Magical moments together in Lesvos
Everyone agrees that Greece is a wonderful place to escape to as a tourist, and even the LGBTQ tourist can enjoy comfortably and safely. Places like Mykonos are a hopping, "in" place, with never ending gay friendly excitement and activities during the high season months.
We sought to venture, far from the parties and wild nightlife, and to be even away from the beach, and experience a more quieter, and "local" experience. We boarded an overnight ferry and sailed to the isle of Lesvos. This is one of the more remote islands and is closer to Turkey than to the other Greek islands.
Being off season, we experienced a different Greece, with weather similar to England with showers and gray skies and a jacket was needed when going out.
We stayed in a wonderful B&B run by a Greek family who were kind and included generous Greek style breakfasts in the very reasonable price of our room. We had a kitchen where we cooked our own food which we bought from the local grocery stores, which allowed us to try all kinds of interesting Greek local foods, and fresh produce, fish, Greek coffee, Greek wines which are reasonably priced, and Ouzo! Ouzo is a delightful aperitif which has an anise flavour and is what the locals drink too!
A view from our ferry as it approaches Mitilini on Lesvos. We enjoyed wandering around towns like these, and other wonderful picturesque towns with names like Molyvos, which has a ruin of an Ottoman castle. One of the many reminders of the Turk's long time control of Greece.
We savoured our intimate walks together on uncrowded streets, wandering into small shops, having conversations with the friendly shop keepers, not being swamped with tourists yet, allowing opportunities to know each other more. Our unhurried and unplanned course allowed us a better insight into local Greek ways of life, which we wouldn't be able to easily learn during the busy high season.
Chris, in the photo above enjoying the village as the local people do.
We would often walk down back streets and admire how the small neighbourhoods looked.
In the town we stayed there is a landmark Orthodox church which was built on top of a huge rock. We got our exercise on our meditative climb to the top of the rock to admire the church, imagining how lively it would be during major festivals like Pascha or Christmas.
Greece has hundreds more enchanting islands for us to explore, unhurriedly, savouring every bit of local culture and flavour.
Everyone agrees that Greece is a wonderful place to escape to as a tourist, and even the LGBTQ tourist can enjoy comfortably and safely. Places like Mykonos are a hopping, "in" place, with never ending gay friendly excitement and activities during the high season months.
We sought to venture, far from the parties and wild nightlife, and to be even away from the beach, and experience a more quieter, and "local" experience. We boarded an overnight ferry and sailed to the isle of Lesvos. This is one of the more remote islands and is closer to Turkey than to the other Greek islands.
Being off season, we experienced a different Greece, with weather similar to England with showers and gray skies and a jacket was needed when going out.
We stayed in a wonderful B&B run by a Greek family who were kind and included generous Greek style breakfasts in the very reasonable price of our room. We had a kitchen where we cooked our own food which we bought from the local grocery stores, which allowed us to try all kinds of interesting Greek local foods, and fresh produce, fish, Greek coffee, Greek wines which are reasonably priced, and Ouzo! Ouzo is a delightful aperitif which has an anise flavour and is what the locals drink too!
A view from our ferry as it approaches Mitilini on Lesvos. We enjoyed wandering around towns like these, and other wonderful picturesque towns with names like Molyvos, which has a ruin of an Ottoman castle. One of the many reminders of the Turk's long time control of Greece.
We savoured our intimate walks together on uncrowded streets, wandering into small shops, having conversations with the friendly shop keepers, not being swamped with tourists yet, allowing opportunities to know each other more. Our unhurried and unplanned course allowed us a better insight into local Greek ways of life, which we wouldn't be able to easily learn during the busy high season.
Chris, in the photo above enjoying the village as the local people do.
We would often walk down back streets and admire how the small neighbourhoods looked.
In the town we stayed there is a landmark Orthodox church which was built on top of a huge rock. We got our exercise on our meditative climb to the top of the rock to admire the church, imagining how lively it would be during major festivals like Pascha or Christmas.
Greece has hundreds more enchanting islands for us to explore, unhurriedly, savouring every bit of local culture and flavour.
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