Two weeks on a Greek island
London to Lesbos
Rewinding to last Wednesday, I left the office amidst a flurry of work for two weeks, lugging my suitcase behind. In West Ewell, after crossing London, we ate Sam’s risotto of “things left in the fridge”, I watched Man Utd nervously and luckily win the Champions League against Chelsea whilst Sam hurriedly tried to remember all the things she might forget. Come 3:45am, the serenade of my phone alarm assaults us and throws us out of bed, diving into suitcases to triple check our tickets and passports - before being whisked to Gatwick by Sam’s mum for our 7:00am flight to Mitilene, the Lesbos capital, via First Choice airlines.
We booked the holiday and flights through First Choice two months in advance for £850, choosing to stay at the Sun Rise Hotel, next to Molyvos, in North Lesbos.
I shall not get into our laborious process of deciding which island/resort to visit in Greece, but we decided on Lesbos for its vegetation, size, relatively ow tourism, direct flights and culture. The Sun Rise Hotel was also highly rated on Trip Advisor (other candidates were the Olive Press Hotel (too noisy), The Sea Horse (no pool) and a couple of others (Petra, Anaxos, too far from the beautiful Molyvos).
Mitilene to Molyvos
On landing we discarded our jumpers, breathed in the hot air and set about across the mountainous terrain of Lesbos, via taxi, to the north of the island - about an hours drive, at a speedy pace with horn honking at junctions and overtaking of one handed motorcyclists that were texting on their phones. We checked in and proceeded up the 100-odd steps to our room, with a glorious North Lesvos sea view, and Turkey clear in our sights over the water. The room is nice, excellent for sleeping and looking after our clothes, which is all we need it for. The Sun Rise Hotel offers a full and half board food service, we got the breakfasts but opted out of the evening meals - we like our restaurants! A good choice considering their food is over priced and not very good (we sampled a chicken a la creme, a tuna salad and a burger on our first day - though not again since - Sam also made the Chicken Creme mistake in Sozopol).
I’m currently sitting by their pool, basking in the hot sun, as I write this - it looks so refreshing and the sound of the water fountain is soothing. Every now and then a House Martin swoops down to take a quick drink. Sam’s reading her book “The Lollipop Shoes” and her sun burn has mostly gone down, though I am sure it will quickly return. I am reading Mark Danielewski’s “House of Leaves”. We’ve played some table tennis but hand to eye co-ordination isn’t Sam’s strong point.
