Happy New Year from Chilly Symi

Pedi Bay during the December supermoon. This photograph was taken from high up in Chorio,  That bright light is actually over in Turkey, several miles away.  In the winter when the weather is clear one can see the opposite shore quite clearly.

As I was saying!  This was the view from Lieni this morning.

Looking the other way, those are the wind turbines between Datca and Marmaris!

The view from the  Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning.  The Blue Star Patmos has been seriously delayed due to Force 9 gales in the Aegean which precipitated a shipping ban.  It was supposed to have left Piraeus at 10 this morning but at time of writing is still tied up so unlikely to get here before midday tomorrow (Saturday).  The truck you can see in the photograph comes over from Rhodes with fruit and vegetables for the Symi supermarkets and is waiting to go back with a load of empty crates.

Yanni proudly showing off the octopus he caught in Harani recently.  Octopus stifado is a popular winter dish here. The octopus is braised with red wine, vinegar, spices and lots of small onions.  

Free range Fred looking for breakfast in Lieni.

Now that we have had a sustained cold spell the remaining leaves on the valonia oak trees are starting to turn colour like proper autumn leaves.

It has been a cold wet and windy week with heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday. This morning dawned bright and clear and it looks as though we will have a cold start to the new year with daytime highs on Symi and Rhodes of around 9 degrees, dropping to 5 or 6 at night.  Much of Greece has had snow and icy weather.  Even nearby Rhodes experienced snow flurries on the highest points at Ataviro and Profiti Ilias.  More rain is forecast for next week with a slight rise in temperatures to around 12 degrees at midday.

Rick Stein's cookery show, 'From Venice to Istanbul' is evidently being shown on TV in  Australia at the moment and we have received many emails from people wanting to book 'Rick Stein's house'. To set the record straight, the house is actually Sofia's house in Harani.  It was sold some years ago to a Symiot family who now live in it year round so it is no longer available as a rental property.  It never belonged to Rick Stein and he himself only used it as a film set as it had a big open plan kitchen dining room with plenty of space for the cameras.  He himself stayed in Iapetos Village Hotel at the back of the harbour. There are lots of lovely houses to rent on Symi and we are happy to help you book one but it won't be 'Rick Stein's house'!

Still on the subject of food, Symi has a great selection of good restaurants and tavernas in the summer so there is no need to slave over a hot stove in the heat of a Symi summer.  If, however, you do want to dabble in the culinary arts and try your hand at Greek recipes, most of our rental houses are fully equipped for self-catering and you will find the ingredients for seasonal Greek cuisine in the local shops and markets in Chorio and Yialos.

The town public address system is pumping out Christmas jingles and it is time for me to head for the bus stop.  My next blog will be on Tuesday as the office is closed on Monday. All of us at Symi Visitor Accommodation wish you a very happy new year and we'll be telling you soon about our planned birthday celebrations as we turn 20 in 2017!

Regards,
Adriana

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Rendering Unto Caesar

A smart bow in Chorio.

Wind on the water in Pedi. There is a gale warning today as it is a Force 8.

White horse galloping across the sea from Nimborio bay.  There is a strong north-westerly wind blowing and it is just above freezing.

The sunny side of the harbour.  The houses across on the shady side get little or no direct sunlight at this time of the year and are very cold indeed.

Wild clematis climbing high in the everygreen holly oaks.

Pomegranates are a popular motif in this part of the world, symbolising fertility and prosperity. These plastic ones are stuck onto laurel branches for decorative purposes. The grocers have lots of real ones.

Manoli feeding the pigeons while a cat looks on.  Manoli is one of the last surviving sponge fishermen, diving for sponges with a bell stone off the Libyan coast before the Second World  War.  We interviewed him many years ago for the Symi Visitor newspaper and he told us about how he was rescued by a dolphin after a shark cornered him among some rocks.  

After heavy rain on Friday and showers on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day dawned bright, clear and cold.  We woke to church bells followed by carols broadcast over the town's public address system to put everyone in a festive mood.  26 December is a  holiday in Greece, not because it is Boxing  Day but because it is a day honouring the Virgin Mary for giving birth to Jesus.  A nice tradition that has nothing to do with manic shopping or camping outside department stores to be the first to grab sales bargains.

