Capt. Daley's Sea Stories Lemnos, Greece (2) 15 April 2008 Lemnos, Greece is the birthplace of my father s father and mother. I ve always wanted to visit the island. It far exceeded my expectations. It is beautiful, quiet, and far off the beaten path. We saw no other Americans the entire week we were there, and very few people who were not Greek. Lemnos is strategically located at the mouth of the Straits of Dardanelles, the only entrance to the Sea of Marmara leading to Istanbul and the Black Sea. It was strategic to the Trojan War, supplying the Greek troops in Troy (now in Turkey). It is the location of the ruins of the oldest known city in Europe, Poliochni, 6,000 BC. It is the island of Hephaestus, Greek mythological God of fire and is the focus of many mythological tales. It was the site of a crucial naval battle in World War II. Yet few people have ever heard of its name. (c) Capt. Gregory C. Daley, 2008 info@captaingreg.net http://www.captaingreg.net These photos have been resized up from their original images. The original images are 3456 pixels by 2592 pixels with higher resolution. If you would like a copy for your personal use, please email me and I will email the original image to you at no charge. If you wish to purchase an image for commercial use, the charge is $100 US per image. Contact me at info@captaingreg.net
Here is a typical street scene in the shopping district of Myrina, the capital of Lemnos. There is a square to the right. The shop owners live above their shops. You can see the balconies done in iron grillwork.
Every day about dusk, this fishing boat (about 100 foot long) would dock for most of the night. A little old lady would climb up over the rail and begin to sell the catch. They had just about any kind of seafood you can imagine all of it fresh just caught that day. It is something I will never forget seeing these people make a living off the sea in such a meaningful way. I m sure all of the restaurant owners were down at the boat buying for their lunches and dinners the next day. What a sight that was and still is today and every day.
One of the things they do very well on Lemnos is to make wine. These are some of the best wines I ve ever had and I have had some very good wines! This white Lemnian wine was perfect for the seafood of the island.
The red had more of a burgundy taste than Bordeaux.
The big surprise is the Muscat. Typically, I don t like a sweet wine because it usually gives me a headache. However, this wine had more of a fruit flavor to it than a sweet flavor. It was really good and I drank it without the headache.
Here is a commercial fisherman making a living on a very small boat. These guys go to sea in very small boats and make very big hauls. Ah the romance of the sea. Now I know where I get it from.
Poliochni comes from the words polios choni furnace of the city. This ancient city, reported to be the oldest recorded city of Europe, used fire in furnaces to smelt metals. The photo is of a model of the ruins. The photos I took of the ruins did not come out well. We were able to walk all round the ruins, just as if we were walking in an ancient city.
Off-roading in a rent car is always great fun. The map showed a half way descent road but it wasn t. We were lucky the car made it from the Southeastern tip of the island back to Moudros. It bottomed out momentarily several times. It was a beautiful ride. We saw ruins that few have ever seen and some nests of some birds of prey that didn t take a liking to us. I got back in the car before it came after me. I felt like Jason of the Argonauts.
One of the surprises while off-roading was a huge military installation. Out in the middle of nowhere with ruins and primitive wildlife, these bunkers pop up. This island will surprise you!
Back in Moudros, we ate at the Wave Hotel again. The inside dining room has some great murals, a ship s wheel chandelier, life ring chandeliers, sea tortoise shells, and model sailing ships hanging from the ceilings and walls,
If we saw one, we saw a thousand of these shrines where loved ones passed away in accidents. The shrine has a picture of the deceased and numerous other items in it such as a candle, olive oil, food, water and many other things.
On the southwest side of the island we found Kondias, home of my father s father. We could not speak Greek and had little success trying to find relatives on this side of the family, leaving a great reason to return to the island one day, not that I need one. I m ready to go back at any time.
The Church of Kakaviotissa is in the most remote part of the island possible. It is a Greek tradition to build a church as high up as possible and this one is built in a cave at the top of one of the highest mountains in Lemnos. It is a church to the Virgin Mary. Services are held here only on the Tuesday after Easter. We came on the Wednesday after Easter.
It is at the end of a very bad road and then a half hour climb up the mountain. When you see billy goats there, which you will, you ll wish you were one. The mountain is very steep and there is not much to hold onto. The little church is beautiful. Once you arrive, you know that you are in a place that very few people have ever seen or will ever see. You can seed traces of the cloisters carved in the rocks where the monks of the Monastery of Megistis Lavras would go.
Coming back from the church we ran into this shepherd herding his flock. Well, my Dad was right about there being sheep on rocks in Lemnos, but there is so much more to see than just that!
Of course blue and white are the national colors (colors of the Greek flag). Their boats are so colorful. It would be interesting to find out how old these boats are. In the background, you can see a large car ferry loading up right in front of our hotel, which is on the right side of the photo with the castle behind it.
It is May Day, which is a big celebration in Myrina, but all the shops are closed on our last day on the island. We did not have much luck finding things we wanted to buy here. It s ashamed because I passed up a lot of stuff I wanted from other islands, waiting to buy it in the home of my grandparents. Lemnos is not a place to shop; it is a place to live and enjoy life. They do it well here. The Petrides signs behind the crowd were car the rental company we used. They were a bit of a pain the butt. There is another car rental company we will use next time.
One last seafood feast with long lost Cousin George along the water s edge of the old inner harbor. Grilled octopus is excellent. Of course, everything is cooked in Olive Oil and that is hard to beat.
Cousin George did this shot of Diane and I with the inner harbor, our hotel and the castle in the background. Yep, he is a professional!
Lemnos is so enchanting and romantic. I hope to return one day.
After a filling meal of all the seafood you can possibly eat what better way to finish off than with a few Greek pastries. The donut holes are incredible very light and dripping in local honey and cinnamon. The crepe is filled with chocolate and the ice cream is mastique a tree flavor that gum comes from, which is very popular in Greece.
Mount Petasos - (to throw off) - Legend has it that the women of Lemnos weren t pleased with Aphrodite s numerous extra-marital affairs on their patron God, Hephaestus, her husband. So they didn t worship her properly. Aphrodite in retaliation gave them terrible halitosis and body odor. The men of Lemnos weren t very pleased and brought in women from other islands further aggravating the Greek women of Lemnos (not a good thing to do). They threw all the men off of this cliff Petasos and killed them. It wasn t until Jason and the Argonauts landed on Lemnos that the island was repopulated which is why I enjoy claiming to be a descendant of Jason or an Argonaut.
Here is another great shot by Cousin George of our final coffee in a coffee shop near the castle looking down on the sun setting on the northern half of Myrina. Of course, the little white building is yet another small church. There are so many. I m not sure how the priests support themselves. It was a magic moment watching the sun set on Petasos with Diane and George sitting at the castle of Myrina. One I ll never forget.