Rhodes Old Town

The ferry trip was terrific - I thoroughly enjoyed listening to music and standing on deck being blown to smithereens. I ended up reading the whole of John's Revelation, whilst listening to my Tallis Scholars album - a thoroughly fitting combination. The book is a whirlwind, almost breathless ride through vision after vision of harrowing intensity. Every character is described in otherwordly terms, the action builds and builds until finally evil is destroyed utterly. The only word for it is apocalyptic! If anyone were to take any of this even slightly literally, they would miss the point entirely. It makes sense only in the context of a work written to encourage Christians during a time of extreme persecution at the hands of the great Babylon, which is very obviously a reference to Rome. This point makes the work completely subversive and I can imagine the Roman authorities would've dealt very swiftly with anyone found in possession of a copy of this book. I feel embarrassed to think that many evangelical Christians see Revelation as some sort of decipherable description of the end times. They all need to read more poetry.

The catamaran zipped along, away from the setting sun as the world slowly, inexorably came to an end. We arrived in Rhodes' Harbour just after sunset and I walked to the hotel using my GPS, which did an adequate job. The hotel is in the new town but Lonely Planet lists it under the old town, hence my confusion. Never mind - it's pretty nice all the same and his wireless network actually works in the room, unlike every other place I've stayed in.

After an average dinner I strolled into the old town and got thoroughly lost - it was brilliant. George, the owner of the New Village Inn was right - it's like another world. Here, more than anywhere else I've been on this trip, I have felt transported back in time. It's not at all hard to imagine the Knights of St. John still ruling here.

A chocolate croissant for breakfast this morning and I returned at a very leisurely pace to the old town. I'm currently waiting for my lunch at a cafe on a square in the central north of the old town - not too far up from the synagogue.

I've spent the morning just wandering around - walked past the old knights' quarters, Grand Master's palace, sundry mosques in various states of repair and disrepair. The synagogue was the highlight so far - the moving story of the Jewish community here in Rhodes - basically wiped out in 1944. I'm amazed Germans can live with themselves but then I guess most European nations have some skeletons in their respective closets. The Nazi skeleton is a Goliath compared to any others, though. There is a surprising lack of churches surviving from the Latin era here - I  expected more. The thing about this old town is that, firstly, it's absolutely enormous, and secondly, every square centimetre of it cries out to be photographed. It just can't be captured. Eventually you just give up trying and wander around in a state of semi-disbelief. It's Sunday today and many of the historical buildings (including churches) are closed - either they always are or I picked the wrong day to come. Either way, I've been surprised this morning by the low number of tourists, although that seems to be picking up now.

So, this time tomorrow, I'm going to be in Rome with Nadia - how absolutely fantastic! Early start tomorrow morning - the 4:45am bus.

I haven't done much Italian at all over the past 2 weeks. Whenever there's been time, I've usually felt quite tired and not mentally up to actually using my brain cells. Perhaps it's been the heat. In any case, I'm hopelessly under-prepared for 3 weeks in Rome!

The French songs have just switched to Italian - hilarious, sentimental chanson-style.