Under the Mediterranean Sun

Symi is steaming gently under the Mediterranean sun as unusually humid conditions prevail. Mist was still hanging low over the water when the Poseidon did the dawn trip to Sesklia for the festival of St Paul at the chapel on the island. Books forgotten out in the garden overnight curl damply and heavy dew drips off the parked cars. The southerly winds responsible for these conditions will be changing to the north again later this week and we will soon be back to cardboard washing stiff on the line. Other parts of Greece have experienced extremely heavy showers and the second day of the annual Rockwave festival in Athens had to be cancelled after heavy rain damaged the stage and equipment.

Symi is becoming steadily busier although most businesses report a quieter than usual June and the island certainly seems emptier than normal for the time of year. Supermarkets are doing better than tavernas and restaurants as cash-strapped travelers cut holiday spending by taking more meals in the accommodation and buying wine to enjoy on the terrace or balcony rather than rounds of drinks in the café bars. Visitors have been spotted shopping for ripe watermelons from the hawkers and buying chops at the butchers – while slaving over a hot stove might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect island holiday, a spot of imaginative self-catering can certainly help to stretch the family holiday budget and these days most good quality holiday accommodation is equipped with a barbecue for al fresco cooking and dining.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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The Figs are Swelling

After a few days of random clouds and distant thunder the forecast is set fair once again. It is always a surprise just how cool 30 degrees centigrade can feel after days in the forties and everyone has been enjoying the mild evenings and amazing visibility a north wind brings. The stars have been exceptionally clear this week. The rest of Greece has been experiencing quite heavy downpours and thunderstorms and even Kastellorizo which is the southern most island in Greece has had the odd passing cloud.

The figs are swelling on the trees in the Pedi valley and the tomatoes are turning sweet and red. The island is filling up with people as we head into high season and we have noticed a great deal of interest from Norwegians since the following appeared in the Norwegian press. And yes, if you go through the slide show there are some familiar faces lurking behind those Mamma Mia! Costumes!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Faros exhibition of Children's Art

Irini Gazi from Faros, has issued the above invitation to all those interested in supporting animal welfare on Symi.  It is an exhibition of children's art which will take place on 27 June at 19.00 at the Nautical Museum in Yialos.  Wine, soft drinks and snacks will be available.  If you are in the area please pop in and support the worthwhile cause of promoting interest in animal welfare among the children of Symi.

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Quiet Moments

The summer solstice has passed and the nights are drawing in – but with temperatures still in the high thirties/low forties winter is not exactly round the corner and the main Greek summer tourist season still lies ahead. Symi is slowly filling up with many more familiar faces and regular visitors in evidence around the island. The landscape looks scorched as the hot dry winds of summer have turned the winter grasses to straw. The only green left is the heat resistant stuff – grape vines, Virginia creepers and caper bushes. All the fine shallow rooted vegetation has burned away and most of the indigenous plants such as the wild thyme, sage and oregano bushes have become brown and dormant. The only clue to their respective identities is the fragrance they still emit in the heat of the day. They will only revive with the first winter rains some time in October. Flamboyant patches of cerise pink bougainvillea light up the courtyards of the houses in Yialos and Chorio. In quiet moments in the Pedi valley there is the constant soft crackle of leaves shriveling and dropping from the almond trees and the delicate cooing of doves.

The media, both Greek and foreign, have given a great deal of coverage to the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, an historic and controversial event. Aside from the Elgin marbles debate which is certainly getting an airing, it is also an excellent opportunity for visitors and locals alike to be reminded of the glory that was Ancient Greece. A good excuse to fly scheduled via Athens instead of directly to Rhodes. For more details see here.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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No Boundaries

It is another hot and sunny day on Symi but, yippee! Ilias Haskas, Symi’s cheerful deputy mayor whose day job is plumbing and air conditioning installations, has been in and spoken nicely to the air conditioning unit at Symi Visitor Accommodation so we are functioning at a comfortable 25 degrees centigrade and my spectacles are no longer half way down my nose. While 40 degrees is tolerable in the shade of the olive trees, doing nothing more strenuous than reading a book, it is not very conducive to productivity in an office environment and Symi is one of the warmest places in Greece at the moment. Symi is a lot quieter than it usually is in June, not just because with the global economic situation fewer people are travelling but also because the heat has driven most of those who are here onto the beach, either on Symi or, in the case of the day-trippers, Rhodes. The water taxis and excursion boats are busy and great lumbering trucks laden with crates of water and beer come off the Proteus every time she comes through from Rhodes.

