Under the Mediterranean Sun

Another Symi summer is drawing to a close, at least for those who have to take their summer holidays in August. The boats and beach toys are being packed away for another year, umbrellas and outside furniture folded and everything secured for the winter. There are many foreign property owners on Symi, including in the mix Greeks who live and work elsewhere and make use of family properties during the summer holiday weeks. Some may be able to get back for a week or so at Christmas or Easter but for many the precious 3-4 weeks in August are the highlight of the year and the last days of the month are always tinged with sadness. The rest of the year many of these houses remain closed up, sleeping under the Mediterranean sun and buffeted by the storms of winter. The ferries are full and departing passengers wave and call “kalo chimona (good winter)” to those left on the quay.

For the island of Symi, however, the tourist season still has another 6-7 weeks to run. This week Symi celebrates the World Peace Day Swim between Symi, which is, as we all know, a small island in Greece, and Datca, a small town on the opposite Turkish coast, close to the site of ancient Knidos. Teams of swimmers set off from both towns and meet in the middle, exchanging flags and good wishes – an important gesture between good neighbours. Celebrations take place in both communities. The symbiotic relationship between Symi and Datca is well established and goes to show what can be done at a grass roots level.

September is also a popular month for weddings and christenings and in October walking groups arrive in droves, happy to enjoy cooler weather and amazing views from the mountain tops. Every month brings out a different aspect of the island’s character and regular visitors who come at a different time to their usual month are often amazed at what a different place Symi can be.

The September ferry schedules are now available on line although at time of writing ANES still could not say what was happening with the Proteus car ferry and if it would be running at all in September.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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Hills and Mountains

Pedi Bay in the early morning with Asia Minor in the distance.

The Castro in Chorio catching the morning sun.

The wind has blown away the haze and the horizon is once again defined by rows of Turkish hills and mountains. It is still very hot though and the thermometer has been around the 40 mark for the past 2 days. The humidity has dropped dramatically – the office air conditioner’s water output is down to only 1 bucket a day now whereas not that long ago it was pulling up to 4 buckets of water a day out of the atmosphere – very handy for watering the plants and flushing the loo on the days when the water is off. In the Pedi valley my cats look on with dismay as desperate bees throng the water bowl like wildebeest at the watering hole and drain the basin dry. Even the ants are looking for water and the kettle is always full of drowned ones in the morning. With every puff of wind drifts of crisp dried leaves drop from the almond trees with a sigh. The desiccated remnants of spring wild flowers rustle and dry seed pods rattle. At this time of the year washing dries in under an hour and anything left out in the sun dries to a crisp, fades and falls apart in a matter of hours. As it is less than a month to the equinox the days are a lot shorter now and one does not have to get up so early to enjoy the sunrise.

Down in Yialos it is the cruise ship season. We have had two Cypriot cruise ships in this week, and as you can see from the row of faces peering over the front, these boats are very popular. As they are too big to go into Panormitis Bay anyone who wants to visit the monastery is then shuttled round on the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran or the Symi II so as a general rule of thumb, on cruise ship days the Symi II leaves from the clock tower side.



Have a good weekend.



Regards,

Adriana

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Year after Year

Some interesting plaster details

It is a sizzling hot summer’s day on the small Greek island of Symi. The heatwave has broken in other parts of Greek but Symi seems to be as hot as ever. The August exodus has started as Greek, French and Italian visitors head for home and the office. Many visitors are taking the opportunity to call in and book their accommodation for next summer – the surest way of securing the larger and more popular houses. Symi has a very high return rate with many families coming to the island for their holidays year after year. It is not uncommon for people to first visit Symi while on honeymoon or as newly weds staying in accommodation for two, return with children, staying in ever larger family houses over the years and then return to smaller properties as the children grow up. As there are no tourist ghettoes on the island and all holiday accommodation is within the community friends are quickly made, the children can enjoy an unprecedented amount of freedom and parents can relax. While no one would pretend that Symi is an inexpensive destination for a family holiday, choosing the right accommodation to start with can make a big difference to the family’s holiday budget.

