Berlin's Secret Twin
Before the storm, Skala Eressos, Lesbos.
SKALA ERESSOS, LESBO, GREECE: ”The lesbian scene is like McDonald’s - Same, same everywhere”, said the Norwegian woman, as she was having a drink with her wife at the famous lesbian bar Flamingo. A few hours earlier I had arrived at Skala Eressos, in a yellow Fiat Uno driving up and down the hills through a landscape that looked like the moon.
It was August 2015 and I was traveling with my then girlfriend on the Greek island Lesbos. We did not know much of the village, besides that lesbians had adopted the place, but we did read about the bar in pastel colors named after a bird. That's how we found the two women from Norway.
They told us how bad the scene was in Oslo. That's why they came here - every year. This was the couple's time in the oxygen tank that would help them survive the year. They were addicted to the place. In fact, they got married over there, one of them explained and pointed in some direction.
I got the analogy of McDonald’s. I had experienced the same. The lesbian places I had visited in Brighton, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and London were more or less the same. They looked the same, had the same crowd, the same music, the same bars or lack of them. That sentence has stuck with me ever since.
Every morning lesbians meet up at the beach and swim to the rock and back.
Skala Eressos was surrounded by mountains and The Aegean Sea. As we walked through the bars and restaurants along the seaside, I spotted lesbians in the mix of Greek tourists. They stood out like pink dots in a white field. To me, they seemed to exist with delight and confidence. Some of them had the hippie vibe, but most were on the butch side, and looked as if they walked with armor.
Fast forward to September 2024 - it's the Skala Eressos International Women's Festival. I am sitting in the same bar as I did nine years ago. This time I was talking to some English women and brought up the quote. ”No, it’s not true," said one of them. ”Lesbian places are not at all like McDonald’s”, said another one. ”They can be very different depending on where you go”, she continued. This was the first time in nine years that someone protested.
That quote is part of the reason why I do my Lesbian Tour in Europe. I hit the road because I wanted to figure out where the lesbians spend their time and how they socialise. I wanted to check in and find out how they are. I wanted to know how they organise their life as a minority in a heterosexual society. It took me some investigating before I started to see the different shades of grey, and to see similarities where I did not expect to find them. Let me give you an example. Let’s talk about Berlin and Skala Eressos. At first it does not make sense to compare them but bear with me. I suspect they might be the twin sisters who have never met.
Before I dig into my story I should come clean with the fact that I have never spent more than two weeks at the time in any of the two places. The only thing that binds them together is my love for both places.
In my experience, the lesbian/queer scene in Berlin is artsy, has a lot of attitude and is very political. A lot of women look gorgeous in the way they dress and express themselves with hair and make up. It’s creative. There is no limit to how you can express yourself. If you try something new, most people have probably seen it before. Nothing is new under the sun in Berlin. To my surprise I found out that the word lesbian is not being used a lot. In fact, it’s considered conservative as if you just look at genitals. The word queer is the acceptable term to use.
Berlin has a rich history of lesbian bars way back. The city had plenty of them in the 20s, 30s and 80s. Today, they are all gone. Instead they have FLINTA nights. The most famous one is Tuesdays at Möbel Olfe. It is a very exciting room full of queer women and non-binary people. It’s vibrant and electric. If you ever visit Berlin make sure you go, but I would not recommend you to go there on your own. You need a circle of friends. And you can’t just go up to anyone and think they are going to welcome you. Quite the opposite.
It’s very important to read the room. In other words, Berlin is like a minefield and you have to be very careful where you step. People are tense and anxious. I think lesbians in Berlin have a pretty good deal. I am not sure they know how good. What hit me hard was the fact that I could live in my lesbian/queer bubble 24/7. It did something magical to my system, to have access to bookshops, cafés, bars and restaurants that were run by queers for queers. It’s hard to admit but it made me visible in a way I could not foresee.
The Sappho's Palace is run by Dr. Ruth Schwarz from US. She has spent years studying lesbian romantic relationships and is the director of Conscious Girlfriend Academy.
Cut to Skala Eressos - a small fishing village on the island of Lesbos in Greece. You walk through the village in ten minutes. There are three grocery shops and one vegetable shop. During the season you can find five lesbian/queer owned bars and restaurants such as Passioni, Flamingo, Avatar, Ohana Ranch and Hara Beach bar. Add other businesses that are run or started by lesbians/queers, such as Rock-Ink, QITA, Sappho Travel, Sappho Estate, Sappho Palace, Ohana Collective and Amazones Eco Land. Add two festivals a year for lesbians and queers, and you get a unique environment of the lesbian global community.
The queer festival that is arranged by Ohana Collective in May attracts a younger crowd, and the top dj’s fill the ancient air with electronic music. I have only been to the International Eressos Women's Festival. Basically, it’s ten days of partying at night and going to workshops during the days. This is what the program looks like for one day: ”Trips to Sigri & Nissiopi Islet, Capturing Place Writers Workshop, Liota Walk, Self Defense class, Exploring Self-Love Through Cacao Agapi, Skala Solo Travellers, International Connection, How to be brilliant, Vienna Yoga, Plant-Based Food Tasting, Greek Love and Ecstatic Dances, Sound Bath Heaven, Around Vigla Hill.”
The locals living on Lesbos are called lesbians.
The festival is designed for interactions and connections so people can meet up in more ways than over a glass of wine. If you go out in the queer scene in Berlin and are over 35 you are considered to be on the older side. In Skala Eressos it’s the opposite. If you are under 50 you are considered young.
If Berlin is the one who hit you to wake up, Skala Eressos sees your scars, hugs you and puts on a patch. If Berlin has attitude and anxiety, Skala Eressos has harmony and healing. If Berlin has sex, Skala Eressos has love making. If Berlin has the real catwalk showing off fashion from the coolest designers in the business, Skala Eressos has an alternative fashion show to collect money for stray cats and dogs.
The reason lesbians came to Skala Eressos in the first place was because of Sappho. The first female poet that is known to the western world. Her words are considered quite modern:
”Love shook my heart like the wind on the mountain rushing over the oak tree.”
”Love makes me tremble yet again
sapping all the strength from my limbs;
Bittersweet, undefeated creature -
against you there is not defence”
The main characters in Skala Eressos are: Sappho, the locals, the lesbians, the wild nature and stray dogs & cats. Like this stray cat living it's life on the beach a quiet morning.
According to the legend, Sappho was born in Skala Eressos around 617-612 BC. She wrote poems about love and desire between women. The English words sapphic and lesbian derive from her name and that of her home island, Lesbos. The first lesbians who came in the 70s wanted to walk in her footsteps. In the beginning the locals, both men and women, were upset because they were also called lesbians since they lived on Lesbos. One local woman wanted to solve the dilemma by suggesting that lesbians should call themselves homosexual. That did not go down well. Today lesbians have bought a lot of land in the surroundings and more than 50 of them stay over the winter season. Without the lesbian/queer tourists the village would face serious economic challenges.
Berlin and Skala Eressos offer 24/7 access to a large lesbian world, and both places have a history of attracting queers. Being in Berlin or Skala Eressos is like getting an injection of vital lesbian vitamins straight to your vein. They are also two very international places. Women comes from all over the world to take part of the scene. In both places you can feel the sweetness of being a majority. It makes you walk with a better posture.
I wish we could start an exchange program so the queers in Berlin can visit Skala Eressos and the lesbians in Skala Eressos can visit Berlin. I think our global community desperately needs both sisters by their side.
