I arrived back in to Rhodes yesterday at 10am after a 7 hour journey from Patmos at 3am. I booked economy instead of a bunk, as it seemed too frivolous to pay double to share a tiny room with a stranger and wasn’t even sure if I’d sleep anyway. I carried out the normal crazy check in on the boat, dropped luggage wherever I could find a space in the designated “Rhodes” area, made my way up to the lounge on the boat (it was like a proper large ferry, like the one from Dover to France, not sure what I expected really, although I have been travelling on the small island boats) There were no bloody sofas free anywhere. Gutted! I found a chair and table and tried to amuse myself with the English speaking crap programme on TV and tried to connect to the Wifi to do the Blog. No luck. And then this guy came over and sat in the chair right next to mine, like, right next to me. I could almost touch him, not that I wanted to. There were dozens of chairs free, just not sofas, so I thought this was slightly strange. He kind of sat there and kept sideways glancing over at me. I had a really strange feeling about him (a bit like my reason for leaving Patmos for Rhodes instead of heading to Samos, I just got the feeling I shouldn’t be going there or in that direction) I packed up my stuff and headed off to find another place to rest up. We were approaching Leros at this time so I went out on deck to check out the port of Lakki in the darkness as this was when I heard it was busiest with refugees. There was very little happening, which I’d like to think is a good thing and maybe they are less folk fleeing their countries. But, realistically, it probably only meant the arrivals from earlier that day were already “locked up” in detention awaiting processing of their papers. They are actually arrested for entering the country illegally, that is why they wait for processing, have finger prints taken, and then have to be held somewhere. Pretty intimidating I would think.

Anyhow, I found a sofa, bingo!!!! I was knackered to be honest so lay down with my ever loyal little Mexican blanket I take travelling, had my neck pillow, and zonk! That was me for about 4 and a half hours!!!! No special tablets on a ferry, unlike when I’m flying, just pure tiredness!

I’ve stayed in a lovely little budget hotel in the Old Town of Rhodes, which I love being around, called Via Via Hotel. Pretty basic but I received a lovely reception and it was only €26 for the night! George even had my room ready early for me so when I got there at 11am I could check in and get settled! And it was very clean, with a decent shower!

It was raining yesterday and this morning. I ventured out last night with it in mind to meet some people and have a laugh. No joy! The place was like a ghost town, I even went over to the “New Town” and it was dead. So much for a night on the tiles! I had dinner, went back to the hotel and packed, mind made up to leave today.

I am having issues with hotels in Santorini. I had one booked at a discounted rate of €50 per night, and they agreed to only charge me the two nights, Thursday and Friday as I’ll not get there until 02.00 Thursday morning. They have just emailed to say they will charge me 3 nights! This is understandable, and having worked in hotels most of my life I get it. However, don’t say one thing and then charge more! I’m trying to budget as I’d like my spends to go as far as possible and it’s really annoyed me that they agreed to charge two nights then say three. I will literally arrive and go to bed, and check out is normally 11am so they are now charging for, technically, 9 hours! Anyhow, I’ll see what’s happening when they reply back shortly. The plan was to have two nights in that hotel then move on to a youth hostel. They are only €30 per night if I’d like a private room, which, to be honest, I’d prefer as I’m over sharing with people when it comes to rooms, and houses!!!

So, I’m sat in Old Town Rhodes square, watching the world go by as I type. And being chatted up by the waiters – which is not saying anything about me or my outstanding beauty (ha ha!!) they do it to EVERYONE! And, from the ones I have met on my travels, they are all MARRIED!!!! I’ll head off soon and walk round to the Domestic Ferry port and get checked in. I have been dead flash…….I paid an extra, breaking budget, wait for it…….a whole €3 extra to have a designated  “Airplane seat in lounge 2” Woohoooooo!!!! Basically, I have my own reclining, airplane style chair, in a separate lounge area so there is no fighting over a sofa space to lie down on the long journey. Oh, and no weirdo blokes sitting way to close in my personal space bubble!