Armonia Studios Lésbos

... nk there and they had got a tv out of the back room and set ıt all up wıth the satılıte and put on the football just for Ian so we sat and watched that wıth them Ian had a Rakı whıch ıs the tradıtıonal turkısh mens drınk ıts terrıble lıke Ouzo and Pastıche and he was so drunk after ıt fallıng over and snorıng wıth the party popper noıces agaın.

... Englısh as we are not really on a tourıst route but we made ıt ınto town and the bus dropped us at a taxı place. We had not booked anywhere to stay as we had rowed a lıttle about where we where goıng I wanted a hotel wıth swımmıng pool as the weather ıs great but Ian wanted thıs tradıtıonal pensıon so we decıded to take a rısk and not book anythıng untıl we got here.....

Anyways we ...

... off we certainly did - it was Baltic!

Another favourite stop became the covered market where during our stay we bought a 5 lira (£2) bottle of wine (not recommended!), admired the tomato wearing watermelons and enjoyed numerous cups of cay and bakery products - the guys there were so friendly they even gave us figs to accompany our beverages!

We really had to drag ourselves away from Ayvalik but our first ruins were calling...

... time conquering the previous inhabitants. Hot. Did I mention that? Hot. Walked back through town, but every shop was closed for siesta.

According to the poet Homer Lesvos (aka Lesbos or Mytlini) was part of King Makaras Empire and many of the islands ancient cities were names after his daughters.

The people of Lesvos we forced into several wars as Persia, Athens and Sparta later ruled in succession. According to legend, when Lesvos finally succumbed to Athens, the Athenian council voted to castigate islanders ...

... little resort made up entirely of overly elaborate hotels and restaurants but ************e there. We found an idyllic campsite overlooking Lesbos with it's own jetty. We spent the evening in town enjoying a few cold Efes and generally soaking it all in. All in all a pretty good find.

... a day of hiking around a seaside port but have a fish meal.

This is winter. All the usual tourist stuff is closed down. Few travelers come. Outside, quayside where I was eating, there were but three people patronizing this hotel restaurant. I think I saw another couple at one of the other places. I didn't pay much attention to the three people outside.

After I finished my meal I took a walk along the small harbor quay, just ...

... in and checked out the town. We made a few wrong choices, including eating at a place where we were charged about twice as much as the locals for a plate of food. I ordered the 'beef' which turned out to be liver (ewwww) and then we went for some baklava and a coffee at a pastanesi. The baklava looked nice but tasted horrible. The coffee was served black with a container of powdered milk to pour in to our taste. The weather that had been a pleasant 17 degrees suddenly got very cold ...

To describe cycling the Agean Coast of Turkey in two words I would say 'WOW!!' and 'WINDY!!'. After Gallipoli I headed south to Troy. I must admit, there wasn't much left of it after Brad Pitt had given it the going over in 'Troy', however, having just finished reading the Iliad I was feeling suitably imaginative and practýcally relived the entire story! As I continued down the coast the coastal road left me lost for words... ok. Not completely. It was so ...

... on its underbelly. According to the tour guide -who doubled as the rip-off restaurant owner from the day before- the city of Troy had been rebuilt 9 times throughout history. Each succeeding city has been built over the previous one after destruction from war or earthquake. Albeit his unsolicited dry humor, the tour guide sounded enthusiastic enough about the history, making the 2 hour tour of the rubble somewhat more interesting. I will see it ...