Good bye September! Hello October!

Celestyal Cruises called into Symi on Wednesday afternoon.  With the current uncertainty regarding Turkey and Egypt as cruise ship destinations, Greece in general and Symi in particular are seeing a lot more cruise ships.  They only stay a few hours and it is good publicity for Symi.

Salamis Filoxenia from Cyprus is another cruise ship that is a frequent visitor to Symi.  In this case, however, the passengers are not in pursuit of hedonistic pleasures  and all inclusive banquets but are predominantly Greek Orthodox Cypriots visiting the main religious sites in the Dodecanese.   As Symi is home to 3 well known monasteries dedicated to St Michael, the chief of which is Panormitis,  Symi is a place of pilgrimage.  

The  colourful scene from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office balcony on Thursday morning.  As you can see, the fishing caiques are moving back into the head of the harbour now that the summer excursion boats are heading for the boat yards.

Just in case you hadn't noticed them in the previous photo, I zoomed in on the pigeons to bring them to your attention.  I don't know who is feeding them but this is a new phenomenon  Perhaps the pigeons have taken over from the lonesome duck of previous years. They certainly look fat enough.

Smiling down serenely from a pediment on the Kali Strata.

There is no way of escaping steps on Symi. This is idiosyncratic collection of random flights connects Villa Papanikola, just visible with the cream paintwork and dark blue shutters, with the mid section of the Kali Strata. The piecemeal nature of such routes is because each property owner built his own access steps when he built his house.

This flourishing fig tree must have its roots in the cistern of this ruined mansion on the Kali Strata. As Symi has no rivers, lakes or streams to provide a water supply, every house has a cistern.  Originally used to harvest rainwater from the roof in the winter, these days most houses get top ups from the municipality with varying degrees of frequency during the summer.  There are very few places where there is a continuous water supply and most neighbourhoods only receive water for a few hours a week.  Cisterns, pumps and water shortages are a fact of life here

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Walking in the Valley

A privately owned solar farm in the Pedi valley.  The main use of solar power on Symi, as in many countries in the region, is in the form of solar water heaters but there are quite a lot of solar panels around once one starts looking out for them. The combination of ever increasing electricity prices and a steady reduction in the cost of solar power systems makes this an attractive proposition for rural dwellings.  Some years ago Symi municipality installed solar panels on the roofs of some of the island's reservoirs to provide power for streetlights.

Looking across the Pedi valley towards the Kastro, the oldest part of Chorio, from the path to Drakos, an early settlement on Symi that has had little archaeological attention, despite being about 2000 years old. One can see why that hill would have been an appealing site for the knights to build their castle. All that is left now are fragments of the castle walls and there is now a cluster of churches at the apex.

The path to old Drakos in the Pedi Valley - overgrown with thistles but reasonably easy to find as one follows the wall.

We were last here 10 years ago, when the wall was capped and the sign put up.  It doesn't look as though anyone has done anything to maintain it since then.  That is a small goat perched on the wall on the left, beyond the squill.

Symi has no shortage of mysterious old walls and terraces and in many cases little is known about who built them or why.  As you can see, this is an incredibly arid landscape with little soil to sustain agricultural activities.

This length of dry stone walling has collapsed along the path and the vegetation is taking over.

If you are on Symi now and are wondering why your eyes are itching and you are sneezing you may be allergic to tamarisk pollen.  Tamarisk trees have very fine wispy flowers and produce clouds of very fine pollen.

The Symi Flower shop is in autumn mode now - lettuce and brassica seedlings, onion and garlic sets and broad bean seeds have taken over from flowers and pot plants.  The rainy season can't be far away now and it is important to make the most of the crucial combination of warm days and water to get the vegetables started before the cold dark days of winter take over.  The rainy season runs roughly from October to March and is the main growing period in the Mediterranean basin.

The water taxis are busy, taking visitors and locals to the beaches.  With temperatures in the mid to high twenties and the sea still pleasantly warm, a day with friends on one of Symi's picturesque beaches is an important part of any Symi holiday.

Yialos in the early morning light.

Autumn is taking over from summer and the season is drawing to a close.  Temperatures are pleasantly mild - between 25 and 28 degrees during the day, falling to around 18 degrees in the evenings. The breeze has turned cooler and the humidity is gone.  The harvest moon has been replaced by clear star-spangled skies and visibility is infinite.

Many of the boutiques in the harbour have clearance sales now as they will be closing in a week or two.  If you want to buy designer beachwear with 50% discounts, now is the time.

The ferry schedule for October comes into effect at the end of the week. If you are planning on coming to Symi in October, it is a good idea to check Dodecanese Seaways and Blue Star Ferries when making your plans as overnight ferries from Rhodes to Symi come to an end after 1 October.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Playing Tourist on Rhodes

First rains - we woke up to a showery Tuesday with lots of thunderstorms hovering around but no serious downpours.  

On Wednesday I went to Rhodes for the day and played tourist in the Old Town.  This is the big mosque at the top of Socrates street, at the top end of the Old Town.

Looking down Socrates street towards the harbour. This is the main shopping street in the Old Town.  Rhodes Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and behind the tourist tat there are some amazing old buildings.

