{"id":3867,"date":"2013-07-10T14:28:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T14:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:32:14","slug":"ayvalik-lesbos-and-psara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=3867","title":{"rendered":"Ayvalik, Lesbos and Psara"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/a>
Laura celebrates her 60th in Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ayvalik and Pergamon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our last stop in Turkey before formally checking-out was Ayvalik.\u00a0 Along with Dave and Melinda of “Sassoon” we rented a car for a tour of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon.\u00a0 The city reached its height of greatness under the Romans, and had a library second only to Alexandria.\u00a0 We also visited the Sanctuary of Asclepius founded by Galen the physician.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>
Mark becomes the 10 millionth person to strike this pose at Pergamon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"David<\/a>
David and Melinda of “Sassoon”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Peegamon\"<\/a>
Pergamon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pergamon\"<\/a>
Pergamon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pergamon\"<\/a>
Pergamon (Coliseum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pergamon\"<\/a>
Pergamon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lesbos<\/strong><\/p>\n

We formally entered Greece at Mytilene the main city of the island of Lesbos.\u00a0 Lesbos is the third largest Greek island and Mytilene is by far the largest city on Lesbos.\u00a0 Half of all Lesbians live in Mytilene.\u00a0 We rented a car for a day and toured the coast up to the beautiful town of Molyvos and then down the center of the island back to Mytilene.\u00a0 Olive trees everywhere you look.<\/p>\n

\"Checking<\/a>
Checking into Greece at the Customs Dock, Mytlilene, Lesbos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hotel<\/a>
Hotel Lesbian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gyros<\/a>
Gyros and a cold beer after the check-in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Molyvos,<\/a>
Molyvos, Lesbos Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Psara<\/strong><\/p>\n

We sailed to the island of Psara after a stopover at Ormos Tarti on the southeast coast of Lesbos.\u00a0 This is a beautiful but barren island with only 350 permanent residents.\u00a0 It had been a prosperous island centered around shipping early in the 19th century, having the third largest Greek fleet. Its citizens joined the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and its ships were effective in harrying Turkish vessels.\u00a0 In retaliation, the Ottoman Turkish navy stormed the island in June 1824 and began to massacre its citizens.\u00a0 On July 4, 1824, the few hundred citizens of Psara that remained alive in a fortress threw down a flag reading “Liberty or Death” and when the Ottoman Turks entered the fortress, the Greek defenders purposely set off a huge explosion killing themselves and many Turks.\u00a0 Greek survivors were either killed or sent off into slavery.\u00a0 The “”Liberty or Death” flag flies on every boat in Psara harbor and those who died are listed on the four sides of a monument.<\/p>\n

\"Monument<\/a>
Monument to those who died in 1824<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Some<\/a>
Some of the names on the monument<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Psara,<\/a>
Psara, harbor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Psara\"<\/a>
Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Psara\"<\/a>
Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church of St. Nicolas, Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ground<\/a>
Ground cover on treeless Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Goats\"<\/a>
Goats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sunset<\/a>
Sunset on Laura’s birthday, Psara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

M.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Ayvalik and Pergamon Our last stop in Turkey before formally checking-out was Ayvalik.\u00a0 Along with Dave and Melinda of “Sassoon” we rented a car for a tour of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon.\u00a0 The city reached its height of greatness under the Romans, and had a library second only to Alexandria.\u00a0 We also … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ayvalik, Lesbos and Psara”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greece-2013"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}