I am a careless, careless person and am so ashamed of myself. I put Earl Hamner, Jr. on a stool in the hotel room with the cover open and then proceeded to trip over the strap of my backpack and land with my hand and most of my weight on his screen. Goodbye. Earl. I feel like a murderer. Perhaps if we had stayed in the US he would have been only an appliance, but being in a country where English language books are at a premium for so long, he was much more than that to me, and I feel awfully guilty. But enough whining. In the scope of things that happen in the world, this was minor. And I'm going to keep telling myself that until I can say it with a smile on my face. Careless, careless person. Who would have ever thought I would kill a Kindle.
Moving on....We had an interesting conversation with one of the young women who take care of breakfast here in the hotel. They once again made eggs especially for me, and as she was cleaning our table and we were leaving, I thanked her again. She saw the tip we had left and said that we didn't need to pay. I told her that it was the custom in the US to leave money on the table for the staff, and we wanted to. She said the hotel mostly has Italian guests, and it is not the custom in Italy. I asked if she was from Rhodes, but she is from the Ukraine and has lived here for 3 years. I told her we have been in Lithuania for 4 months and loved eating at a Ukrainian restaurant. She asked if we liked the soup. I said that we particularly liked the hot borscht and the tiny meat dumplings. She asked about the garlic roll that is served with the soup. We agreed it is delicious and I told her that the menu there translates it to say donut, which is a sweet pastry in the US. The so called donut is a white bread roll with lots of garlic oil and about a head of fresh rough chopped garlic on it. ( When we had it with the Auburns, Sandy suggested it was meant to be dipped into the soup rather than eaten by itself.) The young woman said she is happy to be in Rhodes because she feels safe here, unlike in the Ukraine where it is dangerous to stay out past 8 o'clock and people are often robbed and hurt for almost nothing.
I was feeling tired and not up to much today - 5 hours walking yesterday sort of did me in, so we had a quiet morning and then Del went out for a walk. I stayed home to kill the Kindle. We will probably go down to the beach late this afternooon when the sun is not so strong. It is so beautiful, and we want to see how warm the water is. Del would enjoy bobbing a little.
We returned to the restaurant down the street from the hotel and had saganaki, salad dolmadas and grilled squid. It was delicious. Once again, my left overs came home to the little fridge. The Greek salad does not have lettuce, by the way, just lovely tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green pepper, olives and leaves from an herb I have never had before. The leaves are about the size of flat parsley, but quite different, and have a very distinct flavor I have never tasted before. I don't htink it was Greek oregano. The restauranteur said it comes from the mountains but he did not know the name in English.
After dinner, we walked down to the sea and sat for a while. The wind was blowing quite strongly and the surf was rough. Del said he had waded a bit, but the water was a bit cold for bobbing. Along the way down and back we were hailed by restaurant people. When we told them we had already eaten, they wanted to know where we were from. One man had lived for many years in Davenport, Iowa but had come back to his wonderful home.
Tomorrow we plan to take a public bus to Lindos where we will take donkeys up to the top of the hill to see the ruins. Two old Democrats on donkeys. What a sight that will be. I hope our weight and the sound of my screams won't prove too much for the poor things. I was assured that they were big donkeys and that there would be no problem. I'm hoping they are the size of mules, or perhaps elephants. I rode one of those once without hurting it.
Moving on....We had an interesting conversation with one of the young women who take care of breakfast here in the hotel. They once again made eggs especially for me, and as she was cleaning our table and we were leaving, I thanked her again. She saw the tip we had left and said that we didn't need to pay. I told her that it was the custom in the US to leave money on the table for the staff, and we wanted to. She said the hotel mostly has Italian guests, and it is not the custom in Italy. I asked if she was from Rhodes, but she is from the Ukraine and has lived here for 3 years. I told her we have been in Lithuania for 4 months and loved eating at a Ukrainian restaurant. She asked if we liked the soup. I said that we particularly liked the hot borscht and the tiny meat dumplings. She asked about the garlic roll that is served with the soup. We agreed it is delicious and I told her that the menu there translates it to say donut, which is a sweet pastry in the US. The so called donut is a white bread roll with lots of garlic oil and about a head of fresh rough chopped garlic on it. ( When we had it with the Auburns, Sandy suggested it was meant to be dipped into the soup rather than eaten by itself.) The young woman said she is happy to be in Rhodes because she feels safe here, unlike in the Ukraine where it is dangerous to stay out past 8 o'clock and people are often robbed and hurt for almost nothing.
I was feeling tired and not up to much today - 5 hours walking yesterday sort of did me in, so we had a quiet morning and then Del went out for a walk. I stayed home to kill the Kindle. We will probably go down to the beach late this afternooon when the sun is not so strong. It is so beautiful, and we want to see how warm the water is. Del would enjoy bobbing a little.
We returned to the restaurant down the street from the hotel and had saganaki, salad dolmadas and grilled squid. It was delicious. Once again, my left overs came home to the little fridge. The Greek salad does not have lettuce, by the way, just lovely tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green pepper, olives and leaves from an herb I have never had before. The leaves are about the size of flat parsley, but quite different, and have a very distinct flavor I have never tasted before. I don't htink it was Greek oregano. The restauranteur said it comes from the mountains but he did not know the name in English.
After dinner, we walked down to the sea and sat for a while. The wind was blowing quite strongly and the surf was rough. Del said he had waded a bit, but the water was a bit cold for bobbing. Along the way down and back we were hailed by restaurant people. When we told them we had already eaten, they wanted to know where we were from. One man had lived for many years in Davenport, Iowa but had come back to his wonderful home.
Tomorrow we plan to take a public bus to Lindos where we will take donkeys up to the top of the hill to see the ruins. Two old Democrats on donkeys. What a sight that will be. I hope our weight and the sound of my screams won't prove too much for the poor things. I was assured that they were big donkeys and that there would be no problem. I'm hoping they are the size of mules, or perhaps elephants. I rode one of those once without hurting it.
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