Tonight is the opening of the Diversity in Symi Art exhibition in the gallery at Symi Dream http://www.symidream.com/ on the Kali Strata in Chorio. As the exhibition runs through until 31 October, apart from a brief interval to make space for the annual ODAS exhibition, there is plenty of opportunity for everyone to go and have a look. Symi has a flourishing creative community that knows no boundaries between Greeks and foreigners, which goes to show that life on a Greek island isn’t all sun beds and retsina.

Work has resumed on the marina in Pedi Bay. According to the contractor, the floating crane should be finished in the next 2-3 weeks and the rest of the work will be done from the shore as it largely entails pouring concrete to cap everything. Work has also resumed on the undercover sports stadium/basket ball court behind the Taxiarchis Hotel in Chorio. The Pedi road is closed today as work continues on the desalination plant at the Valanidia reservoir. Oh, and the painters are putting the finishing touches to the upper storey of Kampos supermarket at the bus stop in Chorio so we can probably expect to hear wedding bells in that quarter fairly soon.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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An Uplifting Experience

The summer fire season has started in Greece as unseasonably high temperatures and low humidity combined with strong winds to create ideal conditions for combustion. On Sunday gale force winds swept across the country, fanning several wildfires in Crete and other parts of Greece. There is one unhappy teenager who has just been charged with starting a brush fire with a firecracker which at one point threatened the Mount Parnitha National Park, an area that has been devastated by fire in the past. Here on Symi the local firefighters are on standby as is usually the case during the summer.

With many of Symi’s regular visitors currently on the island our office has been busy and it is good to see so many friendly faces returning year after year. It is not difficult to guess what they come back for. These photographs were taken from a new listing, Villa Iris, on Mavrovouni yesterday afternoon and show Symi’s amphitheatre harbour in all its architectural glory.  With views like this from the accommodation who could fail to find a visit to Symi an uplifting experience?

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Perfect Day

It is a perfect day for a wedding on Symi and Becci Thomson and Jeremy Abrahams are doing just that. After the civil wedding at Symi town hall the whole wedding party has gone out on the Poseidon excursion boat for a private ceremony on board at Toli bay followed by a BBQ lunch and swimming at Agios Emilianos. Champagne and handmade nibbles will be enjoyed at Sofia’s House on their return. Watch out for photographs on Out and About later.

Temperatures continue to rise and it looks as though Symi is set for a long hot summer with plenty of sunshine. Ilias and Damianos, the island’s two main air conditioning engineers, are the most popular men on the island at the moment! At this time of the year the closest thing we see to weather is sheet lightning flashing in the distance over Turkey in the evenings as we swat mosquitoes and eat supper among the tree tops on our roof terrace. With the solstice only a week away Symi enjoys nearly 16 hours of daylight at this time of the year. Symiots tend to rise early to escape the heat and the working day for manual labour starts at 07.00 if not before. When I walk down the Kali Strata to work at 7.45 in the morning I can already smell lots of dinners cooking – sensible Symiot housewives get all the hot and bothered stuff out of the way before the thermometer climbs over 35 as slaving over a hot stove takes on a very literal meaning on Symi in the summer.

An armada of ships has just arrived in Symi harbour – the Nikolaos, the Symi II and the Proteus have all come in, one after the other, and their washes have set the rigging clanging on the yachts and gulets along the quay. Anchor chains are being paid out as tour guides muster their flocks and the mooring men dart about, grabbing lines for the bollards.

Have a good weekend. I am off to make those handmade wedding nibbles!

Regards,

Adriana

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Symi in the Summer

It is a hot and sunny bank holiday Monday on Symi and the harbour is busy. Bank holiday weekenders mix with day trippers, visitors with locals. Pachos downstairs is packed. A sticky breeze is blowing in off the harbour, ruffling the pink petals of the geraniums on the balcony here at Symi Visitor Accommodation. If it gets much hotter we will soon be shutting the doors and looking for the air conditioner remote but Wendy and I try to put that off for as long as possible. Yesterday peaked at 41 degrees in my corner of the Pedi valley but most places only saw temperatures of around 38 degrees centigrade.

