Interesting fact - Lesvos was ruled by Turks for centuries after the Byzantines until it was "liberated" by the Greeks in 1912. After an unspectacular but amusing night in the de facto capital city of Mytilini, we took a morning bus to Molyvos (also called Mythimna), a resort-y town on the North coast of the island. The 2 hour journey allowed us to take in some spectacular views of the scenery - olive groves, charred mountainside, grassy knolls, impressive rock formations. We'd tried to book a place to stay, but all the guesthouse websites we found only had reservation/inquiry places, which isn't really helpful if you want to know nightly rates. Nevertheless, we sent off a few emails, and since we failed to receive any responses we had no choice but to wing it. On arrival though, our bus was greeted by a lady from the local tourism office, who ushered us into her airconditioned office, called around, and arranged
accommodation for everyone. 10 points to Molivos just for that! Our spartan but clean room had a tiny kitchen and a balcony with a sea and castle view (double whammy!). We were really excited to watch the sun set over the sea with a bottle of wine and a gentle breeze... but as soon as we'd unpacked a nice Minnesotan couple from our bus ride came up to ask us if we would please switch rooms with them. Apparently it was the girlfriend's birthday and she was in tears over the fact that we had managed to snag the last room with a balcony in town. Of course we switched rooms, had a pleasant lunch with them, then saw them later on at the beach strumming a ukulele (really?). P notes that he would give them much more credit if the birthday was not actually real. He's still not convinced.
The view from our balcony
Figs drying in the sun
