From 19 million people to almost no one

We left the metropolis of Cairo where 19+ million live and arrived at the small airport of Mytillini on the Island of Lesvos, sometimes called Lesbos. Lesvos is the third largest island in Greece, but the winter population is probably about 90,000 for the entire island, most of the population is centered in the city of Mytillini and a few other larger cities, in-between there is a lot of space with few inhabitants.

Yiannis Hahathakis (pronounced Hahadakis) met us at the airport with our rental car, Yiannis and his brother and family operate a travel agency on the island, and have several hotels scattered around. We had been corresponding with Yiannis for the last six months looking at options, we settled on the Aphrodite Hotel located in Vatera which is on the south side of the island, reported to have the best beach in all of Greece. The only problem is there are no people in Vatera until the last week of April when the tourists start to arrive. So we are the only guests in this rather nice hotel for the next 30 days, anyone remember the movie ‘The Shining’ with Jack Nicholson?

We followed Yiannis in our rental car the 50 km from Mytillini to Vatera, which took about one hour over the mountains, through olive groves, peaceful valleys, small sheep and goat ranches to Vatera. The only major town on the way is Polichitos, sort of the county seat of the Vatera area which is about 10 km from Vatera. This town at one time had some sort of industry but now is full of narrow streets, small stores and tavernas.

Upon our arrival in Vatera we drove along the deserted waterfront, past shuttered hotels and restaurants that may be open on the weekends until the tourists return in late April. The hotel is very nice, it is a family affair, the mother cooks, and the rest of the family runs the hotel. On Friday nights the family entertains the guests with music as they are all talented musicians.

We got into our room which had been freshly painted for us, Yiannis’ mother made us some coffee cake, and we settled in for the night. In the morning we discovered a coffee maker, tea pot and some bread on the doorstep, Barb had asked about a coffeemaker so Yiannis went out and bought one, in the meantime I have been learning to make Greek coffee, I had bought a Turkish coffee pot in Istanbul which is the same as a Greek coffee maker. The method is simple, add a scoop of very finely ground coffee, a small cup of water and then boil on the stove until it froths, actually there is a bit of a process to make it just right so there is sludge in the bottom of the cup.

This morning we drove to Polichitos to find a Laundromat since we have pretty much exhausted our supply of clean clothes, we found a small grocery store, several small clothing and shoe stores but no Laundromat, we were told the closest one is in Mytillini so tomorrow we will drive back to Mytillini to take care of that business, buy a few more groceries and then back to Vatera. Two of the tavernas offered free internet so we went into one but were told, no the ’free’ internet costs 2 Euro, so much for free. We left and wandered around the town trying to find an ATM which took a bit of looking but after asking around we located one; we do need to learn Greek since not many of the villagers speak English. Barb was taking a picture of a house when this older lady started talking and we were not sure if she wanted money for taking a photo of her home, then she gestured to take more photos of the house, and we finally figured out she wanted to invite us in for coffee. The language barrier was significant!

We did go to a taverna where there was truly free internet, it was an older tavern with a limited menu, but for lunch and the internet we only paid 13 Euros, We met a couple in the taverna who have a house on Mytillini but live in Athens, they are retired and we learned they met in the university in Paris, then decided to marry and live in Athens. There are a lot of Athenians that have homes in the islands for summer living, plus operate hotel and summer resorts for tourists.

After our return to the hotel, Yiannis brought us a bowl of beans from his mother and also gave us access to the hotel internet so we will be able to keep up with the rest of the world. We walked on the beach today, the spring flowers are in full bloom and the sea was a bit rough, later it rained a little. Weather for the next two days is partly cloudy with a little rain.