Life on Symi in August

Life imitating art?

No, this isn't the result of a sudden downpour.  At this time of the year the municipality hoses down the lanes first thing in the morning to get rid of the dust.  

There is a new ice factory on Symi, just down our lane.  Yachtsmen, you can drop off your washing at the Sunflower, pick up your cakes at the patisserie, get your shopping delivered from the supermarket and collect ice on the way back.  And that is not forgetting the chandler immediately opposite our office door.  Everything you need, all within a few metres of each other.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony this week.

Fresh fish, locally caught.

It was very humid on Wednesday, hence this very hazy view of the Blue Star Paros.

If you are looking for the Chorio museum having got off the bus at the Lavinia/Lieni stop, you will approach the museum from the side.  It is the white building on the right of the lane in this photograph and the entrance is around the corner, diagonally opposite the rather splendid red house you can glimpse in the distance.

The dividing line between town and country is very blurred io Symi and it is not unusual to see goats, sheep and chickens wandering around the lanes, looking for a snack. Remember to keep your courtyard door closed to avoid unwanted visitors nibbling the geraniums!

Weathered wood in Chorio.

I wonder how long that tin bath has been there.

Roof repairs to the Agios Eleftherias church at Kampos in Chorio. This church is unusual in that it has twin bell towers integral to the building.

Chorio colours

Morning glory flourishes in the present high humidity.

Cat nap.

The clock tower and police station in Yialos. The Schengen clearing zone is at the base of the clock tower and all yachts coming in from outside the EU have to stop there first to complete immigration formalities and customs procedures.

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August Postcards from Symi

Wild capers are among the very few plants that can withstand the searing heat  and drought  f a Symi summer.  

Sunrise over Asia Minor as seen from the top of the Pedi valley. Up until a century ago, those hills were farmed by Greek families and the produce brought across to Symi for milling and marketing.  Now those hills and mountains are Turkish but old abandoned Greek settlements can still be seen if you know where to look, particularly around Fethiye.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office earlier this week, the trusty Cypriot Salamis Filoxenia.

The Pedi valley was once the island's agricultural heartland.  Now native trees such as kermes oaks are reclaiming the land and slowly turning much of it back to woodland.

Hidden high up in one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Chorio you will find theSymi Archaeological Museum.  Recently refurbished, the main part of the museum is now open every day except Mondays, from 10-2.  Apparently the adjoining Hellenistic Antiquities Museum and Hatziagapitos House will be open to the public from the end of August.  Admittance is free.

The view from the terrace of the museum, looking across to the Kastro (Acropolis).  Originally the most densely populated part of Chorio, much of this neighbourhood was destroyed when the castle was blown up by the retreating Germans during the Second World War.  You can see parts of the old fortifications in the photograph.

Grapes ripening in the museum grounds.  As it is the old Farmakides mansion there are grape vines and citrus trees in the walled garden.

The lanes of Chorio old town are narrow, designed to confuse pirates and slow down any marauders.  Symi has no tradition of wheeled traffic - the terrain is too steep for that - so the only alternative to walking was donkeys.

Brilliant bougainvillea and plumbago light up an old stone wall near the museum.

Grapes don't need much attention.  This house has been deserted ever since I can remember but look at those trusses of sweet fruit!  In the days before sponges, Symi, like Samos, used to produce a sweet muscadel-type wine.

Every so often the lanes open out into a wider space, letting air into the labyrinth and providing an area for people to sit out with their friends and family from adjoining houses on hot summer evenings.

Snapped on my walk to work this morning, this truckload of hay rattled past me just after the Blue Star docked.

Donkeys, mules and ponies are still an essential part of life on Symi, particularly for the building industry as very few properties on the island have close vehicle access.  You can see a couple of foals in this photograph. They accompany the older animals, learning the routes up and down the Kali Strata and around the lanes and alleys of Chorio.  They aren't given anything to carry until they are much older and stronger.

Steps, balconies and stones polished by centuries of feet.

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From Yialos to the Heights of Chorio

Yialos, Symi's famous natural amphitheatre harbour is lined with tiers of beautiful 19th century neo-classical houses.  Most have now been restored by private owners.  These houses were built during the island's most prosperous period, in the late 19th century, when sponge diving and ship building brought wealth to the island and there were estimated to be around 20 000 inhabitants.  

Symi's old town is Chorio, the upper town.  Although the first settlement on the island, back in Homeric times, was believed to be at Nimborio, a bay where the flat-bottomed boats of the time could be dragged up the beaches to safety in the winter, the inhabitants of Symi soon sought out the defensibility of the high ground and the main settlement was formed around the Kastro where the castle was subsequently built.  The white building with the green doors at the end of the lane in this photograph is the museum which has been undergoing renovation and restoration courtesy of an EU grant for a number of years.  Now all we need is funding to pay staff to keep it open so that visitors can enjoy the  many artifacts housed there.  By the way, the museum building was donated to the town by the Farmakides family and was apparently the Austro-Hungarian embassy on Symi in the nineteenth century.  That gives you an idea of just how important Symi was then.  There is a story that the popular Austrian Empress, Sissi, was entertained there on her travels in the Aegean. The terracotta building on the right is a privately owned village house that was restored with great care a few years ago.

Much of the old town was damaged when the castle blew up in the Second World War, leaving behind some intriguing ruins. There are many such tunnels as on such steep terrain level ground for building was in short supply and houses often straddled the narrow lanes.

Bathrooms are a recent innovation and as Symi houses are small they are built wherever space can be found, which may not necessarily be indoors. In the case of this house, they have gone one further and built it in their garden across the lane.  It is not very clear in this photograph but this bathroom was built with a shallow brick cistern on the roof.  Water could be pumped up to this, providing gravity feed for a shower below so no electricity was needed to shower.  If you stand in a basin when you shower the water can then be used to flush the lavatory.  Symi doesn't have a proper sewage treatment plant and most houses still have vothras - basic stone soak pits, not unlike septic tanks but built out of unplastered stone so that the liquid can seep away and feed nearby trees. This is one of the reasons why one never ever puts paper - or anything else - down a Symi loo - the paper blocks up the spaces between the stones and prevents the drainage essential for the vothra to function, causing problems you don't even want to think about here!

Scaffolding around the bell tower of Agios Thanassis, one of the many parish churches in upper Chorio.

This old shop in the top of Chorio has always intrigued me with its carved lintel and enigmatic carved faces.  Whatever it was, it must have been quite posh for so much expense to have gone into the  dressed stone facade.

The approach to Stavros church, another one of the upper Chorio churches. This was once one of the busiest neighbourhoods of the old town and there are the remnants of many old shops and cafes up there.  There was even a tannery and a dairy.

Looking across from Stavros church towards the Kastro.  If you look carefully you can see the bulges of remnants of the old castle walls. This neighbourhood is about 10 minutes walk in any direction to the nearest vehicle access so very quiet - if you exclude all the bells!

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