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Mitilene
If you first see Mitilene on the transfer coach from the airport,
perhaps after a night flight, or a very early morning at Gatwick or Manchester,
it's easy to dismiss it.
Some impressive nineteenth century mansions on the way in from the south,
perhaps a glimpse of harbour, then a struggle through a narrow one-way system
never intended for trucks and buses, up past disused quarries,
random commercial developments and the inevitable army base,
until at last you come over the ridge behind the town
and the Gulf of Gera and the high white peak of Mt Olympus lie ahead.
That's when you relax and remember why you have come to Lesvos.
In fact Mitilene, the administrative centre of the North Aegean region,
is a very pleasant port and university town, and well worth a visit.
It is as yet almost unaffected by tourism or foreign influences
(for a few years there were small Body Shop and Marks and Spencer franchises,
but they have both given up and gone away)
It is also one of the few day trips that can be done by bus,
though this does mean catching the 7am from Molivos (except in high summer the
last return bus leaves Mitilene at 3pm, sometimes at 1.15pm).
A pleasant introduction to the town is to walk through the park adjoining the bus
terminal (pausing at the taverna if you missed breakfast), then cross the road to
the taxi rank opposite a large school.
 From here the main shopping street, Ermou,
runs straight ahead, lined with open-fronted fish and
vegetable stalls, interspersed with cheese and ouzo merchants,
bookshops, hardware stores, bakeries and pie shops.
The street is pedestrianised, and is always packed with people
shopping, eating, gossiping, or simply carrying pieces of paper
from one office to another in the permanent Greek tussle
with bureaucracy.
Near the beginning of Ermou, one block up a side street to the left,
is Agios Therapon, Mitilene's largest church, with opposite it the
Byzantine Museum.
Further down, in a courtyard at a junction on the right, is Agios Athanasios,
the cathedral of Lesvos. Beyond here, the shops and buildings become smaller and
shabbier, though it is rapidly becoming smarter as new businesses move in.
(this part of Ermou was once a canal, running between the old harbour and the bay
where the new harbour is now.
On the right is the ruined 'new' mosque,now being conserved, and a few metres down
the street opposite is the spectacularly restored hammam or Turkish bath.
(Work on in the interior is incomplete, and seems to have petered out,
but the intention was to use the building as a cultural centre).
Finally, Ermou ends at the old harbour, now home to small fishing boats. In 1999
excavations for new drains uncovered massive Roman harbour works. The masonry,
carefully labelled and covered, was last seen stacked at the roadside opposite
waiting for removal, and hopefully, reconstruction. A few yards along the road
to the left are more massive remains, apparently of a dockside grain warehouse.
If you turn right here, the harbour gatehouse of the castle is ahead.
Originally Byzantine, though built on more ancient foundations, the castle was repaired
by the Gattelusis, the Genovese rulers from the mid-14th century until 1462.
The island was then captured, or rather recaptured, by the Turks, who ruled until 1912.
They garrisoned the castle, and if you go through the castle gate you will see the ruins
of a small Turkish bath on the right of the wide unmade road that runs through the
castle outworks, and the massive outer fortifications leaning into the sea on your left.
Follow this road along the cliff top until it descends to sea level.
On the left is the public (with admission charges) beach, and on the right a park
in a pine wood on the slopes of the castle.
To make a side excursion to the castle go up the paths through the wood to the entrance
at the top of the hill. Otherwise carry on to the ferry harbour,
overlooked by the Freedom Monument, a replica of the Statue of Liberty,
facing triumphantly towards Turkey as a memorial to Lesviots who died
in the War of Independence and World War I.
Further along the road in a mansion on the left is the 'old'
Archaeological Museum. In Lesvos it is impossible to avoid
ancient remains for long, and if you are at all interested this is a must,
well displayed with clear labelling and explanations in English as well as Greek.
Another side trip up the road alongside to the top of the hill leads to the 'new' museum,
whose main exhibits are mosaic pavements excavated from a local Roman villa.
(One ticket covers admission to both museums)
Then return to the waterfront and walk round to the far end, stopping off for a drink
or snack at one of the pavement cafés on the way. To get back to the bus terminal go
straight on along the one-way street facing you at the end of the harbour.
And if you are self-catering and have time before your bus, you can sample
supermarket shopping, Greek style, at Atlantik or AB,
both just across the road from the bus station
(the entrance to Atlantik is fifty yards away at the harbour end of the store)
Or go on by bus, car or taxi to the Teriade Museum at Varia.
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