On a happier note, I am definitely sitting in the interior courtyard of the Palace of the Grandmaster of the Knights of St. John. It was €6 to get in--a bit steep considering how much of it they had closed off--but again, I couldn't not do it. The architecture is cool, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the experience. They've got a lot of the interior laid out like a museum, and most of the stuff was incredibly similar to what I just saw at the Byzantine Museum in Athens. There were mosaics all over the place, but most of them weren't even originally from Rhodes. And they didn't have any of the rooms labeled, so I had to idea what I was looking at most of the time. Way to go, guys.
I think now it's time for a quick bio break, then finish the dry moat & find some lunch. Breakfast today was almonds... I think I've got enough left for one more day of that, and then the bag I got at Top Foods before I left will finally be gone.
19:02
So humid... it tried raining earlier this evening, while I was out dropping my postcards off, but mostly the moisture just made the air feel squishy.
I'm really thinking that I should have planned one less night on Rhodes too. I love that I was able to make it here, but I'm quite literally out of sites that I want to see. Well, except for the wall walk, but I'd have to be here another three days for that, with even more nothing to fill up my time.
I would really like to come back and explore Greece in more detail sometime though. The people have mostly been really friendly, and the history is amazing. I would really like (I just noticed I'm using "really" a lot) to see Sparta, Corinth, Delphi, Thermopylae, and more of the islands. Maybe make it part of an eastern Mediterranean tour? I think my next big trip, whenever that happens, will be to a different continent. Australia & New Zealand would be nice, or maybe Japan/Kora/China, or possibly even parts of Africa. Of course, if I ever get on the ball & get myself into grad school, I might be able to get them to pay for it. That might be more business than pleasure, but I'm sure I could find myself a bit of free time to go exploring.
Random: I'm amazed at how much American music gets played in Europe. I've heard country music I didn't recognize (Oban), Taylor Swift (Venice) and Lady Antebellum (Athens), and Paramore was on the Italian version of MTV as well. I also heard Greenday & Bob Dylan in Rome, and ACDC somewhere; I realize they're actually Australian, but still... not European.
Just finished my beer... time to pay up & figure out how to get online here, to make sure I've got all my flights recorded & know where I'm going. Then probably back to the room to read. I finished an entire book (Seven Ancient Wonders; good story, decent writing) yesterday, and there's a good chance I'll do the same today (Sunset, a WWII fiction... pretty good so far). Hopefully I'll able to keep myself entertained tomorrow, because the last book sitting in the room looks like some sort of murder-mystery... not my favorite.
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