Hot Weather Means Cold Drinks

Imagine stepping out onto the balcony of your third floor accommodation to find the bows of a ship blocking out the view. This happens a lot on the Mouragio side of the harbour in the summer.

When I was a sailor it was regarded as poor etiquette and bad seamanship to set off with laundry flapping and fenders trailing but times have evidently changed.

That black cat gets around.

Edging her way in.

It is half past seven in the morning and the Salamis Lines cruise ship, Salamis Filoxenia, has just docked in Yialos, Symi’s picturesque harbour.  Announcements over the ship’s tannoy echo round the harbour, telling the passengers where they are, what they should see and when they should report back to the ship. Salamis Lines and Louis Lines, both Cypriot cruise lines, pay regular visits to Symi during the summer.  Their cruises are not so much glamour outings as pilgrimages, stopping at the most important monastery islands in the area, and their passengers are looking for something  a bit deeper than fun in the sun.  This is why on cruise ship days one cannot find a taxi on Symi – they are all busy shuttling people across the island to Panormitis monastery.  Last year Dodecanese Seaways used to time one of their trips to take people round the island to Panormitis Bay, and the year before that it was the sadly missed Symi II which used to provide this service. This year, however, it seems to be entirely in the hands of Symi’s six taxis. After Symi the cruise goes on to Patmos, where St John the Divine is believed to have had his Revelations.

Many of Symi's old buildings have stones marked with the date on which they were dedicated.  

See if you can find this one the next time you are in Yialos.

Villa Azra, the top left apartment with the blue shutters, is a new listing on our books.  It has one of the most astonishing and distinctive pediments on Symi.  That is supposedly the Colossus of Rhodes, legs astride, but what the prone female figure beneath him is pointing at we leave to your imagination.

Hot weather means cold drinks.  

Thousands of plastic drinking straws on the wall at Sotiris' supermarket in Chorio.

Today  there is the annual festival at the small monastery on Nimos Island, with music, dancing, food and wine until late in the night.  The water taxis will be providing a shuttle service and there are posters up around the town, advertising the event.  This name day celebration is popular with locals and visitors alike and is a good reason to visit this usually inaccessible and uninhabited island.  Unlike summer festivals in other parts of the world, ones on Symi are seldom disrupted by rain.

The weather on Symi remains hot and humid with day time temperatures in the high thirties and the nights very still and sticky with mist.  We are all looking forward to the cooler days of September.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana