March Postcards from Symi

Fishing boats at the head of the harbour.  The water taxi boats leave from this area during the season.  Our Symi Visitor Accommodation office is in the small ochre double storey with the terracotta pediment, partially hidden by the tall palm in the middle of the photograph. There are also several popular cafes along this stretch, ranging from the traditional to the trendy, to suit all tastes and budgets.

It is traditional in Greece to exchange elaborately decorated candles as gifts for Easter.  A spin off of the church processional candles, these are far to fancy - and flammable - to light.  They are decorated with small toys, flowers, dolls, emblems and motifs.  Some shops even sell them in novelty shapes including candles moulded to look like rolled up gyros, the popular Greek street food!

Dino, the chandler opposite the entrance to the Symi Visitor Accommodation office, busy painting his cupboards.

More painting and cleaning going on around the corner.  The retro purple and orange is a herb shop.  Most places aim to be open by Greek Easter, which is next weekend.  Many that are specifically dependent on foreign tourists don't open up until June or July these days as Symi doesn't have as many visitors in April and May as it did 10-15 years ago.

Hooray!  The ice cream fridges have arrived!

We don't see many early season yachts these days either.

Last minute preparations at the war memorial before the 25 March Independence Day parade on Sunday. The next parade day on Symi is 8 May for VE Day.

A brave poppy perched on the rubble left by 13 November 2017's devastating floods.  This is in the Pedi valley.

Outside the clinic in Chorio.

The dust cloud is still with us.  Apparently up in the north, in Romania, Bulgaria and Russia's Black Sea coast, they have been experiencing pink snow as the Saharan cloud mingles with the snow.  Down here we just see dust and red rain and very poor visibility.  There have been some flight disruptions this past week, particularly in Crete which was very badly affected by the dust and gale force winds. There are lots of amazing orange photos out there in social media.

Organic verge trimming on the Kali Strata.

A designer cat, waiting for the Krysallis boutique to reopen.

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Spring Cleaning for Easter

The butterflies are back!

Eyes closed against the sun.

Down in the valley.

Free range feasting.

In the frame.  The water taxis and excursion boats are still out in the boatyard.  They won't be back until May.

Getting ready for the season.

The International at the back of Yialos is one of the very few tavernas that still stays open all year round.  

Nature adds her own embellishments.

March is galloping past and Easter will soon be upon us.  The skies are blue and bright.  There are few rain clouds looming on the long range forecast. Temperatures are creeping into the mid twenties and people who brought duvets in to the Sunflower for washing don't seem to be in much of a hurry to reclaim them.

Business owners are wrestling open doors swollen from winter rains and drawing up job lists.  There is the hum of electric sanders in the air and the hardware stores are busy.  Winter woollies are making way for paint-spattered overalls.  The tourist season proper does not start until the end of May these days but there is plenty to be done for Greek Easter.  People often come back to their families in the islands for the holidays as Greek Easter is traditionally celebrated as a family holiday.

The supermarkets are laying in supplies of flour, cheese, oil, yeast, sugar and dye for the traditional Easter baking marathon.  There's a bit of a price war going on in the flour department as Italian 00 flour has made an appearance on Symi at very reasonable prices.  The dye is, of course, for the hard-boiled eggs that are shared on Easter Sunday.  While Britain is awash with hot cross buns and chocolate bunnies - they were already appearing in the shops when I left in early January - here in Greece, particularly in the islands, everything is appropriate to its season. 

Elaborately decorated processional candles, traditional foods and the ingredients to prepare them only start to appear in the shops during Lent.  The air of anticipation is palpable because it really is something to look forward to.  The culture of treat yourself everyday hasn't filtered through here yet so there is always something joyful on the horizon.  If you are fed up with the commercialisation of Easter and other religious holidays, come and celebrate in Greece instead.  You will really feel that there is something special happening.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Suddenly It's Summer

The view from above - looking from the bend in the Kali Strata, across to the clock tower in Yialos and Harani.  Note the large sailing yacht moored stern-to on the quay.  There are lots more yachts coming in every day.

The best dolmades are made with tender young vine leaves, picked before they wilt in the heat of the day.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office at 9 this morning.  There was a lot more yachting activity in the harbour than we have seen in a long time.

A few hours later these appeared - hence the increase in the number of bikes parked on the pavement on our side of the road. We observe this little ritual every year as the municipality tries to implement parking restrictions. As we don't actually have traffic wardens it is something of a futile gesture. Last year the chap had barely finished when someone parked a truck on top of them.  I wonder how long they will survive this year...

