First day in paradise

While everyone napped, Eena and I watched young cousins from Australia play ping-pong. Like me, their grandparents are also from Limnos; it seems that many Greeks from the island of Limnos emigrated to either the U.S. or Australia during the mid-20th Century, and I have distant relative down under as well.

Eena and I also went to the expansive Plati Beach—which is a minute walk across from our hotel—and she loved it, raking her legs deliriously through the sand.

We returned to our room and woke everyone up; turns out, Davis had not slept, but has managed to write a bit and finalized rental car arrangements for our next two days.

We hurried to take our resort’s shuttle to Myrina (the capital of Limnos—and a neighboring port city on the southwestern side of the island). Myrina Castle, where wild deer evidently carouse in the empty fortress, hangs high above this city of approximately 6,000. We walked through the harbor—past the prominent “Limnos Hotel” which looked a bit like a wild-west façade, and then slowly meandered up a long street of tourist shops and local restaurants and businesses. We managed to buy some snacks for the kids and a few souvenir trinkets.

Most of the shopkeepers spoke English and were very friendly (we had been informed by our cabbie the night before that almost everyone under 50 speaks English, and we have certainly found this to be the case). We reached the top of the street, which formed a considerable incline from the harbor, and made a quick left toward a glimmer of ocean.

Just a few hundred feet parallel to the street of shops we discovered a breathtaking vista on the water. We had somehow journeyed to the other side of the town as Myrina Castle now rose behind us. A series of waterfront restaurants overlooked the Aegean from a height of approximately 20 feet. We spotted a playground, with old-fashioned wooden swings with backs (eliciting, from Baba, a happy cry of “I swing in a chair! I swing in a chair!). Apa gazed into the distance at a stark white church rising under the castle. Needless to say, the girls were less-than-happy to be pulled from their see-sawing to return to the shuttle.

We finished the day at the resort’s buffet dinner at approximately 8:30, clearly adapting to European meal schedules.

Tomorrow, we have a full schedule. We’ll head to Tsmandria and meet relatives on both my grandmother’s and grandfather’s side—starting with a distant (17-year-old) cousin who will arrive via moped at 10 am, along with his grandmother, to serve as our translator.

We hope also to discover the two squares named for the Haramis family!

See previous entry for more photos.