Amazing Adventure to Skala Eressos

Okay. I have a lot to say, so be sure you have like 20 minutes to sit down and read this slowly, because it’s really cool and totally worth it. This is my first chance to sit down luxuriously at my computer in days. (And by “chance” I mean “time when my body has no energy left and therefore can’t do anything else.”) Lesbos is so beautiful, I feel like I have to see more and more all the time. So, yesterday when we had the day off, I opted to take a bus over to the other side of the island.

But first I have to tell you about Saturday night! Oh wow. It was fun. After the huge dinner that we hosted for the community, a few of us went out dancing. Well, not quite dancing, because the only real “dance club” in Mytilini (the main city not too far from here) doesn’t open until 3 a.m. That’s the thing about this place that I’m finding more and more; you HAVE to do siesta, otherwise it doesn’t work. Siesta is usually from about 2 to about 6, so that gives you an extra 4 hours of energy in the evening that you wouldn’t normally have. The thing is, though, that with our class schedule we don’t usually get to do siesta, or we’re so psyched to do and see everything that we forget to take a rest in the afternoon, and end up crashing at about 11 p.m. and miss out on all the night life. So anyway, Saturday night we got a ride with this guy who works at the hotel, Cosmos, and his friends Danny (who just graduated from Michigan State and who did a study abroad program here years ago and who now lives in Israel but who’s here on vacation for a few days) and Kostas. We went to this bar called “Monkey” and tried to dance, but it wasn’t really a dance place so it was a little bit awkward. Some people wanted to stay until “My Club” (the dance place) opened at 3, but we started falling asleep around 1:30 so we came back to the hotel and had a good night’s sleep, the first we’d had in days.

Anyway, I got up around 9 on Sunday morning and found out that ALL of our activities that we were going to do that day had been cancelled. So I figured, this was my chance to finally go to Skala Eressos, this groovy town with lots of cool beaches on the other side of the island. It’s also famous as the birthplace of the poet Sappho, and lots of women who admire her writing make pilgrimages there in the summer months. The bus, I found out from Nana who works at the reception desk, was to leave at noon, and wouldn’t leave Skala Eressos again until 6 a.m. the next day. After checking with Kugler to make sure it was okay, I set off. Since it was already 11 and I had to get to Mytilini, I ended up going all by myself. The ride across the island was about two and a half hours of gorgeous countryside. I kept waiting for this immense wave of fear - fear of being in a foreign country, fear of being by myself, fear of getting lost/stuck in a weird situation, etc - but it never came. I just made a decision, got on a bus, and did this thing. I may have either achieved a new sort of strength, or I'm getting stupider while I'm here. Either way though, I have better adventures like this, it seems.

When I got to the town it was about 2:30, the middle of siesta hour, and the place was pretty quiet except for the late lunch crowd at the seaside tavernas. I took a walk down the beach and acted really calm and collected when I passed the people sunbathing on the “clothing optional” section, like I was from Europe and saw this sort of thing all the time. Right.

It took me just about an hour to find the “Tenth Muse,” the most famous bar in all Greece, and only because I passed it once and didn’t see it. After paying homage there, I had only to walk about half a block before passing one of the many signs reading “Room for Rent.” I got my room and key from the landlady, Aphrodite, took a moment to admire the view from my very own balcony of my very own single room in Skala Eressos, took it all in, took this picture of myself and this picture of the courtyard of my house, and went out to find some lunch. The tavernas by the beach were beautiful, with loud Greek music playing, and couches for seats around the tables, ideal for big groups. I didn’t want to sit alone, but finally my hunger got the better of me. A waiter seated me outside one of the tavernas, and I ordered stuffed peppers, my favorite. Of course it was excellent.

As soon as I’d finished my food, the waiter offered me a glass of ouzo and a dance. Stupidly I declined because I wanted to get some sleep before night fell and the parties started. But as I was heading out, a group of men and women who looked to be in their ‘60’s and ‘70’s seated at a table nearby offered me a seat, and invited me to have a glass of wine with them. The waiter was looking on, and so was everyone else in the taverna. Under pressure, I said yes, and all at once they all scooched around in their seats to make room for me. Many of them began speaking to me in rapid Greek, and I smiled and excused myself for only understanding “poli ligho Ellenika… very little Greek!” Eventually, though, I found out that all of them spoke French, so with my limited Franglais we were able to work through our language barriers.