Rain is forecast again for Wednesday and Thursday this week and temperatures will stay low with strong winds.  We can expect ice on the puddles, particularly in areas exposed to the north wind.   The snow over on the Turkish mountains is now clearly visible from the top of the island.

Something that is a cause for celebration and some relief in the border islands is that the government has announced that our VAT rate will stay as is for another year, despite outside pressure from the country's lenders to remove the VAT concessions for the small and remote islands. These concessions were brought in many decades ago to compensate for the high costs of shipping goods to these out of the way places and encourage people to stay on the islands.  VAT on Symi will remain at 17% instead of going up to 24% as is the case on Rhodes.  We do,  however, pay 24% on many services that come from the main land or are country wide and the special taxes on certain things like mobile telephony, television, wine, coffee (a new one that is coming in soon) and so on still affect us.

The reason for retaining the concession for islands like Symi, Samos, Lesbos etcetera is that the economy on these islands has been hard hit by the refugee crisis and an exceptionally bad tourist season so raising the cost of living still further will cause even more hardship and possible depopulation.  Many people are already struggling and many small business have gone under.  The prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, made his announcement while visiting our volcanic neighbour, Nissyros recently. He also gave pensioners a Christmas bonus of 300 euros each, by way of compensation for the fact that their monthly pensions have been cut repeatedly in recent years.  This week we must also all remember to pay the annual taxes on our vehicles.  Sometimes the deadline for this is extended to mid-January but one cannot count on it so best to play safe and pay now as if it goes beyond the deadline one has to pay double - plus the added expense of a day trip to Rhodes to the tax office to pay the fine.

On that cheerful note I shall leave you until Friday!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Christmas Countdown

If there are any mycologists out there, does anyone know what kind of fungus this is?  It is growing on the stump of a dead deciduous tree in my garden on Symi and is quite impressive.

This shack probably has one of the best views in Pedi, high above all the other buildings. It does,  however, seem to lack some basic creature comforts. Sometimes one needs a bit more than just a panoramic view!  For a more comfortable stay that still has fabulous views, try Villa Jasmine.

There isn't much for children to do in a small and isolated place like Symi and treats are scarce, so this travelling fairground that has appeared in the town square in Yialos is a welcome sight for any parent of children under 10. There has also been a 3-day Christmas fair with face-painting and other amusements for Symi's children in the new sports facility in Chorio which was, by all accounts, a great success.

Symi's 'train station' . The noddy train has been packed away for the winter and the travelling vegetable hawkers make use of the spot instead. Boats are a popular motif for Christmas decorations at this time of the year. The Greeks are a sea-faring nation and have been since ancient times.

An elaborately painted pediment on the waterfront in Yialos.

Garlic in the boatyard in Harani.

Autumn colours.

Indoor bathrooms are a relatively recent innovation on an island that has always been short of water.

Working underneath a boat can be backbreaking work.  A little stool to sit on is much more comfortable that squatting  or perching on an old crate.

The Poseidon excursion boat from an unfamiliar angle 

A neglected and uninhabited old mansion in Harani.  It has not had to good fortune to be restored like the one next door which is now the Dorian hotel or the one in front which is the Aliki.  Restoring these old places is very expensive and a real labour of love.  In the present economic climate few people  have the resources to tackle such ambitious projects which may offer no real financial return.

Looking across at Pitini and Milos (the windmills) from the Mouragio, the section of Yialos by the clock tower.

Oranges ripening outside the police station in Yialos.  The oranges on Symi are usually very bitter and not suitable for anything apart from making glykos, candied rolls of orange peel.  Some of the foreign residents make marmalade as the bitter flesh is so full of pectin there is no problem with getting a good set.

It is a chilly Monday morning on Symi.  Midday highs are around 12 degrees centigrade and night time temperatures are around 7 degrees.  North facing properties that get little or no sun in December are much colder than this.  Symi's elegant neo-classical houses with their high ceilings, stone walls and tiled floors are very difficult to heat, not to mention expensive, so everyone is well wrapped up even when indoors.  In the late afternoon, when everyone is home and has settled down, wood fires are lit and little plumes of smoke can be seen rising over the rooftops of Chorio.

