Little Britain

The ferry trip was long but fairly uneventful. We docked in Rhodes for a few hours very early in the morning and this gave me a chance to quickly scoot around and check out the main town before the Brit invasion of the beach took place. There were deckchairs everywhere and I could only imagine the sight that would have greeted me if I had been there a few hours later. Rhodes seemed a nice little town, I visited the castle and the quaint little side streets. Shame there was no Colossus of Rhodes to admire, straddling the harbour. He was long gone, I don’t even think there is much left even though it fell into the ocean two thousand years ago.

Back on board and we continued to the island of Kos. Disembarking I just had time to visit Hippocrates tree(?) before our bus to Kardamena arrived. Russell’s sister and her best friend had gotten jobs in the resort town over summer and Russell was due to meet them.

It was absolute carnage until the police arrived and proceeded to arrest all the Brits

When we got to Kardemena I immediately thought we were in England by the sea. Fat, red skinned blokes walked down the main street wearing either no top or an English football shirt. The girls were also red, some brown, but all wore bikinis. English breakfasts (with REAL sausage) were advertised outside every café and even curry and chips were being sold. Not to mention the plethora of pubs and clubs which lined the streets and beachfront.

We soon found Russell’s sister and she said we could stay in their apartment, since her friend had shacked up with a Greek lad – called, predictably, Nick. We met her boyfriend later in the day and he was an absolute tosser! He even tried telling us that we couldn’t stay with Russell’s sister because it wasn’t right. He was told in no uncertain terms to exit the establishment and not to bother coming back.

I stayed in this atrocious place for three days, admittedly I had a good time getting slaughtered every night but it soon wore thin. I saw one too many fights between the local boys trying to pick up (and succeeding mind you!) the Brit girls and the drunken Brit boys, who weren’t happy that ‘their’ women were being shagged by Greeks and they were getting nothing!! I saw one fight outside a nightclub involving about 20 Greek men and about 12 Brits. It was absolute carnage until the police arrived and proceeded to arrest all the Brits, leaving the Greek blokes to carry on chatting up the ladies! A bit unfair, but fairly predictable.

So after a few days, Russell and his sister joined me in catching a ferry to Ios – just for a change of scenery, even though Ios had a reputation for being wilder than Kos.