So we drank white wine and ate fruit and cheese, and I told them about my studies, and they told me how all eight of them had grown up together on the island. This taverna was their sort of hangout spot, they told me, and sometimes they would sit here for two or three days like we were doing, just eating and drinking. One man claimed they had broken five tables there over the years, from dancing on them and weighing them down with too much food. As we sat, every few minutes someone would lift their glass and exclaim, “yeia mas!… health to us!” and we’d have a toast. Nikos, the waiter who had offered me an ouzo, was very friendly with them, and always kept my wine glass full; it quickly became obvious that they all wanted me to keep drinking, and that all of them wanted to set us up on a date. (From then on I took only small sips when we toasted, or merely pretended to drink.) Since my new friends were such constant patrons, it was they who chose what CD’s were played at the taverna. They knew most of the songs, so there was much singing and dancing. Nikos made me get up and do some traditional Greek dancing, and the group smiled and yelled “opa!” and “bravo!” Pretty embarrassing, as tourists kept walking by and taking our picture and clapping. (Yes, that’s me, part of the rich Greek cultural backdrop…)

When I left it was three and a half hours since I’d sat down for lunch. I wandered back to my room, set my alarm for about midnight, and fell asleep.

I got up as planned, got cleaned up as much as possible (I’d only brought my purse, no toothbrush or anything) and went out into Skala Eressos. The tourist season, I’d found out, is at its last days now, and tourists make up most of the "party" population. So when I went out to the beach and looked down in either direction it was very dark. But I followed some traces of music back to the Tenth Muse, and there were lots of people hanging around dancing. The music was cool, a groovy mix of American music and Greek covers of American songs. I had a Coke for a wake-up, and I made friends with a few girls from Sweden and Canada. We hung around and talked about EVERYTHING. I was at this bar for hours, just talking about whatever, dancing, having an awesome time. There was a lot of language-deciphering going on, but everyone was able to speak through someone else at least. I was impressed by Sabine, a Swede who couldn’t hear but who spoke amazingly good English, and by Amanda, a Brit who had moved to California and works on Lesvos as a bartender in the summer. Amanda had a friend at Lewis & Clark several years ago, so we kind of bonded over that. It was amazing; in just one day I’d been accepted into two very different groups of people who just wanted to have some good conversation and enjoy the beautiful view of the sea. It was the island utopia you think only exists on TV. Really magical. I didn't take pictures at the Tenth Muse, but maybe now my new goal can be to go back and take some, some day. Anyway, when everyone went home from the bar (around 3:30), I went back to my room and just sort of sat around for the last two hours before I had to get on the 6 a.m. bus back to Mytilini.

Catching the bus back this morning was the scariest experience of my trip so far. I went out of my room to the bus station at 5:45 in the morning, and of course it’s pitch-dark and there’s no actual “station,” just a bunch of buses parked in a lot side by side. And it’s cold and I only have my little blouse thingy on, so I’m shivering, and every noise made by a cat searching for garbage is probably a ghost. Nothing happens until 6 precisely, when I see two people come out of another rooming house with suitcases. It turns out they’re British, a mom and her daughter, and they’re taking the bus to Mytilini as well. We had adventures trying to figure out which bus was ours, and then trying to find change for a 50 Euro note so they could pay their landlady for their room. It ended up with me running to the nearby bakery – literally running, in my little flip-flops – so we could all get change, and then running back with change and pastries for breakfast, then the British woman running back to her hotel to pay for their room and running back to get on the bus. So the bus was 20 minutes late leaving, and I spent the entire drive back worrying over whether or not my group would wait for me going on the day’s activities. (And somewhat enjoying the awesome sunset out the window.) As it turns out, I was able to get a cab from Mytilini back to Thermi, and as I pulled up to the hotel, the group was all assembled outside waiting for the bus. So I was able to casually stroll up and join them about 10 seconds before our bus pulled up to take us to our archaeological dig.

More on the archaeology and classes later – I’m off to bed. (Haven't slept in a LONG time.) Let me just close by saying that Lesbos is everything I’d hoped and dreamed it would be, and my new goal is to save enough money to be able to come back either next summer or the summer afterwards and spend more time in Skala Eressos. Seriously, it was so friendly and fun-loving, it was like no place I’d ever seen before. Really a good time.