Today is the first day of Big Week, the run up to Greek Easter, a week of solemn fasting, family get togethers and the beginning of the tourist season.  As Greek Easter is so late this year and the 1 May holiday coincides with Easter Sunday, both Monday and Tuesday next week are bank holidays in Greece. This means that the banks and many other offices will be closed from Friday 28 April, reopening on Wednesday 4 May. The schools are closed for 2 weeks, the weather is fine and sunny and there is a definite holiday buzz in the air.

More places are opening up every day.  Hatzipetros supermarket opposite Symi Flower and the Cultural Centre in Yialos has reopened in its beautiful newly renovated premises, complete with polished stone floors and gleaming new fridges and fittings.  The staff were busy, unpacking boxes when I went past this morning.  Most shops on Symi are small family businesses, not part of big chains, so each shop is unique and the staff are usually family members, making for a friendly shopping experience, all part of the reason why so many people come back to Symi for their holidays year after year.

If  you are on Symi over the next couple of weeks, don't miss the Soy Cuba exhibition at the Symi Cultural Centre from 25 April until 9 May.

As part of the exhibition there is also a free film show, Chico and Rita, on at the same venue tomorrow evening, 26 April.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Happy Easter to Our Western Friends

Wednesday's southerly gales left us choking in a cloud of Saharan sand when the wind stopped. This was Pedi bay on Thursday morning.

Nimos lost in the haze.  The Navy came in to shelter from Wednesday's storm and were still tied up alongside on Thursday morning.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office balcony on Thursday  morning. A municipal employee was riding slowly around the harbour, hoisting bunting from a cherry picker for Friday's parade.

Friday morning and Nimos is back!

A relic of Clean Monday a fortnight ago - the mangled remains of a kite, wrapped around a power line in Chorio.  All the power and telephone cables on Symi are above ground which is why they are very vulnerable in stormy weather and lightning damage is common in the winter.

The poultry man has arrived, selling chicks and ducklings.  He was feeding his chirruping family when I walked past this morning.  People don't keep poultry as pets here - they are an economic necessity, keeping families in eggs and meat through the year, and in these days of austerity many more Symiots are returning to their agrarian past, keeping livestock and growing produce in gardens and family plots in the Pedi valley and other sheltered areas on the island.

There aren't quite as many family donkeys as there used to be but these two still see regular service.  Cheaper to maintain than an SUV and they give you manure for the vegetable garden. 

I never did manage to work out what this cat was watching so intently on the Kali Strata.  It was perched on a very precarious flat stone at the top of the wall, staring up at the building behiind, and evidently deaf as is so often the case with white cats as it did not move at all when I went passed.

The poppies are back.

Spring greenery in the Pedi Valley.

It has been a wild week with a south-easterly Force 9 gale on Wednesday that is still disrupting shipping 3 days later as the Blue Star still hasn't caught up with itself after only being able to leave Rhodes at 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening, without stopping at Symi and about 6 hours later than scheduled so the Thursday/Friday schedule was also knocked out, resulting in the Friday night 7 p.m. from Rhodes only actually passing through Symi in the early hours of this morning.

At one stage on Wednesday Rhodes airport was actually closed as conditions were so bad that planes could not land safely and flights diverted to Dalaman (which was also having problems) and Antalya or returning to Athens - an exciting start for the first charter flights coming into Rhodes for 2016.  The wind brought with it a great dust cloud from North Africa, a common occurrence at this time of the year, hence the photographs at the top of this blog.  Luckily the anticipated rain passed to the north of us as when it rains in these conditions it is the dreaded Red Rain (Blood Rain if you are Sicilian) that covers everything in a crust of fine red dust which is very difficult to remove. The wind has now switched to the north, bringing clear skies and a fall in temperatures once again, a reminder that it is still winter in Russia and the Ukraine.

If you follow our Facebook page and Twitter feed you will have seen photographs of the braziers around the harbour and up to Evangelismos church on Thursday night, heralding the eve of the Annunciation. Fridays parade went off without a hitch and, despite the forecasts, was neither too windy nor wet.  That's it for our month of long weekends and it is time to knuckle down to some serious fasting as Greek Easter does not arrive 1 May so there are no more distractions and frivolities.  April will be a month of preparations for the forthcoming summer tourist season.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Month of Holidays and Celebrations

Symi's war memorial is just to the left of the tall white flight of steps.  You can see the flags are up, ready for Monday's Dodecanese Day commemoration and wreath-laying ceremony.

