Land of ouzo and zucchini fritters

Lesbos, Greece

Dear Nigel, Tom, Chris, Linda… We appreciate your interest in “The Adventures of Berkeley East” blog, and your requests for more frequent entries have been noted. Nigel, we don’t even know you, but we were overwhelmed that you expressed your concern for our wellbeing before letting us know that our lack of blogging has disrupted your life. We are alive and well, and Berkeley East is just fine, thanks for asking. The simple reason for our inconsistent blogging is that we do not blog in real time. In fact, if we are caught up on blog entries, it usually means that we are bored or sitting out bad weather. If we are not blogging, it’s safe to say that we are busy having fun doing things to blog about later. That said, while we are not waiting for a Meltimi to pass right now, we are trying to finish the 2014 cruising season blog before 2014 is over. So as requested many times, by many people, here is a new update.

Lesbos: Land of ouzo and zucchini fritters

Coming back to Greece after months in Turkey was exciting. Back to the beautiful beaches, relaxing coffee cafes, the easy going island life, well sort of. We had almost forgotten about the strick Greek procedures. But as we were waived into the huge ferry dock by the port police in Mytilini, the capital of Lesbos, it all quickly came back to us. The officer was more interested in grilling us about where we were coming from and how long we would stay than he was in catching our dock lines. It was just the beginning of an hour-long quest, going from office to office to get the necessary paperwork, stamps and receipts to clear back into the European Union. And as we finally pulled Berkeley East away from the dock, the office sternly reminded us to come back before we left to get stamped out of Lesbos. Ooops.

Lesbos is the third largest of the 1,200 inhabited islands in Greece. It is less than 10 miles from Turkey, serves as the capital of the North Aegean Region of Greece (Eastern Sporades) and is the center of production of the country’s national liquer, ouzo. The island has a long history of winemaking, dating back to at least the 7th century BC when it was mentioned in the works of Homer. But in the early 19th century, phylloxera (an insect desstructive to vines) haulted wine production and it wasn’t revived until the late 1990’s with Lesbos’ unique grape variety, Chidiriotiko. In the meantime, they perfected ouzo.

Most Greeks believe that the best ouzo comes from Lesbos, so we had to try some. The only thing that ouzo has in common with wine (our favorite drink) is that it is made from grapes. It is very strong, 46% alcohol, and tastes of licorice. It is typically mixed with water (no ice) and served with traditional Greek meze’s like zucchini blossom fritters, calamari and grilled peppers. While we quickly abandoned the idea of learning to like ouzo, one thing we did enjoy were the zucchini blossom fritters, so we rented a car and spent the next few days exploring quaint fishing villages, monasteries, churches, castles, the island’s one organic winery, and tasting zucchini fritters along the way.