Symi post office will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as the staff are going to Rhodes for the post office Christmas party. As there won't be any post on the island until Thursday anyway this won't have much of an impact on our lives.  Symi's post comes and goes on the big Blue Star ferry. The couriers, on the other hand, also use Dodecanese Seaways which is more expensive.

The foreign community on Symi has had an impact on what is available in the shops in Symi in the winter.  When I first came here parsnips and Brussels sprouts were unheard of and met with some bafflement as they don't grow very well in a Mediterranean climate.  Now at least two shops on the island make sure that they have imported stocks of both to keep the British expat festive table going and I have heard that one of the supermarkets in Chorio has packets of stuffing mix. The Greeks themselves are not tied to a turkey dinner and their traditions are very different.  Pastitsio, a sort of hybrid oven dish that combines macaroni cheese with lasagna is more likely to appear on the Christmas table, as may roast suckling pig.  Italian coffee, prosciutto and various salamis have also become Christmas supermarket staples as the other significant group to come to Symi over the holidays is the Italian property owners.

At the moment it looks as though we will have a dry albeit chilly Christmas.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Monday Musings from Symi

The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin of the Castle is having a facelift. Symi has no shortage of churches and there are several on and around the Kastro.

The Blue Star Patmos came through from Piraeus on Sunday after the shipping strike was temporarily suspended, bringing with it such high bulk items as toilet rolls and kitchen paper.

The dress shop in Chorio, flaunting a fabulous Christmas bow.

A flourishing fig among the ruins on the Kali Strata.

A glimpse of Christmas spirit near the bottom of the Kali Strata.

Storm clouds looming over Mavrovouni this morning. Rain is forecast from this afternoon through to early on Tuesday  morning, followed by a sharp drop in temperatures.

Yialos.

Wash day at Lemonitissa church.

The ferry didn't just bring practical things like loo paper.  It also brought these cheerful poinsettias.

The Petrides school at the back of St John's church looks wonderful with its new paint.  Whoever undertook to do that elongated meander frieze had a lot of patience and an incredibly steady hand.

Hibiscus in flower in the Metropolitan's garden next to St John's church.

Angels on an old grave stone incorporated into a bench in St John's churchyard.

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December Postcards from Symi

Just add water to old dry stone walls and nature's magical winter gardens reappear.

The old oak in Lieni is very confused at the moment.  The old leaves and acorns are almost all gone now but the mild temperatures have triggered the premature production of new leaves as though it is spring.

Most of the old mansions on the Kali Strata have been restored in the last 20 years but this one lingers on, quiet and mysterious behind its old wrought iron fence.

A lone yacht heads north,  past the entrance to Pedi bay.

Song birds enjoying some winter sunshine in an unfinished building at Kampos in Chorio.

Hermes, the messenger god, on a neo-classical  house on the Pedi road.  The same motif  decorates the facade of the dentist's surgery at the bottom of the Kateraktis in the harbour.

 At last the earth is soft enough to plough. This field is near the bottom of the Pedi valley, where the slopes become gentler and the terraces shallower.  This will probably be planted with barley or mixed grasses for grazing.

Pallas Athena in full make up, showing off her best profile to the world.

Oranges ripening beneath a wintry sky in an orchard behind St George's church in Pedi.

New lambs and fat cats in Pedi.

Today's photographs from Symi are for those of you who are already tired of looking at Christmas baubles and listening to festive jingles.  Take time out to enjoy a quiet interlude with no tinsel in sight!

The on-going shipping strike has turned the islands into a Christmas-free zone at the moment as we can't make shopping trips to Rhodes spend-spend-spend and there is no post or anything much else arriving on the islands either apart from a few crates of fresh produce on the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran.  There's little danger of going madly over budget in the shops on Symi these days.  Most of those selling non-essentials have closed for the winter and those that are open don't have much stock beyond the usual necessities.  I won't mention  names but I did see someone climbing out of an inflatable boat with shopping bags and a bumper pack of toilet rolls in Yialos this morning. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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