Hot Summer Nights

The hot summer nights are back. The nights when the roof terraces and courtyards are of Symi become living rooms as no one wants to be indoors on nights such as these. The murmur of voices, the scent of candles and charcoal, strains of Greek music punctuated by the hoot of owls – the lanes of Chorio are full of life behind closed courtyard doors and above our heads. Long days and high temperatures mean that Mediterranean people tend to eat late at this time of the year, particularly those who work as the evening shift in shops and businesses is not usually over until 9 p.m or even 10 p.m. Of course those who work in bars, restaurants, cafes and tavernas work even longer hours as the tourists tend to eat earlier than the Greeks who come in after work.

Greek summer nights are synonymous with music, whether prearranged and advertised Greek music at Giorgio’s taverna in Chorio and Kantirimi Bar in Yialos, or the spontaneous jazz and blues evenings that have started to be a feature at the Sunrise Café in Chorio on Saturday nights, when Clare forgets about her job at the supermarket and schoolteacher George picks up his guitar. Art and photographic exhibitions are also part of the landscape in both Yialos and Chorio and the Peripatetic Symi Gallery for Contemporary Art has found a new home on the Kali Strata, opening 1 August.

As I write this on Tuesday morning, the Blue Star Diagoras is edging its way carefully into Yialos and a car with a roof rack stacked with ropes of garlic has driven past, heading for the boat. The people of Symi have evidently bought sufficient garlic to keep bad luck at bay and the hawker is off to the next island with his wares.

By the way, Mike’s Magic evening at the Olive Tree raised another 180 euros for the Doctors’ Surgeries of Symi. Thank you to everyone, locals and tourists alike, who supported the event.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana