Some Late Summer Symi Sunshine

Clearing a space for the Blue Star Diagoras.

The Blue Star Diagoras departing.
If you are wondering, that is not a small grey tug, it is just a private yacht designed to look like a small grey tug. The big ships visiting Symi have no tug boats to help them and depend upon bow thrusters and superb seamanship.

I wonder who was on this expensive toy...

It is the last day of August and Symi harbour is still bustling with yachts and gulets.  The Cypriot cruise ship, Salamis Filoxenia, visited Symi yesterday morning and the horse and carriage seemed to be a great hit with the passengers, judging by the number of times it clip-clopped past my balcony in the course of the morning. Weather wise, temperatures are in the mid to high thirties and the worst of the heat is now behind us for another year.

We are still waiting for the completed ferry schedules for September and October from Dodecanese Seaways.  At present only the first fortnight of the month is more or less complete on line and the rest is patchwork.  I am reminded of the late Kate Murdoch, co founder of the now defunct Laskarina Holidays, who, in her handbook ‘How to Survive Your Greek Island Holiday’ defined the Greek word ‘avrio’ (tomorrow) as having the same meaning as the Spanish ‘manana’ but without the same sense of urgency.

As August draws to a close the French and Italian visitors are disappearing and the new arrivals are predominantly English-speaking, whether from the UK or further afield, such as Australia and South Africa. This year we have seen fewer North American arrivals. This may be because there are fewer direct flights from the USA to Athens this year.  Some American guests we have arriving in September will be spending almost as much time travelling to get here as they will actually spend on Symi but it is gratifying to know that there are still people who are prepared to make that kind of effort to visit Greece.   Scandinavians and Germans also prefer to visit in the cooler months and many of Symi’s Northern Europe regulars, as well as some new faces, will be arriving over the next few weeks.  We even have some visitors from Russia, escaping the Moscow autumn for some late summer Symi sunshine.

There is a poetry reading at the Symi Gallery this evening at 8 p.m.  There is also live bouzouki music at the Hidden Courtyard, the new bar that has opened in Chorio, on Sunday evening.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

Shadows on the Kali Strata

The Salamis Filoxenia comes round Nimos.

The horse and carriage

Prickly pears and bales of hay in Chorio

Driftwood forgotten on a balcony on the Kali Strata

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Guest Blog from Andy Ward - Flight News

Keen readers will remember that I promised the winter timetable of flights to and from Rhodes and Kos. As technical difficulties prevent me from posting on the blog at the moment, Adriana has kindly offered to host this on her blog page. Flights are at a very low ebb indeed, and they don’t seem to have been designed to help with connections at Athens or Thessaloniki either. I’m working on a table of international flights from Athens and Thessaloniki for the winter, and you will still be able to get to Symi, just not as conveniently as in the past. The reason for the reduced service is of course the dramatic drop in Greek domestic air travel caused by the economic problems.

Rhodes looks like having no international flights at all apart from a once-weekly service to Tirana this winter. There have been attempts to persuade Easyjet or Transavia to run winter  services, but since neither have anything on sale just over two months before they would start operating, I think the attempts must have failed. There are other domestic flights from Rhodes, with services to Kastellorizo, Karpathos, Kasos, Kos, Kalymnos, Astypalea, Leros  and Heraklion, but none of these offer international connections.

In other news, the schedule for Blue Star Diagoras is planned to continue unaltered up to the end of October, though bookings aren’t open yet after mid September.

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Honey and Vanilla

Bougainvillea and oleanders in the early morning sun.

Plump pomegranates opposite the Symi Dream shop.

Plumbago tumbling over a wall on the Kali Strata

The golden days of September are nearly upon us and those plants that have survived the endless procession of heat waves that has assaulted Greece this summer are starting to recover.  June and July 2012 will be remembered as the hottest months in Athens since records began and the statistics for August are likely to be more of the same.  Here on Symi it is even hotter but without the smog that makes city heat so dangerous.  We should see a drop to more normal temperatures in the mid thirties in the course of the week which will make the evening temperatures more tolerable.

