What is Lesvos Like?

As we settle in Mytilene, I wanted to try to capture what it’s like to be here, in words and photos.

The town itself is home to a mix of people, here for different reasons. As the largest town of a productive agricultural island, most people on the street are local Greeks. The beautiful setting and welcoming climate do attract tourists; however, the lack of world-famous monuments or unmissable beaches mean that the tourists here tend to not be overwhelming. A walk down the street will mostly bring you into contact with local Greeks, or Greek tourists. There’s very little German or English to be heard here. Close proximity to Turkey means that the town does receive Turkish day-trippers; two ferries a day link Mytilene with Ayvalik a few kilometers away. A few restaurants on the water even have Turkish-language menus.

We are in a cute, little vernacular house on a quiet alleyway, with a great view over the castle.

The lack of air conditioning means we need to constantly balance air circulation with privacy. Though our only home invaders are typically the odd mosquito, and the scruffy, bipolar neighborhood cat that I made the mistake of letting my children feed.

We have a small kitchen, and cook at home, but that doesn’t stop us from getting out and enjoying the many cultural pleasures of Mytilene: music, theater, and of course, ouzo:

The streetscape is an interesting one. Only a little more than one hundred years ago, Lesvos was a prosperous outpost of the Ottoman Empire — though one where Greeks controlled a significant piece of the economy. Trade with the rest of Europe influenced the architecture; hence there is a an interesting mix of styles, with Ottoman, Neo-classical Greek, and French Second Empire buildings all bumping up against one another.

All of these buildings are in the typical Greek urban mix of wear and tear, some renovated, some collapsing, a condition that preceded the financial crisis to some degree but now seems amplified.

Also typically Greek is the graffiti that covers many walls. Some is political:

Some is social commentary:

And some is just random. The Ebola Crew is a surprisingly prolific bunch, given their apparent affection for THC:

Also of note: the oeuvre of “Boobs,” the “Cool Disco Dan” of Mytilene:

Given the warm climate, most shops are open in the mornings through 2pm, and then close for the”Ώρες κοινής ησυχίας” or “hours of public quiet,” the (technically) legally-mandated afternoon siesta. On Tuesday, and Thursday-Saturday, most shops open up again around 6pm. In the meantime, the normally bustling bazaar becomes an eerie ghost town.

All in all, walking around Mytilene for a day doesn’t give you a strong sense that there is a crisis here. You need to go looking to find what’s going on. But once you start looking, the signs are there.

Perhaps the first clue is the harbor. There are an unusual number of coast guard and military vessels docked.

In the streets, you tend not to see non-Greeks walking around. But if you glimpse into the windows of local buses, you see they are full of people who look distinctly non-greek. You can walk down the main shopping street most of the time not encountering any sense of disruption — -until one evening you come across a demonstration in support of hunger strikers at the Moria camp.

And if you go into the back streets, you start to see how Greeks and others are organizing to respond to the wave of migration. You find offices for International NGOs, support centers, and — of course — graffiti in support of migrants and against authority:

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