Old Roman tiles.  The care with which they have been removed and stacked would suggest that they are going to be reused.

Over the next few days Symi will become steadily emptier as the August visitors fade away, only to fill up again on 1 September when many of Symi’s regular visitors who don’t have to work around school holidays start to arrive. The Greek schools reopen soon and it looks as though the renovation project at the technical high school in Chorio which has been going on for years is finally coming to some sort of conclusion.

These huge roof beams had to be manhandled up the Kali Strata as this property is over 100 steps up from the nearest vehicle access. The other materials were brought up by donkey and mule train.

There is a fund raising event at the Olive Tree in Chorio this evening for Symi Animal Welfare. Details of this were put up on Friday's blog. It is also the big festival and beach party over on the island of Nimos tonight and when I came down this morning a boat load of local ladies was heading that way equipped with various items for getting the little monastery ready for the festivities.

The pitch of this roof was increased when the new roof was put on in order to reduce leaks. When it rains on Symi it comes down in torrents and as the traditional design incorporates rainwater catchment in a gutter round the top of the walls to fill a cistern beneath the house, if the rain comes down very hard it can flow down the inside of the walls.

Today’s photos show some of the work going on to restore ruins on the Kali Strata. All of these are private projects under the careful eye of the archaeologia, the museum service.



Have a good week.



Regards,

Adriana

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The Next Port of Call

A glimpse of early morning masts as seen between buildings on the Kali Strata. The orange and blue boat just visible on the right is the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran.

It is a hot and hazy August morning and the taxi boats to the beaches are filling up for the first trip of the day. The round the island excursion boats are departing, BBQs and picnics packed and brightly clad passengers hanging onto their sunhats. Yachts are milling about, recovering their anchors and setting off for the next port of call. The sheets and towels on the clothes-airers outside the Sunflower Laundry downstairs are drying rapidly in the warm breeze. One thing one does not have to worry about in Symi in the summer is how to get the laundry dry – washing is toasted to a crisp in a matter of hours.

Early morning and the water boat has just arrived, heavily laden.  As Symi has no natural water it is either produced by the new desalination plant on the Pedi road or brought in by ship from Rhodes.  Note the yachts and the row of small hire boats by the clock tower.  In the picture below, taken several hours later, they have all gone.

Later in the day and the ANEK Line 'big boat' from Pireaus, the Ierapetra, has docked behind the water boat.  In the process unfortunately the vehicle ramp knocked over the navigation light next to the clock tower but that is another story. The area in the background is Harani.

Yialos is really busy at this time of the year as can be seen from these photographs which were taken at different times of the same day.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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Symi Animal Welfare Benefit Evening 23 August 2010

Benefit Evening to raise

awareness for

Symi Animal Welfare

with live music from folk singer

Samantha Marais

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

7.30pm - 11pm

The Olive Tree, Chorio

Please join us for an evening of live music and good company to raise awareness for Symi Animal Welfare. Take the opportunity to meet SAW members and learn about their objectives and programme.

A full bistro menu will be available or just enjoy a cool refreshment whilst soaking up the atmosphere.

Entry fee of 5 euros [all donated to SAW], which includes live music and a complimentary glass of wine. All guests will be entered into a free prize draw for a chance to win a limited edition, framed photograph donated by Symi Dream

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Symi's Summer Soundtrack

It was very very quiet on Symi when I walked down the Kali Strata to work this morning – hardly surprising really as the band at the Alethini played their last notes at 3 o’clock this morning. August the fifteenth is a big holiday in Greece and celebrates the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin. Here on Symi this is always marked with a big party with live traditional music at the Alethini church on the Pedi Road. The locals might be celebrating the fact that the Blessed Virgin went to sleep and went to heaven but anyone within a wide radius of the Pedi road was entertained by traditional Greek dance music until long after most people’s bedtime.


When I first came to Symi in 1993 Saturday night was traditionally bazouki night and live music with singing and traditional instruments were a feature of Symi’s summer soundtrack. Then laws about live music changed, and so did people. Open air bazouki evenings became a thing of the past and the local young people headed for sound-proofed clubs in which to bop to techno music and hip hop like their counterparts all round Europe. It is only on name days and other traditional celebrations that the hills echo with the happy plinkety plink of traditional Greek dance music. These days it may be amplified to a deafening volume but the essential Greece is still there. Long may it last.

