The pomegranates are ripening

One of the busiest Augusts anyone can remember is slowly drawing to a close but this does not mean that Symi is now winding down. Far from it. September is already heavily booked up as it is the month when the regulars return and even October looks to be fairly brisk.
The winter sleep is still a long way off, even if more than a few of us are already sleep-walking!

The weather continues warm and sunny with temperatures in the thirties and little wind. The leaves are falling fast now and most of the summer deciduous trees and shrubs are virtually bald. The last of the grapes and figs are being toted away by the wasps and hornets and the pomegranates are ripening. Curiously the wild thistles are regaining colour from the top down so tufts of purple are appearing among the dry prickles, the first indication that the season is turning.

The Symi Festival finishes at the end of this week with the celebrations for the annual World Peace Day swim between Symi and Datca. The rather striking posters are up around the town. Relations with our neighbours are good at the moment and two of the commercial Greek national television channels are running Turkish soap operas with Greek subtitles - makes a change from the endless Mexican and South American ones, and five year old episodes of 'The Young and the Restless'!

Have a good week. Now that Mike's back home you'll be hearing from me more often again I hope!

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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It is still very hot

The August holiday, usually one of the most exuberantly cheerful on the Greek religious calendar as the Assumption of Mary the Mother of God into Heaven is celebrated, coincided with the tragic crash of a plane full of Greek-Cypriots and Greeks on Sunday morning, plunging both Greece and Cyprus into three days of national mourning. Although the normal celebrations at the Alethini on the Pedi road took place here on Symi last night and the sounds of traditional music drifted across the valley until the small hours of the morning, the attendant church services around Greece and Cyprus became memorial services rather than the usual ones of rejoicing. For many families and communities this year’s summer holiday was a memorable one in the worst way possible and we spare a thought for them.

On a more cheerful note, the Symi Festival has some lively offerings this week. Tonight the Greek hip-hop band ‘Imiskoumbria’ is performing in the town square. A satirical group, they have a following both inside and outside Greece. Tomorrow evening is rather more conventional with the Dancing Association of Salonika performing traditional dances. On Thursday there is another popular group, ‘Makrina Xaderfia’, and on Friday night it is a more traditional Greek music concert with Argyris Kastanias.

It is still very hot and the island has been plagued by power cuts as the local power station struggles to cope with the demands of so many air conditioners, fridges and freezers. The problem is not unique to Symi and DEH, the Greek electricity company, puts out regular appeals for people to avoid overloading the system. Last week Athens was buying electricity in from Albania and Bulgaria to meet local demand – evidently our neighbours have not yet become sufficiently affluent to afford the air conditioners and other appliances we now find essential to survive the summer heatwaves and thus have spare electricity.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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The busiest week of the year

Mike has kindly sacrificed some beach time to put this up so I have set aside the emails and telephones for a moment.

This is the busiest week of the year on Symi culminating in the busiest long weekend of the year. It is a bank holiday long weekend as Monday is the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, the Big Panagia that everyone refers to enigmatically when visitors say at Easter, ‘Busy, isn’t it?’ and the locals say, ‘Ah, you haven’t been here for the Big Panagia…’ Apart from the religious festivities and all night parties on the night of the 14th, there are several celebrity concerts lined up too.

The holiday season got off to a good start when both the Rhodanthi and the Romilda broke down, leaving 2500 people stranded in Pireus for 14 hours. This was followed by the Dimitroulla breaking down and various other mishaps so the Ministry of the Marine has now announced that it is going to lease a big ship to keep handy for ‘gap-plugging’ if there are further embarrassments. ANES did that a long time ago when it leased the Symi car ferry to compensate for the unreliable big boat supply line.

We’ve had a few days of slightly cooler weather with a bit of a breeze but according to the Met office we can look forward to a weekend in the 40s, a prospect that does not fill our hearts with joy. There are fire warnings out for many parts of Greece as it is wild-fire season. It is not for nothing that camping is prohibited outside of designated areas in Greece!

Mike is champing at the bit so I’d better wind up now.
Have a good weekend!

Regards,
Adriana

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