Sizzling Under the Summer Sun

Greece is sizzling under the summer sun. Athens is emptying rapidly as the Greeks head off for their summer vacations. The Greek islands are as popular with the Greeks themselves as with foreign visitors and Symi is no exception to this. For many the Dodecanese archipelago is almost another country as these islands are so close to the Turkish coast and have a very different character to the Cyclades and Sporades or the Ionian islands. Here on Symi the high season rush has started and last minute gaps are filling up rapidly as those who left their summer holiday plans to the last minute try to make the accommodation still available match up with the remaining seats on flights and ferries. Meanwhile the continued wet weather in Great Britain has precipitated a great deal of interest in booking some summer sunshine for 2010 and enquiries are flowing in for next year.

The Salamis Glory, an old-fashioned cruise ship from Cyprus and regular summer visitor to Symi, is tied up outside the clock tower and the water boat has had to squeeze in in front of Katerinettes. The water shortages continue and the various parts of Chorio have each only received an hour or so of mains water in the past 24 hours. I took the accompanying photograph this morning from the Kali Strata bar, before the water boat came in.



Have a good week.



Regards,

Adriana

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The Wind is Free

It is a bright sunny day on Symi. The thermometer stands at 45 degrees and the harbour is quiet. The day trippers are dozing in the shade of the many cafes that line the waterfront. The water taxis are away about their business. The only sound is the precise plinkety-plink of some traditional Greek island folk music drifting up from a fishing boat tied up near the customs house. Bright bikinis and beach wraps flutter on racks outside the tourist boutiques and an occasional puff of warm wind sends a sunhat bowling down the quay.




There are not as many mega motor yachts visiting Symi this year. Instead sailing yachts seem to be more popular, as you can see from these photos which I took on the way down the Kali Strata this morning. Perhaps eco-awareness is finally making power give way to sail. After all, the wind is free.

Floating crane in Pedi with the new mole visible on the left

This year’s municipal water rationing has started – most of Chorio and Lieni have been without water since yesterday morning, to the frustration of Symiots, residents and tourists alike. There is a great deal of eagerness to see if the new wind-powered desalination plant will improve Symi’s water situation but it has yet to commence operation . It will be interesting to see if it is as efficient as the one on Ruegen in the Baltic Sea which has been in successful operation since 1995. Regular visitors may recall that when the idea of a wind-powered desalination plant for Symi was first brought up, the intention was to follow the Ruegen model, as was reported in the front page story of the 100th edition of the Symi Visitor newspaper in December 2005. This was a 3 bladed turbine. The one which has now been erected on the top of the Vigla is a two-bladed turbine which should be more efficient for power generation.


In high summer ferries are always a hot topic as Symi is an island without an airport and ultimately everything arrives here by boat. In response to the many emails I have received on the subject, here is the current update on the hydrofoil front. After a brief appearance, the Aegli hydrofoil is out of commission and is unlikely to reappear this summer. We once again remind visitors to check schedules before travelling to be sure that the boat you thought would be running when you made your plans in March is actually operational on the day. We have been told by visitors, however, that both ANES and Dodecanese Seaways are being conscientious about contacting people who have booked tickets in advance when there are schedule changes. To contact the shipping companies direct go to http://www.12ne.gr/ and http://www.anes.gr/



Have a good weekend.



Regards,

Adriana

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Ice Cream and Cold Beer

Brisk meltemi breezes have been blowing in the Aegean all week, fanning fires in Naxos and keeping the Greek fire services on the alert in all vulnerable areas. The wind will drop this weekend as another heat wave sweeps across Greece. Temperatures are expected to be upwards of 40 degrees centigrade in much of the country, accompanied by high humidity – excellent weather for beach goers and purveyors of ice cream and cold beer. Here on Symi the water taxis, beach tavernas and excursion boats can look forward to a busy weekend after a frustrating week of windy weather. Webcam waves are also proving very popular and quite a few wavers come upstairs to enthuse and thank us for providing the facility. Webcam watchers, on the other hand, will have noticed a change to the backdrop on the waterfront over the last few days as the stone ‘wishing well’ planters have now been filled with earth and bay trees. I took the accompanying photograph this morning.

Meanwhile on the ferry front, the Aegli hydrofoil has once again been withdrawn from service. According to ANES’ Symi office she is out of order again but dedicated watchers of marine traffic have noticed that she was seen doing a trip to Marmaris in Turkey on Thursday. At this stage it is unclear when if ever she will be back in service so modifications have been made to the routes of the Proteus and Symi II to try to fill the gaps.

Harbour beautification aside, another project that is being tackled with zeal is the Pedi marina. The crane and crew are working flat out at the moment to finish the work by the end of this month, much to the dismay of people staying in the area. It is a bit like pulling teeth – horrible while it lasts but best done quickly and it will be a huge relief when it’s all over. The blocks have been laid for the full length of the new mole and the new breakwater is nearly complete. At present the floating crane is working in the corner, outside the Pedi Katoi. It is the dark shadow in the centre of the sunrise photo I took this morning.