The Symi and the Proteus have both been in this morning. The ANEK boat, Ierapetra, has the big boat contract this month and has just left, allowing space for the Symi II to come in and for the Proteus, which has been hanging about off Nimborio, to take up station at the Roloi once again. The Ibiskos van from Rhodes is parked outside Pachos, unloading chilled cases of tzatziki, taramosalata and feta cheese for the supermarkets in the lane – when it is too hot to even think about cooking a supply of easy Greek food in the refrigerator makes for a good picnic in the courtyard and the combination of car ferries and refrigerated vehicles has greatly improved the range of convenience foods available on Symi in the summer.

In the Pedi valley the apricots are turning from green to gold and the tomatoes are swelling on the vines. Spiders spin their lazy webs among the trees and cats doze in the shadows through the heat of the day, too languid to raise more than an eyelid when a blue tailed lizard darts into view. After sunset the temperature slowly drops and creatures start to stir. The full moon lights up grazing sheep, tinkling bells as they nibble small white flowers from the oregano bushes along the terraces. The neighbour’s donkey snorts restlessly at a mosquito and slurps noisily at his water butt. The cockerels in the valley set up a round of crowing that is taken up by my own flock and a distant dog barks in response. It is summer on Symi and it is hot.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Shining Full Time

After a few cloudy days the sun is once again shining full time on Symi. Assorted yachts are milling about in the harbour, waiting to berth. It is that quiet time when visitors staying on the island have departed on excursion boats and water taxis and the day boats from Rhodes have not arrived yet. There is a brief flurry of vehicle activity around Yialos as the traffic ban comes into effect at 11 o’clock and the boom isn’t lifted again until 2 p.m. As anyone who has spent any time in Greece is aware, time moves differently here. It alternates between an almost dreamy siga, siga (slowly, slowly) to sudden mad panics with shouts of ella, ella, grigora, grigora (come, come, quickly, quickly). The traffic restrictions around Symi harbour attempt to impose order on Greek time with variable results. Grigora, grigora soon becomes siga, siga again as those who left things too late and are caught on the wrong side of the boom chose to congeal in the shade of Pachos with a cold drink until traffic can circulate freely once more.

The Proteus is back in service and by all reports will be packed as a substantial back log of goods and freight has built up during the two weeks she was out of commission. According to our sources they were still trying to squeeze in another 20 or so vehicles 10 minutes before she was due to leave Rhodes.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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Hot and Sleepy

It is a hot and sleepy day on Symi. In the lane Dino’s wife has draped white tarps over the shop display to keep the afternoon sun off and is sitting in the shade mending shirts. On the front men have been at work on the frame work for the awnings all day, hence the line up of café chairs and marble tables in the Webcam Wave spot (no, we have not started serving ouzo and nibbles from the Sunflower Laundry, no matter what some of you might think!)

I went to Datca on Saturday, making use of the new Symi II service currently on offer from ANES. It is good for those of us who live and work here and only have a few hours off but for first time visitors I would recommend going on the Poseidon or the Triton and making a day of it. When we arrived just after 12.30 those who had gone over on the Poseidon had already finished doing the market and were settling into lunch and cold Efes. Unfortunately it is no longer possible to go shopping and then dump everything on the boat before going for an exotic lunch – the boats are now in an international quarantine zone on the far side of the bay, behind a metal grille, and access is restricted. This also means that bored members of the party (this does happen – I speak from experience having once been to Datca with a teenager in tow) cannot return to the boat to sleep/sulk. However there are plenty of waterfront cafes which I noticed were full of those whose retail therapy had exceeded their physical carrying capacity. Meat, fish and plants are a customs no-no but few tourists are likely to want to buy those things anyway. The fruit and vegetable market is a visual delight and the market is also good for things like sumac and pomegranate molasses which are not readily available elsewhere.

The new addition to Symi’s skyline is striking visible from the sea. While Datca’s windfarm is on the low-lying isthmus and comprises at least 30 windmills, Symi’s solitary turbine is on the highest peak and towers above the antennae on the Vigla and the ancient gaze of Kokkimides.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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