On a different but still nostalgic note, the Michalaki, the little fisher boy sculpted by Kostas Valsami as a gift to the people of Symi, was relocated earlier this year from his original position next to the clock tower at the entrance to Yialos. Nowadays he is more prominently positioned at the head of the harbour, overlooking the point of departure for the water taxis and excursion boats. His original position may have been obscured by vehicles waiting for ferries and other clutter but was more appropriate for his past time as fisherman.

This photograph shows what an hour or so with a hook and line while waiting for the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran to come in can achieve without much effort. Fish and photo supplied by Dominic Lillicrap.



Have a good week.



Regards,

Adriana

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The Busiest Weekend of the Whole Year

Overnight yachts lined up at the clock tower. 

They will have to move to make way for the ferry in an hour or so.

It is the busiest weekend of the whole year in Greece and Symi is no exception. Yialos and Pedi are a gleaming show case of yachts of all descriptions, arriving and departing in a jumble of tangled anchors and harassed crews. As the Symi II has unfortunately broken down and the Dodecanese Seaways catamarans are very full, the shipping agents are very busy with trying to reschedule travel plans and find ferry connections that will meet flight times. A peculiarity of this year’s holiday trends is that more people seem to be island-hopping, believing that as it is a ‘bad year’ it will always be possible to find seats on ferries and affordable places to stay.

Washing drying on a holiday balcony on the Kali Strata. 

Note the fig tree growing in the ruin next door.

Unfortunately August remains August and it is never a good time to go island hopping with children and a tight budget. The excursion boats are full, the water taxis are busy, the bike and car hire outlets are juggling check in and check out times and when asked when anything is likely to be available, tell us the 25th of August. It is not for nothing that so many of Symi’s regular visitors, if not subject to the tyranny of school holidays, prefer to come in June, July and September. Those experienced visitors who have no choice but to come in August make sure that they book their accommodation and their bikes well in advance, book their ferry tickets on line and have sensible contingency plans in hand. One particular French family who have been booking their holidays through Symi Visitor Accommodation for years have solved the problem of the lack of a ferry from Symi to Rhodes on Monday mornings by chartering a yacht to take them from Symi to Fanes, the port near Rhodes airport on departure day. If the Symi II doesn’t come back into commission soon more travelers may be taking this route.

Chillies and Florina peppers in the Pedi valley.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the harbour there are some quiet places to be found. Although it is still extremely hot the humidity levels are high and we are experiencing night time dewfalls. Plants are starting to grow again, grass seeds are germinating wherever water is spilt and Symi is preparing for the second spring which often starts as early as mid September.

An elegant aubergine.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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Old Houses and Mansions

Chorio as seen looking down from the road to Panormitis. The big church in the foreground is Agia Triada. The conical mound behind that is the Kastro, Symi's acropolis and the promontory with a church on it behind that is Evangelissmos at Harani. The island in the background is Nimos.

It is a hot sunny day on the small island of Symi in the Dodecanese. It is the peak week of the summer holiday season with thousands of Greeks leaving Athens and Thessalonica and heading for the Aegean islands for the 15 August holiday. The following item appeared in Saturday’s edition of Ekathimerini Online:


SUMMER EXODUS

Patrols boosted on roads, ports and airports crowded

Traffic police yesterday intensified patrols on the country’s national road network as thousands of city dwellers abandoned the capital to begin their summer holidays. The country’s ports and airports were crowded yesterday afternoon as thousands more vacationers waited for ferries or planes. According to authorities at the country’s main port of Piraeus, 13,300 passengers boarded ferries to Aegean islands yesterday. Officials at Athens International Airport said that 2,177 outbound flights were scheduled between Friday and Monday morning. Another major exodus of holidaymakers is due on Friday, August 13, ahead of the August 15 national holiday.

