Season's Greetings and See You on Symi in 2018

It doesn't take much to make the Stanni patisserie next door to the Symi Visitor Accommodation office look festive.

A festive glimpse through the door of the butchery.

The Symi Flower shop is always a cheerful sight.

This is how fuel arrives for the petrol station in Yialos. Tankers roll off and drive round to the fuel station to fill the bunkers.

Oranges and lemons for sale in the square in Yialos.  Most Symiots have lemon trees somewhere but Symi oranges tend to be extremely bitter and are only suitable for marmalade or glykos.  Oranges for squeezing or eating come from Rhodes or Kalymnos.

Fresh fish for sale, straight from the boat. The cats are optimistic.

Down in the Pedi Valley.  The  bare brown bits are where water washed through in the storm.

This will be my last blog for 2017 as I am going to England to visit family and friends for the festive season.  Leaving Symi is often a fraught business in the winter. This time I will be missing a 24 hour shipping strike by a mere 24 nail-biting hours!  The 5.50 a.m. departure on the Blue Star is not an attractive prospect either!  In the winter the Blue Star serving Symi fits in a quick trip down to Karpathos and back on a Wednesday so instead of the extremely civilised 8.15 departure from Symi that we enjoy in the summer, in the winter we have to be down in the harbour in the dark at 5.30 a.m.  Fortunately the weather forecast is good so there are no gales to worry about and it won't be raining.

Christmas is only a fortnight away and a few more decorations are putting in an appearance. There still isn't much in the shops - the main holiday supplies will arrive on the big boat on the Friday before Christmas.  Anyone with premature Christmas cravings has to take the Blue Star to Rhodes on Wednesday or Friday to buy goodies at Lidl!  No Aldi in Greece - they pulled out early in the economic crisis - but Lidl and Praktiker are stalwarts, particularly in these times of austerity. The other great source of Christmas bling is Jumbo, a huge jolly junk Greek chain store out in the middle of the island and thus only accessible by car or taxi.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

See you in January!

Regards,
Adriana

Read more...

December Postcards from Symi

Christmas continues to creep into corners of Chorio.

Some of the lanes in Chorio are so narrow, they are only just wide enough to permit people to pass single file.

A Christmas star on the square in Chorio. If the yellow binding holding the flag staff looks vaguely familiar, it is - it is a dressmaker's tape measure!

An alternative use for old refrigerator shelves.

No individually cling-wrapped bananas in Greece. Fresh produce is sold from returnable crates.  Customers choose the items they want which are then weighed and put into either plastic or paper bags. The brown paper bags are on the increase, particularly up in Chorio. Every few weeks all the empty crates go on a truck back to Rhodes to the produce market.

Those parts of the Pedi valley that escaped storm damage are looking very pretty and green after the rain.

Some inflatable 'Yo Ho Ho' outside the dress shop in Chorio.

Down in the harbour the clean up continues.  Pachos is still closed.  Now that they have finished the cleaning and painting and fixing up of damaged equipment, the tedious job of washing mud off individual bottles and cans has begun.  Similar scenes are to be seen all round Yialos.  Dino, the chandler opposite our office entrance, has been meticulously washing mud off tools, shackles and other items of stock since the day after the deluge.  Other businesses, such as the  pharmacy by the bridge and some of the boutiques, were not so lucky in that their stock was irreparably damaged by the muddy water.

The mud is still with us, unfortunately. This is the scene outside the customs shed this morning.

The water is slowly clearing and these locals decided to have a go at raising one of the many sunken small boats. They have rigged a basic winch to the roof of the fish market.

The suspended particles have turned the water in Yialos an interesting teal colour.  About 10 minutes after I took this photograph that dark cloud came over the hill and rained briefly over the town before moving on.

Municipal workers putting up Christmas lights in Yialos.

Success!  Now to scoop out the rest of the water.

Replacing broken pipes in the square in Yialos.

Mud aside, the square looks strangely naked as so much of the vegetation was lost in the storm.

In this photograph from the Symi Visitor balcony you can see some of the damage to the motor road out of the town, as well as some of the wrecked cars that have been dumped up there until their final destination is decided.  Don't stand too close to the edge!

Read more...

Christmas, Cabbages and Conifers

An early sign of Christmas on a shop in Chorio. So far everyone in the harbour has been too busy with the mud to worry much about putting up decorations but in the parts of Chorio that escaped unscathed, there are few tentative tokens of festive cheer.

The kiosk at the Kampos bus stop is also feeling festive.

Look at the size of those cabbages from Kalymnos!

Not much happening in Yialos this week.

The bridge survived surprisingly unscathed considering the thousands of tons of rocks, cars and rubble that rammed into it.  The figures in red just visible on the far side of the bridge, near the fish market, are electricians replacing the lights on the bridge which were smashed. The water is still muddy as there is still mud draining away from the square and the back of the harbour.

Yialos square this week.  Until the last of this red mud washes away, the water at the head of the harbour will remain muddy.  To the right of the digger, and the no entry sign there is a brown pile of what look like turfs. This is actually the synthetic surface for the children's playground. This has all had to be lifted as the playground was buried under mud.

Away from the mud zone, on the lower steps of the Kali Strata, the Virginia creeper lights up the stone steps.

One day someone will doubtless come along and hack away the creeper to restore the abandoned building behind it but in the meantime let us enjoy its luminous beauty.

Empty seas and startling contrasts.  My humble camera cannot cope with such extremes of light and shade.

Thomas, the patriarch skip cat on my corner, sunning himself with Chorio in the background.

Chorio in the sun, Nimborio in the shade.  You can see the scars of new wash-aways and water courses on the steep cliffs that form the northern shore of Nimborio bay.

You are looking at the roots of a large cypress tree in what was a terrace at the top of my property.  We didn't have any cypress trees, either vertical or horizontal, before 13 November.  This tree washed at least 100 metres down the Agia Marina river from the cemetery or even further up the hill.  The stones that tumbled down with it stripped the bark off the trunk, leaving the wood exposed.  An extreme delivery of winter firewood!

The rest of the tree.  It neatly rammed between two Kermes oaks, destroying old stone walls and an old shepherd's croft in the process.   Those little colourful bits of red and blue are the remains of plastic flowers from the cemetery. There is a trail of them all the way down into the valley.

Read more...

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

Read more...

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

Read more...