Lesvos: Mytilini Town

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Mytilini is not a town. It's a city. But it is an amazing little city full of life and surprises and if you are someone with a long history in Greece it may actually remind you of Athens or Pireaus in the fifties. Like other great cities Mytilini is built upon seven hills and is full of history. Mytilini is in fact one of the most culturally enlightened cities in Greece perhaps due to its proximity to the coast of Asia Minor where the ancient Greeks flourished until 1922 when they were forcefully evicted by the Turks. Many of these Greeks had property in Mytilini and many Mytilinians had businesses in Asia Minor. For this reason the museums are full of interesting remnants of the last three thousand years of history and the town itself contains monuments, houses, churches, schools and other buildings from the various historical periods. But it is the Mytilini of today that holds the most interest for many because it is a small and manageable city full of great restaurants, cafes, nightlife and friendly, intelligent people.

When you arrive by boat at 7 in the morning it is quiet. The city spreads from the large harbor up into the hills behind it and is crowned by an enormous castle whose foundations were laid during the time of Justinian on the ruins of an even more ancient fortification. This castle is surrounded by a pine forest that reaches down to the shore and the public beach. In the summertime the castle is used for performances of traveling groups of musicians, theater, opera and music and art festivals. In fact it is one of the best places to hear a concert in Greece. The castle is well worth a trip and a walk around the promontory will give you a whole new perspective of the city because it is like being out in the wilderness with horses and donkeys grazing on the hills that lead up to the fort. If you continue to the back side of the city you will come to the old bordellos and the old harbor.

The waterfront comes alive with traffic by 8 and stays that way until just after 1 pm when the stores close and everyone goes home for lunch and siesta. By early evening the city is alive again with activity. This is not your typical quiet Greek island village but it is certainly a very entertaining place. The main street is lined with cafes that seem to be full year round. For the rest of the island Mytilini is the big city. Smaller villages send their children here for high-school. People come from all over the island to do their shopping since there are super-markets in the true sense of the word, with aisle after aisle of products, imported and domestic. There are cultural activities, concerts of all styles of music, basketball tournaments, an indoor swimming pool and of course the city is the center of island Government, not only for Lesvos but for Lemnos too.

The marketplace is one of the most active in Greece with shops of every variety and closed to automobile traffic while the stores are open. There is ample evidence of the plentiful fish in Lesvos waters and prices are low. When I arrive by ferry in the early morning I usually spend an hour or so wandering around, checking out the fish and buying sardeles pastes or pastourma (dried spiced beef-like pastrami) to bring as gifts to my friend Tryphon to serve with ouzo in his cafeneon on the far side of the island. It is hard to imagine a more interesting way to spend a morning and the shops contain a variety of items that you won't find anywhere else and to me are more entertaining than a museum. If you require strong coffee to get you going to the small traditional looking cafe right across the street from the yogurt shop (that has the best yogurt in the world). It is called the Musico Cafeneon and it is on the corner of Komninaki street. if you are just getting off the boat it is a great place to gather your thoughts and drink an espresso or two. The owner is a woman named Martina and she or one of her staff can answer any questions you have upon arrival. If you are staying in the city, day or night it is a great place to hang out.

There is a line of fish tavernas on the far side of the harbor and of these, the last one called Stratos is particularly good and is where we go but the others are also good as some of my readers and frequent visitors to the island have told me. The city itself is a maze of small streets that defies drivers to find their way out once they have ventured in too deeply. Behind the town is the ancient harbor which used to be connected to the new harbor by a canal. The city sits upon the site of the ancient city and traces of a shipyard, remains of the ancient agora and fragmentary sections of the Roman aqueduct are located at Apano Skala near the old harbor.
There is also an ancient theater above Apano Skala.

In the middle of the harbor connected by a narrow causeway lined with fishing boats is a small cafe-ouzerie which is one of the finest places to sit, have an ouzo and a mezedes and watch the ships leave for Athens at sunset. In the afternoon it is full of old fishermen, making lures as they drink their coffee or ouzo. It's a fine vantage point to watch the lights of the city come on as darkness approaches. Scattered throughout the city are cafeneons that serve ouzo and excellent mezedes. Which are the best? The most crowded ones of course so wander around til you hear loud voices and music and if you see a large number of tables and old men smoking and talking you are on the right track. If they are singing then you have stumbled upon someplace special.

There are banks, tourist agencies, car rental offices, and shops of every type. The accommodations and entertainment facilities in the city and suburbs, which are surrounded by greenery and located by the sea, have every modern convenience. Many of the hotels are on the road to the airport and if you are staying there a car is helpful though the city's bus service can keep you from feeling isolated and taxis are cheap. Many people stay out there because of the beaches which are right across the street. But if you are a city person you may want to stay at one of the hotels that is in the center. Visiting all the sights and the museums but especially wandering around the city, the market and the neighborhoods, gives one the knowledge and understanding of a place that is truly Greek.

But my favorite places in the city are the cafeneons and ouzeries that are hidden on back streets where afternoon parties are spontaneous and common. To find you have been bought a drink by your neighbor at the next table and then being asked to join the party is an honor and a lot of fun. The people of Mytilini are intelligent, warm and generous who love good food and engaging conversation, Fueled by ouzo, a pleasant lunch can last until early evening and the people who hours before were strangers at the next table can begin to feel like blood brothers and soul-mates. As in any town or city in Greece or the world, it's not the buildings or the scenery that make a place special. It's the people.

