09 – Week Nine (17-24 May) | FSP in Greece 2009

Week 9

Sunday May 24th

Sites Visited: Lesvos Archaeological Museum

Where did we stay tonight?: Chios town

Leaders: Chris Young ’05 and Sarah Murray ’04

On Lesbos, although we had little time to explore the island, we made the most of it. After a morning spent investigating the local archaeological museum, focusing on the Roman mosaics from several local houses, we split into three groups. One group stayed in Mytiline catching up on various errands. One group took a rental mini van and drove northwards to Methymno, the second city of the island. It has changed little since the nineteenth century, but we had very little time to wander around and appreciate its charm. Instead, our time was spent eating lunch and briefly dipping into the Aegean for a post -meal swim. The last group also headed to Methymno, but only as a brief (and out of the way) detour to the petrified forest on the western side of the island. We arrived shortly before closing time, and the local guard was unwilling to allow us entry into the site. After that, it was a race back to the port to board the evening ferry to Chios. In retrospect, our time in Lesbos was not particularly successful, in an archaeological or tourist sense, but we managed to make something out of what little we had. While we didn’t see any sights, per se, we did see much of the island itself during the various car trips into the countryside. Oh, by the way, the author of this report is a guest to this trip- I am a veteran of the 2003 FSP, and Sarah (the awesome TA) and I were selected as “all-star” leaders for today. I think “all-star” is a polite way of saying “old and probably cantankerous, been-there-done-that” alumni of the FSP experience. In any event, I was more than happy to give the students a break from leadership duties.

Day 63 Photo Gallery