Rhodes day 2

Today was our second day on the island of Rhodos. We were given the day to explore the island at our leisure, but the first thing everyone wanted to do was return to the old city. The only problem was transportation. We had to navigate our way around the island without a bus driver or Greek tour guide. We ended up taking a bus. Best 5 euros ever spent.

We all agreed to tour the grand master's palace, a medieval castle built by the knights of St. John. This particular order of knights were an order of Hospitallers in the crusades. After the fall of Jerusalem they made their way to Rhodes and invested their money in the palace. They later had control over Malta, but were weakened by Napoleon. They no longer control the island of Rhodes, but the order exists to this day. The order of St. John still have annual meetings on Rhodes.

After learning about the crusades and the order of St. John, i can't help but notice how our modern mindset has changed from that time. For these people, there was no separation of church and religion. Conquering and ruling was done in the name of an ideology, and they did not find this strange or contradictory. From my own perspective, it seems very strange to conquer and pillage in the name of God. Despite this, the medieval people understood something that we sometimes forget in modern culture: ideology matters. What we believe, what standards we hold as truth, affects our actions. We tend to separate a person from their religious beliefs, but is this a correct way of thinking? How can we embrace our differences while acknowledging that there is truth in this world? It's easy to condemn the atrocities that happened during the crusades, but we must understand that they were trying to fight for truth.

After our castle tour, we decided to take a brief pit stop for some manna from heaven (chicken gyros). I think our entire group has fallen under the gyro spell. We're hooked. I think we're also rather fond of the gelato. Today I sampled mint and chocolate.

Naturally we couldn't have a free day without devoting some time to the beautiful sea surrounding us from all sides. The water is a perfect blue green, and it's so clear that we can see all the little fish slipping around our toes. Even under water it's clear and easy to see. I was able to see tiny shells moving around on the ocean floor so I dove down and fished some out. There were little crabs inside. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I think we all learned a lot just by basking in the island's glories.