Rhodes trip 2
Meanwhile, still in Rhodes… It wasn’t all official meetings and legal things to help Neil become an Irish passport holder as well as a British one, though I have to say, getting the paperwork done was very easy. As was arranging to see a specialist about a minor skin thing. It always amazes me how easy it is to see a specialist in Greece. Okay, so you have to pay for it (€40.00 in this case), but you can also go to the IKA (National Health Service) doctors and be referred to hospitals and so on, but if you have a few Euros to spare and can afford a consultation then it’s worth it for peace of mind. You phone up – or email in my case as you know what I feel about phones – and arrange your time, turn up, get seen (every doctor I have encountered in Greece has spoken better English than I have Greek) and get your diagnosis. If any treatment is to be a costly thing and you’re not privately covered or can’t afford it then you get referred to the hospital, as long as you’re covered there through reciprocal arrangements or IKA. I wonder what will happen to the reciprocal/EU health care/emergency cover thing if/when Brexit happens?
Anyway, another positive thing from the last week or so was that we both got a couple of medical things sorted out quickly and cheaply. We also went into the Old Town and bought engagement rings. Not diamonds or anything but two simple, meandros design, Greek, silver ones to tide us over until the wedding next year. I must say, everyone we told in Rhodes about our future plans not only didn’t bat an eyelid or pull a face, but congratulated us happily and even, in the case of some, gave us hugs and best wishes kisses. The jewellers and his assistant, the ladies at the Lydia hotel, the Vice Consul and her assistant, the lawyer, even the notary, the guy at the restaurant and… well everyone. That was all very heart warming.
On that note; we’re still looking into the best way to do things; partnerships here, weddings there, this or that, what’s best and so on, and our lovely lawyer (I have trouble pronouncing the word ‘solicitor’) is looking into what is best in terms of inheritance and tax ‘n’ stuff between a Greek version or a British version. So, no firm decisions yet on that front apart from, at the earliest, September 8th.
Meanwhile, eating out. We do a lot of this when in Rhodes and I usually come back a few pounds heavier after three days there though we do also do a lot of walking; over five miles a day according to my Fitbit which gives me a tap on the wrist and a fanfare when I reach my daily target. It did this once just as I arrived at the Plaza Hotel public toilets. Open the door, light goes on automatically, shut the door and your Fitbit congratulates you. All very odd and I’m only glad it doesn’t actually play a fanfare.
But walking… and eating. We did a lot of the first but now I think about it, not too much of the second. After a large breakfast at the hotel you tend not to need much for several hours so our first lunch was not too big, we thought when ordering: a Nimos salad (salad with three cheeses and egg at Nimos, the new taverna near Akandia gate owned by two Symiots), a slice of moussaka and some chips (between us, not each). That was more than enough for two and came with the addition of complimentary cake and ouzo afterwards. We had a dinner at the China Burger, which is an event that’s become some kind of regular ritual, a wonderful dinner at Saffron Indian restaurant and a light lunch at George’s souvlaki house in the old fish market. Here I deliberated between a tuna salad (salad with real tuna as opposed to the dip) and a tuna baguette. I thought the baguette would be smaller but actually it consisted of a whole tuna salad crammed into half a loaf of bread that had been flattened under the weight of the filling. On the way to the boat on Wednesday I had a toastie and that was it for the day. There are so many good places to eat it’s hard to know which one to choose.
But it was while at Nimos that I heard the ‘quote of the trip.’ An English mother arrived with her two sons, one around 17 the other around 11. The youngest boy was happily playing with a Hello Kitty soft toy (and being allowed to by his mother which I thought was great), chatting to it and reading the menu to it. The older son asked his mother, ‘Are you going to drink beer?’ with that kind of tone usually used by mothers when talking to their sons. She replied that she wasn’t and he said, ‘Oh good.’ I was wondering why that was such a good thing and imagining all kinds of wild behaviour from the mother, when the youngest son came up with, ‘Cheese balls? Whoever invented them must have been drunk.’ I giggled at that all the way back to the hotel.
