 |
| back in Greece |
Weather – 15º, some rain, but mostly |
| Taxiarchis monestery |
when we
were on the bus
Steps – 7,438
Mytilene (pop. 60,000) is the capital and main
port of the Greek island of Lesbos
(pop. 84,000). We first visited in 2008 when we toured an ouzo factory.
The ship didn’t arrive until 11, so we thought
we’d have a morning to laze…nope. We were invited to a breakfast for frequent
Regent passengers. It was nice, but nothing is better than lazing in bed, then taking
the few steps to the balcony for a morning of blogging and reading.
 |
| chocolate fountain for breakfast |
After breakfast we booked a cruise for
Christmas 2027. This will be on Regent’s newest ship which will be exciting. As
usual, we booked the lowest category of room – there are rooms much bigger and
that come with a butler, but about half of the rooms are more or less the same
size (about 350 sq feet) but have different locations on the ship, which is
what impacts category and cost.  |
| Taxiarchis monestery |
We don’t care one bit about location...much, we
don’t want to be under any public area…no restaurant, no bar, no pool…only other
rooms, public spaces tend to be loud. The ship location that impacts room category
is proximity to the
 |
| Taxiarchis monestery |
centre of the ship on a higher floor, so as rooms are
closer
to the middle of the ship and to the top decks the category and cost increases.
An increase in category means more $$$. The room we
chose is at the back on the
lowers floor. However…location on the ship can sometimes affect balcony size,
the room we chose is a G category, which is second from the bottom category,
but it seems to have a GIANT balcony! Like 4 times the size of balconies we are
used to on the older Regent ships and double or triple what we have now. |
| Greek granny polishing St. Michael glass |
We feel like this will be figured out and will
eventually be categorized higher, but we are locked in. We experienced this phenomenon
before on Regent…a large balcony off the back of the ship (bliss) that was a
basic room but was eventually categorized to a penthouse.
 |
| so many cats |
Mitilini is a tender port – when the ship
anchors in the harbour and small boats ‘tender’ us to shore. This is always a
pain – it was charming and exciting the first few times we did it and can be
when you aren’t with a group trying to get to an excursion. Today we were
trying to get to an excursion. Tendering is a whole lot of sit around and wait
in the theatre (the usual excursion meeting point) until there is an available
tender.  |
| Loukoumades |
This is where I think Regent fails a bit. We
were supposed to anchor at 11, and tours were supposed to start going out at
1120. Obviously, they know how long it takes to start the tender operations,
but people who were supposed to leaving the ship at 1120, didn’t until closer
to noon. We were supposed to meet at 1155 and didn’t leave until about 1230.
 |
| St Raphael monestery |
This doesn’t affect the excursion at all, a
Regent excursion that is. Independent excursions are another matter, but we
never do those. No Regent (or other cruise line for that matter) excursion will
ever, ever not get you back to the ship and if something happens like a bus
breaks down (been there!) the ship will never leave without you.
 |
| St Raphael monestery |
We visited 2 monasteries and one taverna today.
Travelling between all three took us all over the island of Lesbos. It was a
perfect mix of seeing cultural sites, tasting local flavours, seeing the landscape,
and how people live.
Of course we were with a guide, Mimi today, who
told us many things at the sites and on the bus. I occasionally hear people moan
about how much talking the guide did, or how the guide should have said less…PARDON
ME!?! How else are you going to learn about where you are you ding-dong?!? I
have never once thought a guide should have said less – sheesh!
 |
| St Raphael alter with hanging lights |
Our first visit was to the fortress-like monastery
of Taxiarchis (Greek for archangel or commander), dating back to
 |
| where 12 yr old saint Irene died |
the 10th
century. St Michael the Archangel and St Gabriel are the patrons. It was
interesting to hear Mimi tell us about the offerings people make of sliver
items that have been used to cover a life size (of bigger) image of St Michael.
Apparently in the Orthodox religion images aren’t to be 3D, so none of the
iconography are sculptures. Exceptions can be made of course, like the one of
St. Michael here, which is mostly flat – a relief image.
The church walls and ceiling was completely covered
with images of saints. No photos were allowed in the church, but they have a
great web site if you want to check it out. https://www.taxiarhismantamadou.gr/
St Michael and St Gabriel must also be the
patrons saints of cats…they rule this place!
 |
| Lesbos landscape |
We had time for a snack of Loukoumades
- Tim-Bit sized, deep-fried dough balls that are crispy on the outside, fluffy
on the inside, and soaked in hot honey syrup. These can be with or without
chocolate drizzle…we had with. A plate of 8 were €4.
Then we drove about 30 minutes through narrow
winding roads, along the coast, through tiny towns, past cow and sheep pastures.
Cows and sheep aren’t roaming freely as they typically do here as there has
been an outbreak of foot and mouth disease on Lesbos since March, the first occurrence
in 25 years, so animals are kept with the same herds.
 |
| St Raphael monestery |
We also saw the Lesbos refugee camp. Mimi didn’t
give much information on the camp, but a quick google search doesn’t have much
good to say. Not that any refugee camp is great, but this one seems
particularly no-so-good.
The Saint Raphael monastery (12th
century) where we visited next, is a working monastery in so far as it has nuns
living there. St Michael/ St Gabriel monastery was operational for celebrations,
but not a day to day working monastery.
 |
| meze and ouzo |
Did you know (I didn’t) the difference between
a convent and a monastery? According to the interwebs…”a monastery is a secluded place where people live
apart from the world for quiet prayer, while a convent is a home for religious
workers who go out into the local community to serve’.
There are many relics at the St Raphaeli monastery
including 2 pieces of St Raphael’s skull, which is one of the reasons it is a
pilgrimage site. I always find relics a bit creepy, but if that’s what worshipers
like…good for them.
 |
| Sappho |
Lastly, we found ourselves at a taverna for meze
and ouzo. The Meze was a meat ball, a deep-fried feta/chic pea ball, tomatoes,
and a couple of unidentifiable dips. Everything was OK, I missed olives and
cheese. Most of the people around us ate and drank very little. In fact, the
woman across from us didn’t even touch her ouzo, so we helped her out. |
| Mitilini waterfront |
3 busses arriving back to the ship at a
dock would be an ordeal, but 3 getting back onto a tender would be a zoo! We
figured for our sanity we had to find someplace for a beer.
We wandered the town a bit and stopped for a
Kea beer (€5 for a pint). The waterfront area is lined with bars and
restaurants which at 5pm on a late October mid-week evening wasn’t exactly
hopping, but I could see how it would later in the day and especially in
summer. The captain was out for a walk at one point and stopped by for a chat.
We sat right by the Sappho (c. 620–550 BCE)
sculpture. Mimi told us about her – she was a teacher of aristocratic women.
She wrote poetry about the beauty of
 |
| beer and Sappho |
women which let to her being the symbol of
lesbian history and culture. |
| Mitilini by night |
By the time we got back to the tender it was
dark (one aspect of tendering that hasn’t lost its shine for me is tendering in
the dark) and it wasn’t at all full – maybe 10 people including staff – so no
ordeal at all. You know tendering operations are almost over when the shoreside
supplies are on with you. The tender ride from Mitilini to the shore is about
10 minutes long, this is short, some places it can take up to half an hour.
 |
| the ship lit up. tendering back |
 |
| ship's door open and ready for us |
The rest of the evening was, predinner cocktail,
dinner, Chris went to the casino, I went to the room. I read for about 30
seconds and passed out hard. These no nap days are killing me!
