Two Villages with Attractions

Two Villages with Attractions

Villages are a collection of houses originally built for a very simple reason. They may be there, perched on a hilltop, for the view, or settled in a river valley for ease of transport, or placed beside a bay because it offers a safe harbour. But after that first hamlet to become an established village they would have weathered storms of change, perhaps times of destitution due to plague and floods, wars and famines. And while their populations grew in some eras they would have shrunk in others. However those villages that are flourishing today’s have adapted and managed to give comfort to locals and also attract others from outside. The modern successful village offers something unique, something that makes it worth while visitors driving there to experience it. 

Romance as well as adventure was involved when my husband and I decided to move to Greece and live in Myrina. We also live part of every year in another village, in Emerald in Australia, and while we’re very aware of the differences we’ve also noticed that the two villages have some similarities. In this blog I want to comment on the way both have turned some the place of some important rural activity into a leisure park for today’s visitors. 

In Myrina the church festivals are still very important, they and are colourful occasions and newcomers and visitors join in the celebrations with locals. In the Australian village there is a tourist steam train passing through the hills and forests of the Ranges. It is your obligation to stand at the train crossing when it passes and wave to the tourists. Great fun for all!

 Early Days in Emerald

Forests once covered the hills of Emerald

It’s easier to note what was going on in Emerald’s early days as thus village is little more than 150 years old. Gold was discovered in the Emerald area in 1858. Thus, at first this was the site where Victorian prospectors went gold panning in local streams.

Many trees were cut down to make way for nurseries

This enterprise was soon wound down as the gold ran out however some of these settlers had noted that the local soil was particularly fertile, built homes and cleared land to grow vegetables. Soon some grew berries and lavender to sell on to folks in the city. One family, that of Carl Axel Nobelius, decided to buy 25 hectares and he established a nursery which was successful and he was soon exporting bare rooted fruit trees, and ornamental trees overseas. At its height this establishment employed 80 local men and sold three million trees in one year. In order transport these goods to the port of Melbourne a narrow gage railway was built to connect to the main-line train service.

Currently in Emerald

Once a nursery now Emerald Lake Park

This nursery has since closed and now Emerald has become a dormitory town for Melbourne. Most of the present day population works in the city and surrounds - many are building contractors, painters and plumbers. 

Locals Gathering at an Emerald Memorial

Having Fun in Emerald Lake Park

And on Puffing Billy

But the population of the village often swells with day visitors; tourists who are visiting its leisure parks – created out of that old nursery – and its still running small gage railway, known as Puffing Billy. And many just drive up for a days outing, to attend one of its festivals or market days, and end up sitting having coffee and cakes in its tree lined main street.

Early Days in Myrina

The Bay where Jason and the Argonauts Landed

Myrina is an ancient village. It probably was established during Neolithic times perhaps as a garrison for a group of Cretan soldiers. It had a safe harbour and a place for a lookout. Local lore establishes that the leader of this group was ‘king’ Thoas and his wife was ‘queen’ Myrina. This combination of safe harbour and nearby high rocky lookout was attractive to other invaders and later the village was extended and the garrison fort strengthened. Myrina has become the main settlement on the island, and while for a while it was known as Castro, after the fort, in more recently times it has been given the name Myrina after the Cretan ‘queen’.

Currently in Myrina

Myrina Today

Locals Gathering for a Lemnos Memorial

Myrina is the main town for the largely farming community of the island of Lemnos, however it too swells at times when large groups of tourists arrive during the two summer holiday months of July and August. They come for that ‘safe harbour’ and nearby beaches, and they admire the old Castro fort lookout. They also love to visit the main shopping street filled with quaint shops and coffee shops, or sit at one of the tavernas in the harbour for lunch or dinner.

Enjoying the Village Life

Another Lemnian Festival

And in Myrina, like Emerald, there are also special festivals that draw people back such as Easter and special Saints Days. And so the ‘village’, while a ‘home town’ for locals, is also a holiday destination for many Greeks who have family connections here, and who like return to the island for its religious festivals, or who come to enjoy its beaches during the summer months.

What Tourists like to do in July and August