From my office window I can see the water taxis heading for the beaches and the Poseidon is out on a round the island trip. The ANES Proteus has just arrived and a gulet is carefully docking stern-to by the clock tower. The happy babble of voices rises from the cafes downstairs and the smell of honey and vanilla is heavy on the air from the patisserie around the corner. 

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

It has been many years since the old Glafkos Hotel on the Kali Strata last opened its doors.

A neglected mansion on the right, a lovingly restored one on the left.

Virginia creeper taking over a building at the bottom of the Kali Strata.

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Something Out of the Ordinary

Morning sun catching the rooftops in the Mouragio part of Yialos.

Socks drying on the Kali Strata - there is always something out of the ordinary to look at on Symi.

A quirky change from the usual identikit white.
Private cruising boats with live-aboards seem to have been victims of the recession and we see far fewer of these adventurous souls exploring alternative lifestyles than we used to.

Time to leave - 7 a.m in Yialos and considerably more orderly than the merry chaos of the 5 p.m arrivals Sue photographed in the previous post.

Drifts of bougainvillea on the Kali Strata

Not the latest Curiosity photograph from Mars -  just sheep prints in the dust in the Pedi valley.

As August draws to a close the shadows grow longer and the days are perceptibly shorter.  Temperatures are still in the high 30s and a heatwave is forecast for the whole of Greece over the next few days.  Symi is still quite busy and we are receiving a lot of last minute arrivals as those with the flexibility to take things as they come enjoy some late August island hopping.

If you are on Symi at the moment, there is the opening of the new exhibition at the Symi Gallery on the Kali Strata this evening as well as live music in Giorgio's and a question and answer session for newcomers at the Olive Tree.  Chorio is the place to be.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Five O'Clock Rush Hour in Yialos - August 2012

Photographs by Susan Grzebisz

Once the ferry boats and day trippers have departed, the yachts are allowed in to berth for the night ...

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It's All Happening on Symi

23 August 2012

*  The annual festival in honour of the Blessed Virgin is taking place on the small island of Nimos tonight. The taxi boats will be taking people across this evening.  There will be live music, dancing and wine.  For more information please see the water taxis in Yialos.

*Symi Animal Welfare fundraiser at the Sunrise Cafe in Chorio (along the lane from the Village Hotel).

Thursday 23 August at the Sunrise, Chorio from 9pm-----------------------Fundraiser for Symi Animal Welfare

LIVE FOLK MUSIC from Sam & Henry

Free entrance but obligatory purchase of 1euro raffle ticket(s) per person for prize draw, to win original Sarah Bassett watercolour of ‘Jack the kitten’ (see picture above)

50% of bar takings will be donated to Symi Animal Welfare

24 August 2012

A new exhibition is opening at the Symi Gallery on the Kali Strata, featuring the paintings of  Symi artist in residence, Ian Haycox and photographer in residence, Jordan Blakesley.  

 Ongoing

* There is an exhibition of Greek icons at the Nautical Museum in Yialos.  Open 18.00 to 20.00 every evening until 30 August. Entrance Free.

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Some More Summer Postcards from Symi

The rooftops of Chorio

The Castro as seen from Lieni.  Properties in this area include the Cottage, the Two Fishes and Villa Wookie.

Fat figs ripening in the summer sun.

Prickly pears, figs and capers share space with scaffolding planks in this ruin that has been turned into a builder's yard.

The Windmill restaurant in Chorio, featuring art work by Ian Haycox.

The Billboard in Chorio - how to find out what's on and when on Symi -
and sometimes a record of what you have missed.

Pomegranates tumbling over a wall off the Kali Strata.

A neatly painted Symi house is a work of art.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Summer Postcards from Symi

This little boat in the Pedi valley has not seen the sea for several years now.

Sunrise over Pedi.
The trees in the foreground are mainly kermes oaks, sometimes called holly oaks, and provide a welcome green belt in the heat of summer when the hillsides have turned to dusty gold.

