Agiasos and Ambeliko suffered floods and landslides on 1st December.
You don’t need to speak any Greek to know that this has broken peoples hearts.
Floods and Landslides
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Tag Archives: Lesvos
Molyvos Christmas Fair 2012
The Christmas Fair takes place each year at the school in Molyvos with the proceeds going towards items needed by the school. Previous years proceeds have resulted in new classroom furniture and much needed computer equipment, very worthwhile causes. Due to bad weather on Sunday morning I thought the Fair was never going to take place. However the stalls had been laid out in the morning and nothing was going to stop it going ahead. A final downpour about an hour after the Fair had opened sent everyone rushing for pieces of plastic to cover over their stalls. Even though some things for sale got a little damp it didn’t stop the fun. It is nice to see that in these times of hardship people still turn out (even in the rain) to support the village.There were lots of nice things on offer including a beautifully laid out stall of handmade Christmas handicrafts, a selection of toys, dolls with handmade individual knitted outfits, tom-bola, children’s clothing, gift ideas, wheel of fortune and even horse rides. There were different tables of food, donated by people of different nationalities for everyone to sample, and of course you can’t have this type of event without the obligatory mulled wine, hot dogs and popcorn. The smells of which wafted around the playground which really made you want to try them out. I can personally recommend the mulled wine. The children of the school sang Christmas songs. Santa turned up and the donkey,which was part of the Nativity setting, gave rides to the children. All in all a very satisfying event. We shall look forward to this again next year. Lets just hope the weather is a little kinder.
UPDATE – The fair raised just under €5000 for the school. A big thank you to everyone.
Thank you to Torsten Åkerberg for the photograph.
Voyages of Discovery
Lesvos is a wonderful island for walking and exploring. There are now several guide books available with walks of all lengths, described in detail. Many of the tracks are also accessible by 4WD jeep. By getting off the beaten path you really do see other aspects of the island and island life. We have walked all day and seen no-one; other times we have had the most interesting encounters with local people and have to drag ourselves away with the reminder that we have several miles still to go. The Greek people, in general, have a friendly curiosity about “strangers” in their midst and if you walk into a small hill village language is no barrier to them wanting to know who you are, where you are from, where you have been and why you are here. And they will sit you down, bring you drinks, plates of fresh food (often from their own gardens) and display the generous hospitality that the Greek people are justly famous for.
By walking you will find places that will never be seen by the visitors who gather in the main resorts and you could be on another island entirely. Because Lesvos does not rely on tourism for more than perhaps 10% of its income it can afford to treat you as if you were family, not as a cash cow to be milked in a short season.
The scenery is so varied across the island it is 
difficult to round any corner and not go “Aaah!”. There is always a new vista, an interesting church, some dilapidated shepherd’s hut etc that stops you in your tracks and absolutely demands you take a photograph or three! We have seen rock tombs on a beach, the rare and beautiful wild Rhododendron Luteum with its gloriously scented yellow flowers, tiny churches built into rocks, sheep grazing seaweed on a beach, waterfalls, ruins of watermills, ponds alive with turtles and frogs.
Evidence of current military activity can be seen around the island, but you can also find rusting old tanks (usually facing towards the Turkish coast!) and mysterious holes in the ground. We have even accidentally driven onto a firing range during practice. Oops!
Lesvos really is an island with something for everyone. YOUR voyage of discovery is out there waiting for you.
Sappho
When you start looking for information about Sappho it is easy to become very confused. Every writer has a different opinion about her. There are a few things that remain undisputed.
- She was born in Eressos
- She was born about 620 BCE
- She wrote poetry
We hope to bring you a more up to date page soon.
In the meantime, you can read one view of Sappho Wikipedia.
There is also a new book:
Sappho
A New Translation of the Complete Works
Edited and translated by:
Diane Rayor
Published by:
Cambridge University Press
I wish I was in Molyvos
I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing right now other than sitting outside The Seahorse Hotel on Molyvos harbour with a cold Mythos, or better still a nice chilled glass of white wine, watching the world go by. What is it about this place that tugs at the heartstrings so? There are numerous pretty Greek Islands, and there are are plenty of attractive harbours all around the world, and I have been lucky enough to see quite a lot of both, but this place has a magical quality that truly cannot be matched anywhere else.
Of course, we are not alone, in fact, we are veritable newcomers, visiting for just the last 10 years or so. Many, many more have been coming for decades and countless other Brits, Dutch, Germans and many more nationalities now call Molyvos home.