside the walls of the city here….not much really looked like this inside!
This place was where I found my sanctuary. It was quiet, pretty, breezy, shaded, and it smelled great! It was like my little slice of heaven on the outside of the walls somewhere. If I had to find it again, I couldn’t. But I sure did sit there for a long time with a notebook and a bottle of water.
Later I walked back to my pension and ate dinner with the man and his wife who own it and enjoyed their freely poured ouzo with the other travelers who were more like me, seeking a more ‘local’ experience. There was a lot of laughing that night (and a fair amount of drinking-really, watch out for that stuff) and somehow everyone communicated despite there being 4 different languages spoken around that table!
This was one of my favorite days in the Old City. It was also my last. The next day I rented a car and drove away from the city and the ‘maddening crowd’ as they say. Which reminds me, I’ll have to share the story about that car with you too. It’s a doozy, you won’t want to miss the story of that little adventure!