Molyvos Life
Molivos EventsWHICH MAGAZINE -Travel section – January 2015
Lesbos and Chios teem with natural delights, from picturesque waterfalls and sultry hot springs to forests fossilised by volcanic ash 20 million years ago. Pack your shorts for a warm spring holiday away from the tourist hordes on these two Greek islands that lie near Turkey in the north-east Aegean Sea. Wing it to Lesbos, known as Mytilíni by locals, which is a favourite spring.
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All data based on Lesbos a Data from Hellenic National Meteorological Service b Data based on Molyvos resting spot on the avian migration route. In particular, Lake Metochi, the Tsiknias River and the Kalloni saltpans attract the likes of bee-eaters, olive-tree warblers, black-headed buntings and black storks. Don’t forget your boots: hundreds of miles of walking trails criss-cross Lesbos, one of Greece’s largest islands. A hike may lead through pine forests and meadows of wild orchids. Soothe your aching legs with a soak at one of the island’s hot springs – those at Eftalou in the north are on the beach. Stay at the nearby medieval town of Molyvos where red-stone houses cascade below a 14th-century castle down to a harbour and pebbly beach. Take a ferry from Lesbos to Chios to see a spectacular firework rocket war between two churches. This centuries-old battle takes place on the Saturday of Greek Orthodox Easter – a week after our own Easter – at the town of Vrontados. Stay at nearby Chios Town and don’t miss the superb Byzantine mosaics at the Unesco World Heritage site of Nea Moni, an 11th-century monastery.
Need to know
Ferries link Lesbos with other islands,
such as Chios and Limnos, but
services may be twice-weekly in April.
How to do it
The only non-stop flights in April are with Thomas Cook from Gatwick to Lesbos on Saturdays (from 18 April). A week’s package in the resort of Skala Kallonis – near the Kalloni saltpans – costs from around £400pp. Limosa, a specialist in birding holidays, has an eight-day tour of Lesbos in late April 2015 for £1,695pp, including flights.
More info: Rough Guide to the Greek islands.
Greek Traditions For New Years On Lesvos
Father Christmas in Greece, known as Agios Vassilis (Saint Basil/ Basillis/ Bill), comes with the arrival of the New Year, bearing gifts.
It is tradition for the first visitor who comes to your home after the clock chimes 12.00 to knock on your door and when you open the door to him he will have a big stone with him, a jug of water and a pomegranate. He places the stone on the floor, pours the water over it and then breaks the pomegranate. This ritual is one to bring good luck to your home for the year ahead. Whilst he is performing the ritual he is also chanting words similar to these: “As heavy as this stone is, may your pockets be from abundance of money….As this water pours, may the happiness and laughter pour into your home….. As the same way the pomegranate seeds spread across your floor may the joy and heath spread across your home.
wishes for 2015
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING COURSE IN MOLYVOS
Molyvos tourist association
http://www.theotheraegean.com organised a seminar called Social Media Marketing. Of which they also contributed to the cost.
It was a two day course of which over 50 people with different businesses from Lesvos took.
We were captivated
It was a very enjoyable experience. We all learnt many things which should be a great help in our being able to introduce Molyvos and Lesvos to the world.
Our speaker was Panos Kazanelis, who kept our interest and made the event fun. With lot of humour and laughter helped keep our attention for the many hours that was needed to complete this course.
http://www.about.me/panoskazanelis
The seminar was held in the Delfinia hotel and Andonis and crew looked after us very well serving us with coffee and delicious biscuits when we needed a break
THE TRIP
Feeling excited as it was an excursion which we rarely do. Something we always plan but too busy in the summer and somehow too busy/lazy in the winter. Arranged by the committee of restaurants for the second time to cut the pita (the pie for the New Year). This is a tradition that is done all over Greece where a pie/pita (sweet) is cut with a coin inside and whoever gets the piece with the coin is lucky for the rest of the year.
A bus trip to visit olive oil factory in Yera , Ouzo factory in Plomari and lunch.
An amazing assortment of people turned up. All from restaurants in Molyvos and Scala Sikamia. People we never hang out with so it makes this excursion all the more interesting.
We passed through Kalloni with all the incredible birds in the salt flats, a working olive factory with lots of smoke pouring out of its chimney in Dipi, a flock of birds resting on electric wires, the flat as ice sea in the gulf of Yera and wonderful views through the bus windows.
Arriving in Yera village that has olive trees growing close to the water edge, there is the sign that directs you to the Olive press museum which is in the centre of the village, one of the first steam –powered factories on Lesvos. Olive oil is the second biggest income to the island after tourism.
Some where worth going
A fantastic project. A decayed building which took 3 years to be restored. Photos of the before and after are hanging in every area of the building. It was very impressive. Personal hand held speakers in both Greek and English to direct/explain the tour of the museum. Well worth the visit!
Off to Plomari where we stopped first at the Museum of Barbayannis (one of the oldest ouzo factories) just before the main town.
The entrance to the factory of Oyzo Barbayanni
Ouzo is made from pure alcohol made from sugar beet, grapes and sugar cane in factories that are over seen by the government. It must be very pure and clean alcohol so the taste is not affected. The alcohol is distilled and 35 different herbs and spices are introduced of which the main one is aniseed, that is grown for them in Lisvori and then dunked in salt water to keep the aroma of the herb longer. Once the ouzo is distilled it must be kept for 45 to 60 days in large vats which make it become sweeter and be able to be drunk.
This is only one of the distillers
There are 15 distilleries on Lesvos that make ouzo.
