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The Neighbor Girls Return

… and things get better.

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RHODES, Greece- I was sitting out on my front patio drinking my after-lunch beer and tapping out a blog post on my BlackBerry and I noticed the apparation of two little figures hovering over my screen.

It was the neighbor girls — the same ones that Petra had difficulty playing with a couple of days before. 

They were standing outside of the fence looking in. It was clear that they were looking for something … but it probably wasn’t some 36-year-old bald blogger.

They were looking past me and in through the open door of the house. They were looking for Petra.

From somewhere inside the dark kitchen Petra looked up from her own blogging and noticed the onlookers. She jumped up and ran right past me into the yard, hardly pausing to look back at me and yell over her shoulder, “Can I go play with them?”

She didn’t require a response.

Petra was out of the fence and into the short, dead end street that passes by our house which terminates at the gate of where the girls live — the house with all the dogs.

I watched as Petra kind of awkwardly stood next to the girls. Seeing that a group had formed, a couple of smaller kids materialized from the back of the hair salon next door. For a moment, the kids just starred at Petra.

What is this thing? A flower? A lobster?

Then one of the girls told one of the small kids to go get something. He quickly returned and handed over an elongated green vegetable that grows on the trees around here. The girl then took it, held it for a moment in her hand, turned towards Petra, and beaned her with it.

What the fuck?

Apparently, that’s just what kids do around here for fun.

Petra, with all of her worldliness and inter-cultural experience, knew exactly what this meant and responded by scrambling after the still rolling vegetable, picked it up, and then pegged the girl who threw it at her.

Uproarious laughter ensued.

It was on.

Filed under: Greece, Travel Diary

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3694 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

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