From the same vantage point as the previous photograph but looking across the valley.
That is the Taxiarchis Hotel partially masked by the chapel bell tower.  Other places in the picture include the Chorio Hotel, the Little Blue House, Olympic Holidays' Anastasia apartments, our own Zoe's apartments, popular watering hole the Sunrise Cafe and the new Hidden Courtyard bar.

The morning rush hour in Yialos, Symi's main port - water taxis heading for the beach.
The one in the foreground has just returned empty and will dock to fill up again.

The Blue Star ferry, Diagoras, coming in at 8.15 on Tuesday morning.
This has been amazingly punctual this year.

Later in the day - a yacht weaving its way through the bows of the Panagia Skiadeni, the Symi, the Proteus and the Dodecanese Express.

Yachts and gulets overnighting outside the police station and clock tower. That is a little row of hire boats with Harani and the Odyssea apartments in the background.

One of the routes down from Chorio to Yialos.

I wonder who is on the mega yacht.  According to various media reports, Greece in general has been well supported by various Hollywood stars and other celebrities this year, including Bradgelina, John Travolta and Shakira.

And finally, a small detail from a roof in the harbour.
One of the few remaining Turkish style roofs left on the island. This belongs to Chrysalis, a delightful little boutique at the bottom of the Kali Strata.

I hope you have enjoyed these photographs from Symi, a small island in the Dodecanese, Greece.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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The Busiest Week in the Whole Year

Sunrise over Pedi Bay with the mountains of Turkey in the distance.

Villa Iris and Spiti Grande Helene on Mavrovouni, as seen from the Kastro.

This is the busiest week in the whole year for Symi and any other part of Greece that is dependent on tourism for its livelihood.  15 August is an important holiday in the Orthodox as well as the Catholic countries, hence the tradition for many of these countries to take the first 2 weeks or so of August as the official summer holiday.  French, Italian and Spanish are the main languages to be heard in Symi harbour at the moment, with a few Athenian Greeks who have managed to take a break despite the prevalent economic gloom.  We also have a surprising number of Irish visitors this summer.  It is as though we PIIGS are sticking together and supporting each other’s economies.  I have noticed that one of the supermarkets in Chorio is carrying an extensive range of Spanish biscuits and crackers which I have never seen before.

Here at Symi Visitor Accommodation we are still trying to help last minute booking enquiries as although most people book their August accommodation months in advance, there are always those who leave things to chance or who, through change of circumstance, find themselves on a different island to the one planned.  Symi’s infrastructure is stretched to the limit in August when the population doubles from 3000 to 6000 people.  As many regular visitors to Symi know, the island has no natural water.  What isn’t produced by the small desalination plant on the Pedi Road has to be augmented by deliveries from the water ship from Rhodes and in these days of austerity the water ship is an increasingly rare sight. As usual, at this busy time, water is in extremely short supply and many houses, particularly in the harbour area, have run dry.  It is particularly galling for residents in the houses lining the amphitheatre harbour to look from their balconies and see visiting yachtsmen make free with the island’s limited water supply to hose down decks etcetera while they themselves are having to lug expensive bottled water up to their houses for washing, cooking and cleaning.  This is a situation that occurs sooner or later every year and yet the problem remains unresolved, as though the town hall is taken by surprise by the number of people who chose to spend their holidays on Symi or have summer houses here.  Water and ferries are the two main problems that the island has to cope with every year and the town hall seems to be making precious little progress with either. 

On a more cheerful note, the meltemi breeze has been blowing for two days now and the temperatures have dropped to more tolerable ones.  At midday it is about 35 degrees centigrade and at midnight it is about 25 degrees centigrade. The wind has cleared the dust and humidity.

The annual celebrations at the Alethini church on the Pedi Road will be taking place tonight and everyone is invited to celebrate the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin.  The music and dancing usually continue into the small hours and tomorrow is a national bank holiday.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

This is one of the most unusual of the neo-classical houses on the island.

Orange bougainvillea

Roof garden at Milos

We may be short of water but pickled beetroot and detergent are in plentiful supply -
Sotiris' supermarket in Chorio on delivery day.

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