Weekend Trip to Lesvos

Alex had a three-day weekend, so we (and a number of his classmates) decided to take a short trip to Mylitini on the island of Lesvos, which is about an hour and a half away by ferry. The trip itself took considerably longer because of the customs lines on both ends. The Greek customs “line” was unbelievable, a purgatory on earth. It was that massive crush of sweaty, impatient humanity getting bottle-necked at one doorway which led to two passport control officers. Mercy. Those who had EU passports got through quickly, and even had enough time to find a cheap hotel and walk back and wait for the rest of us non-Schengen visa holders. Mylitini is a small city, but much larger than either Cunda or Ayvalık. It’s quite popular with Turkish tourists, with many restaurants offering a menu in Turkish. Some of our group had some more rural sights on the agenda, but the bus system ran so infrequently that those plans were abandoned. We walked all around Mylitini, stopping for coffee and other treats. The restaurants we chose had superb food, and wacky service. Better than the other way around, I think. The second day a small group of us walked up to the old fort and stopped at the archaeological museum on the way. The museum was small, but we enjoyed seeing the mosaics. The fort was the big hit—as you can see from the photos I took, it was in a spectacular setting. At one point in particular, the wall opened up to a sea view and just below there were fig trees. The sea breeze was infused with the aroma of the figs—it was mesmerizing! Our return ferry was not until 6pm, but we had to allow for getting some lunch, picking up our left luggage, walking to the port in time to go through customs. So, we had to turn back—sigh. Back at the hotel, we ran into two of Alex’s classmates who had a misadventure at the fort earlier. One of them fell and hit his head while climbing the fort walls. He had a bandage and still felt dizzy. We got him into a taxi to get to the port, rather than walk the 20 minutes in the midafternoon sun. It seems that he is OK now, but I hope he didn’t get a concussion… The ferry ride back was fine, but there was a similar (but much less horrible) crush at customs on the Turkish side. Even though we all went to the exit ramp early, and rushed to the passport control line, Alex and I were the last ones of our group through—I guess we didn’t hustle as much as we should have.

So now it’s Monday, and I’ve been sitting all morning in a café that has reliable wireless internet in order to catch up on all these blog posts. Alex went to class this morning and joined me here for lunch before he has to return to class in the afternoon. When he finishes around 3pm, we’ll go to a beach for swimming! More news later…

Enjoying a luxurious breakfast with our friends August and Ramon

The fig trees that make the fig breeze