 

Have a good week.
Regards,

Adriana

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Retail Therapy

The seasonal meltemi has arrived and temperatures on Symi have dropped to more tolerable levels as a brisk cool breeze rolls down the Aegean from northern Greece. The water taxis and excursion boats were not allowed to operate out of Symi today as winds are expected to strengthen to a Force 7 later this afternoon. The ferry service has not been affected and the ANES boats are running as scheduled. Even the Aegli hydrofoil is only running 5 minutes late. Flotilla yachts are struggling to anchor in the cross wind in Yialos this afternoon and last night we were watching brightly illuminated glamour yachts dragging anchors in Pedi Bay.

For regular visitors to this page who found Friday’s image distressing, last week’s bright white road markings are already showing signs of strain and will probably have worn away altogether by next week unless the plan is to redo them on a weekly basis. Traditional asvesti used for parade day markings lacks the durability of regular road-marking paint.

With the excursion boats and water taxis confined to Yialos today the shops are busy and many long-stay visitors have taken the opportunity to catch up on their souvenir shopping. These days Symi’s Yialos shopping area offers everything from traditional sponges and museum replicas to handmade jewellery and designer dresses. When I first came to Symi in 1993 I remember a particular misogynist resident saying at the time that Symi was the sort of place where a man could safely send his wife shopping with his credit card, knowing she wouldn’t find anything to buy. The past 15 years have seen a dramatic change on that score and while credit cards are still unusual on Symi, there are certainly plenty of opportunities for retail therapy in the summer!

Regards,

Adriana

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Uniquely Pretty

Regular visitors to Symi will be amazed to see the double white line which has appeared in the road along the waterfront and three neatly painted zebra crossings in the stretch outside Symi Visitor Accommodation. Watch this space for a photograph of the first set of traffic lights.

Something else in the Symi amazement stakes is the statistics for our webcams – according to Mike Gadd, our webmaster, the Symi webcams received 13,557 views in June – and 2,929 views in the last seven days. As those views were logged from 72 different countries around the world that is great news for promoting the small island of Symi in the Dodecanese archipelago of Greece. This week Symi Visitor Accommodation has welcomed visitors from Slovenia, Tunisia, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, the United States, Turkey and South Africa as well as Greece, Cyprus and the United Kingdom and we are just one accommodation agency on this island. Introducing Symi to the world benefits the whole island, not just us.

Meanwhile down in Yialos the season is in full swing and the familiar little row of hire boats is bobbing by the clock tower. Visitors are happily boarding water taxis and excursion boats, heading for Symi’s uniquely pretty land-locked beaches. As Symi sizzles in the summer sun everyone is looking for a place to cool off. In the evening glamorous power yachts light up Pedi Bay in all directions including down as through-hull illumination is the latest toy in the mega-yacht arsenal for one-upmanship. Yialos may be sleepy during the day but in the evening the waterfront buzzes with people and music until late into the night.

Have a good weekend, dreaming Symi dreams and planning your summer holidays.

Regards,
Adriana

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Idyllic Greek Islands

It is the season for bright oleanders and bougainvilleas, dazzling whitewashed walls and sparkling blue seas lapping gently beneath clear indigo skies. Isolated puddles of greenery mark new shoots of hardy caper bushes on an otherwise arid Mediterranean landscape and the cicadas chirrup in the olive groves. White sails glide tantalisingly past distant horizons. Small open fishing boats putter across to Nimos in the still of the early morning, carving a chuckling wake on the open sea. Symi in July looks like all the summer postcards of idyllic Greek islands you have ever imagined.

Symi is heading for another heat wave and once again the thermometer is climbing towards 40 degrees centigrade. July is generally regarded as being the hottest and driest month in Southern Greece and there is nothing to indicate that this year’s weather will buck the trend. As the days get hotter the nights get busier and the hum of music and conversation lingers late on the warm summer air.

Here are some photographs I took out at Nimborio yesterday to whet your appetite.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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The Webcam Wave

A new sign has appeared downstairs at the Symi Visitor Accommodation office.

If you want to do a webcam wave, SMS your friends and family to log onto either www.symivisitor.com/webcam.shtml or www.yassou.com/, stand by the Sunflower sign and ... wave!
 

As this webcam feed is only updated every 30 seconds and is not recorded you will need to stand there for about a minute to be sure that they see you.

Have fun!

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A New Age has Dawned

A new age has dawned in Greece as the long threatened anti-smoking regulations came into effect on Wednesday 1 July. In principal the smoke-filled nightclubs of 1960s Greek films should be thing of the past and the sultry image of Melina Mercouri, cigarette in hand, is no longer the one to which Greek women should aspire. At the moment here on Symi the new laws have been greeted with the same skepticism as clamp downs on crash helmets and seat belts. It certainly isn’t clear how the new regulations will be enforced and judging by this article, it may be a while before any real impact will be felt in rural Greece and islands such as Symi.

So far it seems to be business as usual down in Yialos and there are no signs to indicate that half the island’s adult population has gone into nicotine withdrawal. Far from it. The sun is shining, the sky is blue. The excursion boats and water taxis are busy and the Proteus, the Symi II and the Nikolaos have just arrived within minutes of each other, creating the usual merry chaos of cars, trucks and people. I took this photograph yesterday afternoon while waiting for the bus – a happy juxtaposition of Cretan clay pots, ropes of garlic and traditional café chairs.

The weather forecast for Symi remains set for sunshine with temperatures in the low to middle thirties. Some parts of Greece and the Balkans are continuing to experience heavy afternoon downpours and thundershowers but Symi remains dry.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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