Lesvos produces over half of the total amount of ouzo produced in Greece
Ouzo is exported to over 35 countries.
bottling oyzo at the factory of Barbayanni
Our next stop was the village Plomari. One of the largest villages of Lesvos. Once with over 12,000 inhabitants now with just under 3000 including the foreigners (we were told) . Impressed as compared to Molyvos it looked massive. Banks, supermarkets galore but many buildings in ruin. We noticed a lot of buildings built by a special green stone that created a lovely and different design.
I have not seen such a large Platanos tree in Greece
Our final destination was lunch at a restaurant called Mouria, just outside the village of Plomari, which served us very fast and had great food.
The Captain’s Table, Theo and Melinda
THE CAPTAIN’S TABLE EARNS 2013 TRIPADVISOR CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE
Honoured as a Top Performing restaurant as Reviewed by Travellers on the
World’s Largest Travel Site
Molyvos, Lesvos, Greece – 28 Jun. 13 – The Captain’s Table a Mediterranean / local restaurant today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award. The accolade, which honours hospitality excellence, is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveller reviews on TripAdvisor, and is extended to qualifying businesses worldwide. Only the top-performing 10 per cent of businesses listed on TripAdvisor receive this prestigious award.
To qualify for a Certificate of Excellence, businesses must maintain an overall rating of four or higher, out of a possible five, as reviewed by travellers on TripAdvisor, and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months. Additional criteria include the volume of reviews received within the last 12 months.
The Captain’s Table is pleased to receive a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence,” said Theodoros Kosmetos and Melinda McRostie the owners, at The Captain’s Table. “We strive to offer our customers a memorable experience, and this accolade is evidence that our hard work is translating into positive reviews on TripAdvisor.”
“TripAdvisor is delighted to celebrate the success of businesses around the globe, from Sydney to Chicago, Sao Paulo to Rome, which are consistently offering TripAdvisor travellers a great customer experience,” said Alison Copus, Vice President of Marketing for TripAdvisor for Business. “The Certificate of Excellence award provides top performing establishments around the world the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those who matter most – their customers.”
Island Hopping and with a connection to Lesvos
There is an airline that travels between our Greek islands and one of the islands is Mytilene. So yes another way to get to Lesvos island.
Hurray !!!
I have known of some flights between us and other islands but not so regularly. I really wanted to share this with everyone.
ALL OF LESBOS A UNESCO GEOPARK by Carol P. Christ
In 2011 all of Lesbos was declared a UNESCO Geopark due the work of Nikos Zouros of the Museum of Natural History in Sigri in cooperation with numerous government agencies and the Municipality of Lesbos.
There are just over 90 Geoparks in the world. Geopark designation is given for: “A territory encompassing one or more sites of scientific importance, not only for geological reasons but also by virtue of its archaeological, ecological or cultural value.” To keep the designation as a Geopark, the people of Lesbos and their elected leaders must show that they understand the heritage of the island and intend to protect it and make it accessible to tourists.
Lesbos has been designated a Geopark because of its geological history. Mount Olympos, the mountain where Agiassos is located, was thrust up from under the sea, along with the Alps, about 200 million years ago. This was during the time when the continents split apart from a single continent known as Pangaia. As Mount Olympos was formed of plankton under the sea, it is made up of soft marl or marble-like rock.
In contrast the whole Northwest part of the island was created between 22 million and 16 million years ago during massive volcanic explosions that formed the Aegean Sea. At that time Lesbos was connected to the mainland of Asia Minor, from which it separated only about 1 million years ago. Evidence of the volcanic explosions can also be found across the channel that now separates Lesbos from Turkey. The village of Assos, in Turkey, which can be seen from Sikamina, is built of the same type of volcanic stone used to build in Molivos.
Mount Lepetemos which towers over Molivos and Petra may have been one of the largest volcanoes the world has ever seen. Moliovos itself was a small volcanic mountain. Lava flows can still be seen in many parts of the village. The stones that were used to build the castle and the traditional buildings in Molivos are porous volcanic stone.
The rock on which the church of Petra was built was a vein of molten rock that was thrusting itself up from under the earth. It never exploded but remained in the center of a small mountain. Over time, the softer rock of the outer part of the mountain wore away, exposing the volcanic core. The monastery known as Ipsilos at the juncture of the roads to Eressos and Sigri is built on a larger exposed volcanic core. The village of Vatoussa is at the center of the crater of another very large volcano that exploded many times shaping the island as we know it today.
The volcanoes of Lesbos sometimes sent out masses of lava flow that might have taken as much as 10,000 years to cool. These flows can be seen in the shapes of the island’s mountains and hills. Other times the volcanoes threw out large boulders and great clouds of dust. Everything in the path of lava flows is burned up. But when volcanic dust settles on living things such as trees, their forms may be preserved. In Lesbos the Petrified Forest was created because dust fell at levels of several meters. Our Petrified Forest uniquely has trees still in place in the landscape with their roots, trunks, and even branches, showing exactly where they were living some 20 million years ago.
Visitors can learn more about the geological history of Lesbos in the context of the geological history of the planet at the Museum of Natural History in Sigri. A part of the Petrified Forest has been excavated on the museum grounds. There are also a series of signs called “The Lava Path” along the road from Filia to Sigri which explain the volcanic landmarks visible from the signposts. They are well-worth stopping to read as they tell an amazing story.
Carol P. Christ (Καρολινα Κριστ) is Vice President of Friends of Green Lesbos which has been working for years to protect the wetlands of Lesbos. In 2012 she ran for Greek National Parliament on the Green Party ticket in Lesbos-Limnos.
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