Like this one, for example.

And this old Ottoman coffee shop with its pebbled floors and bric a brac. This style of coffee shop with its high vaulted roof, straight-backed chairs and walls lined with memorabilia is found throughout the old Ottoman empire and could be anywhere from Cairo and Jerusalem to Damascus and Istanbul. The uniquely Rhodian feature is the pebble floor.

At the bottom, looking through a ruined church and an Old Town gate at a glimpse of the sea.

Some of the ruins in Rhodes Old Town are of archaeological interest.  Others are ancient ramshackle buildings in which people are eking out a living.  The side streets beyond the cruise ship visitors and tourist crowds reveal the realities of a frugal life with no funds to indulge in authentic restorations or gentrification.

Here is an example of what I mentioned above.  In the foreground is an archaeological excavation of a Byzantine church.  In the background is a lovingly restored 19th century town house.  In between there is someone, probably an elderly woman judging by the washing line, living in a partially ruined building.

The view from the balcony of room 303 at the Hermes hotel in Mandraki.

The Italian Art Deco fish market in the Nea Agora, Mandraki.

Guardians of the gold - spotted inside the Nea Agora, Mandraki

Tuesday's rainy day marked the start of autumn and although it was still hot walking around Rhodes on Wednesday, there is now a brisk north wind blowing and temperatures are firmly in the twenties.  Rhodes is busy, mainly with Russian package holiday tourists and cruise ship passengers.  Mandraki harbour, however, which used to be popular with the yachting fraternity, is empty with only a few locally owned motor boats in evidence and there were no megayachts berthed in Kolonna.

September on Symi is always the month for the island's many regular British, Scandinavian and German visitors and there are a lot of familiar faces around.  It is a good month for those who aren't tied to school holidays and want to avoid the heat of high summer.  We are still taking last minute bookings for late September and October so it looks as though this year Symi will be busier in October than it was in April and May. We have now also opened booking for 2017.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Unfiltered

As I was waiting for the bus on Friday afternoon I saw this extraordinary sight. As it came closer I realised that it was a floating crane and a barge with concrete blocks for the new commercial harbour, all being towed by a heroic little tug.  It must have come all the way from Rhodes.

The other sight that caught my eye was The World, a sort of floating apartment block, anchored off Nimborio.

We are nearing the end of the ice cream season on Symi.  The freezers, umbrellas and sign boards will disappear in the next few weeks and won't be seen again until April.

The World again, this time seen from the top deck of the Poseidon on Saturday morning.  Yes, I have been out TWICE on the Poseidon in the past two weeks and both trips were most enjoyable.

It is only from the Poseidon that one gets to see inaccessible beach shacks on the far side of the island.

And pocket-handkerchief sized beaches like this tiny scrap of sand at the base of a seasonal water course.

Or forests that come down to the sea and ancient tumbled down walls. This is the bay of Maroni.

Looking at Datca from Maroni bay, one realises how close the ancient Greek settlement of Knidos on the Datca peninsular was to the island of Symi.  

This could be you.  No, that isn't a whirlpool, it is the splash of someone who has just dived off the top deck of the boat.

Seal cave, another popular swimming spot on the far side of Symi that can only be reached by boat.

Feast your eyes on those blues.  Yes, the water really is that colour.

Meanwhile, back in Yialos, if this is the view before you, you are on the right track for the Old Markets boutique hotel.  The archway with wrought iron doors is the entrance to the old souk which is also the hotel's logo.  The hotel reception entrance is on the left at the top of the stairs.

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Life's a Beach

Symi has a portfolio of small unique beaches.  Each is different in character and most can only be reached by water taxi although, in the case of Agia Marina (seen here) and St Nicholas, there are also footpaths for the energetic.

As is typical in these waters, yachts drop their anchors and then take a line ashore so that they don't swing around too much.  The line of red buoys defines the swimming area at Agia Marina.

The little chapel on the island in the bay is dedicated to St Marina and is a popular venue for wedding blessings.

Agia Marina's sophisticated appearance is largely possible due to its sophisticated infrastructure. The beach has a water recycling system which is used to keep the best lawns in the Dodecanese lush and green.  It also has a large sound proofed generator discreetly placed behind the trees on one of the upper terraces that keeps the fridges, freezers, water pumps and so on running.  As the island faces Turkey there is no Greek mobile phone signal so all shopping for supplies has to be carefully planned - no after thoughts! The area to the left is a dining area where light lunches such as tuna carpaccio are served.

Coffee or cocktails.

The pomegranates are swelling. A few more weeks and they will be red.

Agia Marina is one of the few places where the seabed is natural sand, making this a popular place for swimming.

Meanwhile, back in Yialos there were lots of  Turkish motor boats over for the Eid holiday.  If you subtracted the Turkish yachts and gulets from Symi's waters this year, there would not be many boats left.

Master of all he surveys - the cats are starting to look for sunny places as the weather cools off and are as often on top of awnings as beneath.

Another sign of changing weather - dew fall in the early mornings.

A well-fed supermarket cat in Yialos, heading over to me to see if there are any snacks in the offing!

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