If you are staying in Mytilini and you can afford it stay at the Pyrgos Hotel. You will feel like royalty. If you are not as free-spending the Blue Sea Hotel could not be more convenient, overlooking the ferry port, has great views and is affordable. If you don't mind staying a bit out of town and using public transportation the Greek-Australian family owned Princess Hotel is on the coast road to the airport and the rooms have kitchen facilities for self-catering. These hotels are reviewed on the Hotels page of this website. You can find other hotels in Mytilini at www.hotelsofgreece.com

Arrival in Mytilini (from In Search of Sardeles Pastes)

Mytilini town at seven in the morning is a beautiful place. Traffic is light and the air is clean. Already the market street is alive with fish, meat and vegetable sellers. I am instantly attracted to the fish shops which are full of sardines, anchovies, and mackerel for under two dollars a pound. I can spend hours looking at these fish, so fresh their eyes shine like cat's caught in headlights. I stare at the sardeles pastes, easily my favorite. These were caught this morning and immediately salted. By evening they will be sold in the cafeneons to be peeled and eaten with ouzo, the Lesbian equivalent of sushi, and to my taste, superior. And at a thousand drachma a kilo, a hundred times cheaper.

Andrea pulls me away from the magnetic fish and into a cafeneon full of old men. Though she usually has no qualms about invading the sanctity of  these men-only cafes, this time she hesitates at the door. "Is it open?" she asks me even though we can both see the place is full and loud male voices are echoing off the stone walls and high ceilings. I know what she means and I feel irritated that she would cross a boundary that no woman from the island would dare, and that I was her accomplice. I become self-conscious about my role in her incursion. I am a traitor to my race and my gender. My shirt is too orange, my shorts are too purple and holding my daughter I feel like a fool in the company of these old men who have fought for their beliefs and for their livelihoods in harder times. I notice on the wall two portraits of Aris Velouchiotis, the communist guerilla leader and hero who harassed the Germans and helped liberate the country after WWII, only to be hunted down and killed by the army of the right-wing government that the British and Americans decided should rule after the occupation.

In Greece the end of the second world war meant the beginning of a civil war which was even bloodier, as the army, which had fled from the advancing Germans and gone to Egypt with the government in exile, returned to go to war with the communists, who from the mountains, had organized, attacked, and then filled the vacuum created by the retreating Germans and controlled almost all of Greece.  A communist Greece was not part of the post war vision the great powers had in mind so in what could be called the beginning of the Cold War, the Americans supplied the money and the weapons in a bloody fight that pitted brother against brother and tore villages and families apart. Men who had been heroes for their exploits against the Germans, were now called murderers and scoundrels, hunted down, imprisoned, tortured, exiled or killed. When it was over Greece was 'free' from communism until it was legalized after the fall of the military Junta in 1974. Now in a country in which over 80% of the people vote for either PASOK(socialist) or New Democracy(conservative), the island of Lesvos is known for the popularity of the communist party.

I am aware that I sit in a room full of old men who half a century ago wore their hair long, rode horses, wore cartridge belts and used vintage rifles against a powerful enemy with tanks and modern weapons and after attaining victory found themselves doing it all over again against their own country men, this time suffering defeat. It is unlikely that I will ever know the feeling of betrayal that these men have felt. One old man sits next to his cup of Turkish coffee, his mouth and the lines of his face point to the floor in a permanent frown. His eyes stare at a pop-art poster that looks completely out of place on the wall, though it is obvious to me that what he is seeing is the sadness of his own life. Lost loved ones, and broken dreams. I feel unworthy of the Turkish coffee I drink. To further drive in the point they have given it to me in a glass instead of the small white cups the old men drink from.

I escape to the market and look at the fish again. While the rest of Greece has watched their fish populations decline due to unorthodox fishing methods such as dynamite, it looks to me like the industry is alive and well in Lesvos. Most of the sardines and anchovies come from the bay of Kaloni, more like an inland sea. They are sold everywhere, fried, grilled or raw. Last year I carried home at least fifteen pounds of canned fish and another ten of tinned ouzo and was never asked to open my bags after sending them through the x-ray machines at Kennedy. The ouzo went fast. Canned sardines are a poor substitute for fresh and I still have some remaining. Nevertheless I  am still inactively shopping for them. The headless ones in the blue cans are the best I have been told. The trick is to eat them before they eat their way through the cans.

The attraction of Mytilini town is strong, with it's tiny crowded streets, shops, restaurants and cafeneons, but we have a whole island to explore, villages to visit, beaches to swim, sardines to eat and ouzo to drink.

Helpful Info for Mytilini

For hotels, car rentals, ferry tickets, flights and charter flights to Lesvos as well as tours to Turkey visit the website of Hahathakis Tours. They have an office right in Mytilini town and can meet your flight or ferry and deliver your rental car or arrange transportation to wherever you need to go.

For a listing of recommended hotels in Lesvos see www.hotelsofgreece.com/northaegean or for a more personal view see the hotels page on this site.

For restaurant reviews see the restaurant page on this site.

The bus station is just to the left of the park which is next to the Municipal theatre and City Hall.

You can book tours to Turkey at many of the ticket offices on the waterfront or through Hahathakis Tours.

If you want to take a swim the public beach is just on the other side of the ferry dock below the castle. There are better beaches on the road to thre airport and beyond, many woth cafes and fish restaurants nearby.

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