I spent the entire hour and a half sail from the anchorage to Mirinia, the entry port, sleeping. When we got into port there was a crosswind and we weren’t sure about docking so we just anchored out right outside of the harbor.
The boat always looks good with a Greek Orthodox Church behind it. We took the dingy into the town to check into the country and the EU. Because we are American, there is a little bit more paper work because we are entering the EU also, but we were surprised at how easy it was this time around. The harbormaster sent called the port police officer to come pick up our passports, we didn’t have to go on a wild goose chase to find his office and he informed us that at 6:00pm the customs office would open and we could just come back then to complete the process. No problem.
As we were leaving the customs office we heard someone call “Pipedream” in English, turned around and Wolfgang and Bridget from Ti Punch (another boat at Kemer over the winter) were standing there. It was a hoot seeing the familiar faces and we talked a little bit on the dock before asking for a restaurant recommendation. They told us to go up the main shopping street and there is a restaurant with two trees in the front that is good. We took their advice and after window shopping, noting the grocery store and butcher, and finding a laundry service we arrived at a restaurant with two trees in front.
This was one of the best meals ever. We started off with tzatziki and a fresh loaf of bread and then moved onto pork chops and a veal dish. Mom and Dad washed theirs down with a Mythos and I stuck to Coke Zero. It was so nice being back in Greece.
We decided to dock the boat and by the time we got back there was only one slip left so we hurried to lift the anchor and throw the fenders out. The docking went well and a couple on the German boat next to ours helped us out which was nice of them. The power towers by the boats weren’t working but there was a main power source that could be reached with an extension cord. After Dad put together a Frankenstein power cord to match the outlet, we had power for maybe 10 seconds before the fuse blew. We aren’t sure if it was us or not, but we didn’t try to plug in again once we heard it was fixed.
Mom and I got the laundry together which ended up being 12.4 kilos which is just over 25lbs of laundry and hauled it to the laundry service. When we had gone down the shopping street the first time all of the shops were open and there were people walking around. This time it was like a ghost town and it took me a minute to remember the Greek siesta that takes place every day from 2-6pm. Luckily the laundry girl was there and even though her eyes got big when we showed her how much we had (sheets, towels, clothes for three people) she said it would be ready at 8:00pm same day.
Mom and I went for a walk and found a street that led out to the water on the other side of a peninsula from where our boat was. We sat at a little taverna and had a coke while just taking in the fact that we were in Greece.
We had a view of the church and castle up on the peninsula and we decided to walk up to the church. It was closed of course, but we could peer in through the windows and Mom got to see the gold leafing and icons that decorate the interior of a Greek Orthodox Church.
While Mom was looking in the windows I walked around the other side, looked up, and saw a wild mountain goat just hanging out next to the church. I told Mom to look at the goat and she thought I said “Look at the boat” and looked out at the water asking where it was. I couldn’t believe she couldn’t see the goat that was almost an arm’s reach away and when she realized what I was talking about she laughed and that scared the goat away. We decided to sit on a bench by the church and as we were sitting there we spotted our scared goat, another goat and then a deer went walking by into the trees right in front of us. It was like being at a zoo. We tried to predict what other animals would appear and I came the closest saying the resident mountain lion when a cat walked by. Of course we didn’t have a camera at this time so it will just be something we remember and giggle about later.
We passed the time until 6:00 and went back to the customs office and to pick up our passports. The customs agent was in his office watching TV. So we sat down and ended up watching the Greek news with him while Dad filled out the crew list and other forms needed for a transit log.
On a side note – the riots in Athens are being shown on every news station and are pictured in every newspaper here (http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22768&subid=2&pubid=63183270). The people in Athens are very unhappy with the government and who knows what kind of compromise (if there is one at all) will be the outcome. Generally we wouldn’t go to a country with riots or war going on (which is why we bypassed Egypt, Syria, and Libya this year), but that is the beauty of the Greek Islands. We have absolutely no signs of the turmoil and the people are just happy to have tourists still coming to visit and spend money.
Mom and I wanted to take my Dad back to the church where we saw all of the goats and Mom had been talking about walking up to the castle since we had gotten to Limnos. So we started walking.
This is the church we went to visit. Like I said it was closed, but we could see in the windows and the view was amazing.
I just thought this was a nice photo of my parents with Mirina in the background. This is one side of the peninsula where most of the tavernas and residential houses are located.
This is the other side of the peninsula that was taken from the path up to the castle. We weren’t exactly prepared to climb that high but my Dad kept walking and even thought Mom and I stopped in personal protest a couple of times we kept walking up too.
Ahh Greece. The flag here hasn’t been changed in awhile and is a bit torn which we would’ve never seen in Turkey. They restored some of the exterior walls of the castle and this was one of them. We really liked how they used the mountains natural rocks as walls or extensions of walls.
This is the entrance we went through. It’s always fun to imagine being a soldier who was told to climb up to the castle, fight your way in, and take over. The defenses set up by the walls and use of altitude is always amazing and I’m pretty sure I would be the one to simply run away or hang out at the bottom with water sharing words of encouragement.
This is Dad and I surfing on the top of a mountain in a castle. The wind was picking up, especially at the top of the mountain, and we were balancing on two rocks that were just there. Dad began singing “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys which is a song that is plaguing us on the boat. Whenever an album or playlist ends on Dad’s iPod it defaults to that song and continues to play instead of shutting off. So we go from nice easy listening or jazz or “Let’s go surfing now!”
We were all very proud to have made it to the top. Little did we know we were starting a trend that would follow us through every Greek Island we visit. The trend is to find the highest structure on the island and walk up to it… especially after a long day of sailing… in Crocs or boat shoes.
It was a great day and we got to watch the sunset while enjoying a beer down by the water which was perfect. We were officially legal in Greece and the EU and made it back to our boat before an evening storm rolled in bringing 35 knot winds and a downpour that lasted about an hour. We also picked up our laundry and realized I had left my wallet in a pair of shorts that got washed so I have the cleanest 25€ in Limnos.
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