This is for those who ask how far it is from Yialos to the Hotel Fiona.  The Hotel is the blue gabled building on the skyline.  The Proteus and the Symi II usually dock where the small yellow car is parked on the right.

While Symi is not as popular a destination as Mykonos or Santorini, the island does attract a certain number of Greek visitors each year, many on the strength of travel programs about the Greek islands on Greek television. Symi’s beautifully preserved and restored neo-classical houses are a unique attraction as so many places in Greece have lost their traditional architecture and replaced old houses and mansions with concrete apartment blocks instead. Symi’s pocket-handkerchief size beaches are picturesque but Symi’s unique selling point is still the island’s architectural heritage.

Climbing up the Kali Strata.

Have a good week.



Regards,

Adriana

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The Colour of Faded Lilacs

A little girl's bedroom next to a fine example of hand wrought iron work on the Kali Strata

It is a hot and humid day on Symi, a small island in the Southern Dodecanese. The island has been wrapped in a warm steamy cloud all week and at one point early this morning humidity was 85% and visibility was down to a few kilometers. The Vigla and the ridge of hills framing the Pedi valley were smothered in mist. A lot of the haze has burned off now but visibility is still poor and the sky is the colour of faded lilacs. The Turkish coast is invisible in the purple haze and with so little wind the daily armada of Turkish gulets visiting Greece is forced to motor all the way from Datca or Bozburun.

A new roof goes up on the Kali Strata. 

Believe it or not, that is a three storey building, the rest of which clings to the cliff below.

Today’s photographs show some of the paradoxes of Symi, the juxtaposition between Symi, the nineteenth century neo-classical gem, and Symi the restored and rebuilt, life among the ruins of the Kali Strata.

Ruins and old mansions in various stages of repair.  Festooned with wiring and there is a mobile phone beacon on the hill in the background.  The topmost house on the hill in the background, the one with the white walls and blue shutters, is the Gate House

These ruins are destined to become a boutique hotel some day. 

The restored and repro mansions of Mavrovouni line the hill behind.  Spiti Grande Helene and Villa Iris are both in this picture and Villa Gabrielle is masked by the ruin on the right.
Have a good weekend.



Regards,

Adriana

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Greek Skies - The Symi Gallery at Symi Dream Gallery

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Welcoming You as Usual

It is hot and humid on Symi today. We started the day with a power cut, one of several as DEH, the Public Power Company, continues with its program of upgrades to the island’s power grid. This has been going on for several days now and will probably continue until the end of the week. Normally this kind of maintenance takes place during the winter but for reasons unknown it has been scheduled for peak tourist season this year. Fortunately so far visitors are being philosophical about it all and we can be glad there such improvements are still taking place. As the work crews come from far afield it may be a year or more before they pass this way again with their lorry-loads of poles, huge drums of cable and strapping young men walking up and down poles in crampons.


One piece of good news is that the truck drivers’ strike seems to be over. Fortunately it did not last long enough to have any impact on Symi – we are so far away from the central part of Greece that when truckers have been on strike in the past it has been weeks before any impact is felt here locally. Our fuel stations are running as normal, there is food in the shops, the beer has not run out and there is absolutely no need to panic. Greece has always been prone to feverish industrial action – regular visitors will remember the endless air traffic controllers strikes and baggage handlers’ strikes in the dying days of Olympic Airways, not to mention the bank strikes when Alpha bought out Ionian and when the National Bank of Greece restructured its pension schemes. Strikes and protest marches have always been the order of the day here – in post-Junta Greece the right to strike is seen as an important part of the country’s political well-being and as much a part of the democratic process as the compulsory voting system. What is different is that now the international media are looking this way, eager to seize upon any item that can be expanded and sensationalized, usually with a view to taking attention away from more real problems at home. Despite what excited reporters might want to convey, Greece is not in a state of anarchic collapse. This summer is different only in that as people have less money to spend and few have the leave to take 3-4 weeks off in the middle of the year, holidays are shorter than they used to be.



Have a good week, and if you have booked to visit Symi this year, the island looks forward to welcoming you as usual.



Regards,

Adriana

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