Man, this whole travling-in-Greece thing is taking its toll on my sleep schedule. Four days after the Marmaris nightmare, we are now on a 12-hour ferry to Crete. At 3:30 this morning we took to the beautiful streets of Rhodes City, backpacks in tow, and as we approached the northern gates we realized that some of the tourist bars wer just now closing for the night.

No night partying for us in Rhodes--it seems like we spent three nights recovering from Marmaris. Rhodes City is a tourisrt town with quite a few streets well stocked with postcards, kitsch, cafes and restauarants, so Scott and I had a fun time trying to escape all that, and we were rewarded well. The medeival town is full of surpises, and when I turned the right corner I was transported into another time. Standing under an ancient archway covered in ivy, I was often challenged to remind myself that the world consists of more than just me and those cats over there.

Despite our best intentions, we also partook in a couple touristy activities. We climbed up the clock tower, the highest point in Rhodes City, to admire the view. Since admission to the tower included free drinks, we then proceeded to get drunk on Cointreau and tequila. It was fun sitting at the bar, listening to good electronic music, talking about the future as the sunlight grew dim and my mind grew hazy.

On our last day on the island of Rhodes, we took a bus trip to Kamiros, an ancient Greek town. The cistern, built in 500 BC is the oldest we've seen outside of a museum. But the more interesting part was the foundations of the houses, each one or two rooms, sharing a wall with their neighbors. In this miniature town it was much easier than in Ephesus to image how people lived. Walking down the hill to the agora and public fountain, I could almost picture myself as a local in 250 BC, doing my daily errands. And high atop the hill, in front of where the temple to Athena used to stand, it was easy to feel a kinship with these ancient people who looked down at the same rugged island across the same dazzling sea.

Our last day in Rhodes City, Scott and I got sad. It's one of the most beautiful towns we've been in, but it was just too expensive to stay longer. We took a walk in the old moat, scrambling in underground chambers, and peering up at the strange and impressive castle. Then at dusk we made our way out to the lighthouse, whose road is full of cats--a very fitting conclusion to a very great town.