Mytilene – the Lesbos Island is the place where a poet and an author were born since the Ancient Greek civilization and with its cultural inheritance, natural beauties and vivacious lifestyle, it is still an inspiring island to the poets and authors. The island presents the natural and historic beauties together and it is an ideal choice for the weekend destination with its traditional Greek villages and awarded turquoise beaches.

With the intent of moving away from the exhausting crowd and noisiness of Izmir, we went to the Lesbos Island on the weekend and we rented a vehicle right away after a short ferry trip from Ayvalık to the Greek island. We visited the Mytilene Castle and reached the Roman aqueduct at Moria. After capturing a snapshot of aqueducts, which is one of the most important engineering projects in the Mediterranean, we kept on the journey.

It is a joyous experience to travel island with a vehicle. Following our visit to Manramados Monastery, we arrived in Skala Sykamineas for  lunch. The Church of Panagie Gorgona, in other words, The Church of Mermaid Madonna, is the most remarkable place of the island built on a rock.

We parked our vehicle to the seaside and enjoyed this pretty place by tasting Greek salad and appetizers at a restaurant on the opposite side of the church.

In the taverns of Mytilene’s pretty fishing ports, you should not miss the chance of discovering the perfect island appetizers in company with local oil olive and globally known ouzo.

Our next stop was the extremely lovely beach town of Mithimna which was formerly named Molivos. We visited the castle remaining from the Genoese and admired its view, then, we reached the harbor between the restored stone houses. You will not want to leave the island after a visit to the castle and the harbor of Molivos that presents an ideal and peaceful environment for relaxing and unwinding.

The Lesbos Island has  a great number of Ottoman period structures that some of them are in-service by restoration and some of them wait for the renovation. Valide Mosque Ruins are one of these structures, which draws our attention with its ruined minaret.

In front of the taverns, one of the scenes you will encounter often is the octopuses which were left to dry in the sunshine. On the island, octopuses are not boiled beforehand, they are dried for the grill.