I’m going to do a few shorter posts to get some important photos out there – Miles in Lesbos! He spent 3 weeks in Athens, then went to Lesbos for 3 weeks. He’s going back to Athens tomorrow. More on the program Miles is on can be read here, and I’ll pepper in a few quotes below.
From L&C: The Lesvos portion of the program (October) will be based in the village of Thermi. The Lesbos sojourn will include hands-on archaeological experience and guided anthropological projects with home visits with local families.
Lesbos is a large island very close to the Turkish coast. The pin below shows the side of the island Miles is on – he’s near the town of Mitilini.
By my calculations, Miles is about 10-15 miles off the Turkish coast. Super close! Here are some photos that Miles sent from around where he’s staying, and the land you see across the water is Turkey,
Miles has taken some trips to the nearby “big town” of Mitilini and seen some archaeological sites as well as political posters proving that the “red island” of Lesvos really does have communist political parties!
The group also visited the Lesbos Island Unesco Global Geopark. From the website:
“The ancient trees of Lesvos were submerged in a sea of volcanic material in an eruption in the Northern Aegean 20 million years ago”
(Note that spellings Lesbos / Lesvos are both used all over the place – which just is all part of kudos to Miles for navigating life in a setting where a non-Roman alphabet is in use! Way more challenging as I’m seeing already just looking at vacation stuff for our upcoming trip!)
Lesbos is also known for its agriculture – primarily olives and olive oil. The group got to visit an olive oil making plant and see how the olives are pressed into olive oil! YUM! We are hoping a bottle of the product has been secured for us. Miles also shared a first step which showed a video of olives getting all sorted out on a roller. Second step below is “mushy olives” (my term) and third step is the olive press.
Lesbos/Lesvos is much closer to Turkey than to mainland Greece. Interesting about the spelling. I get the idea that in the Greek alphabet maybe there is one spelling and maybe a subtlety in pronunciation. Interesting to see how olive oil is made. I do hope that a bottle of the olive oil has been secured for you!
I’m sitting in “paw patrol – the movie” (first movie post lockdown) so had time to read about Miles’ course! Looks really interesting and well structured. Also hadn’t realised where Lesbos is! Fingers crossed on the olive oil
Two clarification points! It’s actually even closer to Turkey, just about 4 miles off the coast! Lesbos (Λέσβος) is spelled with the Greek letter Beta (β), which is frequently translated as a “b” but is actually pronounced more like “veta.”
Thanks for that, miles! Can’t wait to get the insider tour of Athens with you next month!