Cheerful bunting on a grey day.  It will stay up until after the Independence Day celebrations on 25 March.

Oranges  in a garden on the Kali Strata.

The oak tree in Lieni, Chorio, is unfurling for a new year.

Breakfast on the hoof in a car park in Chorio.

Clean Monday falls on 14 March this year.  This marks the beginning of Lent in Greece and is celebrated with the flying of kites.  I have never found a satisfactory explanation for why kites are flown on this particular day. As it is pretty much a one-off thing, the kites are simple light-weight constructions made of thin plastic, not unlike supermarket shopping bag plastic and seldom survive longer than a day's use, depending on wind strength.  Football club colours are popular.  Kampos supermarket in Chorio is ahead of the game - I spotted these outside their shop in Chorio on Thursday this week.

This season's 'must have' plastic tablecloth design has pomegranates on it.  I think I might treat myself to a couple of metres to cheer up my kitchen.

An extremely narrow lane in Chorio.  Regulars to the island may be able to identify where it is.  

Bright blue among the ruins. The contraption on the left foreground is an electric winch, presumably used to hoist building materials when the upper floor of the house just off the picture was being finished as the family was already in residence below.

Random colours in Chorio.  

Co-ordinated catwalk.

We have had a few brief thundershowers over the past 48 hours, including a short sharp hailstorm this morning that only lasted about 5 minutes, if that.   There still hasn't been enough rain to make a difference to the island's water supply, unfortunately, and the long range forecast doesn't hold much promise that this will improve.  Looking on the bright side, it seems unlikely that it is going to rain on anybody's parade this month.

Monday, as I have mentioned previously, is Dodecanese Day, a holiday celebrated only in the Dodecanese. The bunting is up around the harbour and now that the rain  has cleared there are dozens of happy, squealing children, practicing their marching skills for the parade on Monday.  Yesterday was Tsiknopempti - Smokey Thursday. This marks the start of the carnival season with lots of grilled meat.  The evening showers held off until the BBQs were over so no one had soggy souvlaki.  Usually the carnival festivities fall in February but Greek Easter is quite late this year, falling at the beginning of May, so March is full of holidays and celebrations. The supermarkets are starting to get in more stock, much of it traditional seasonal fare for the forthcoming holidays such as that staple fasting food - sesame halvah in a wide range of flavours, including a version that is coated with dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has always been called health chocolate here. What with that and the pomegranates, the Greeks have always been ahead of the game when it comes to superfoods!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Bright Week

Easter Monday and these are the lucky ones!  Mum and two lambs on the wasteland near the new undercover sports facility.

Snow on the distant mountains of Turkey - this is why the wind is still so cold.

A cold and windy Easter Saturday morning.  In the summer these cafes and bars off the square in Chorio are very popular, particularly in the evenings before dinner in the nearby tavernas.  In April, however, it is still too cold to be sitting out there and there is not much activity in the evenings.

One of the lanes leading into the oldest parts of Chorio, the upper village.  In some areas there are lots of arches as houses straddled the lanes to save space.

A Chorio cat, proudly modelling her new pink collar.

The area referred to as Pitini, as seen from outside the Symi Visitor Accommodation office in Yialos.  Pitini stretches from the water front up to the windmills at the top of the hill.

Colourful fishing boats in Yialos.

The Michalaki, Costas Valsami's bronze statue of the little Symi fisherboy.

Windy skies over Yialos.  The cafes are taking down their plastic weather tents and the tourist shops are starting to unpack their wares.  The Symi Visitor Accommodation office upstairs is in the small building just behind the larger of the two palm trees but our entrance is actually from the lane in the middle of the picture as our building runs behind Pachos, the yellow three storey building with the green shutters.

Spring daisies on a windowsill in Yialos.

Symi's Easter celebrations passed off well with no accidents and a great deal of enjoyment for all concerned.  The dancing in the town square last night and the firework display were particularly well received and the town square was packed.  There was a hung-over silence lingering over the island this morning that only started to lift about an hour ago!  It is a bank holiday today so the banks, post office and many other businesses are closed but the grocers, bakeries and wine shops are open. Today is Bright Monday - the start of what is supposed to be a week of feasting. Any name days that fell during the Lenten fast are celebrated this week.

After bitterly cold weather with gale force winds and shipping bans on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday was bright and the wind dropped enough for it to be pleasant out of doors.  This week should see the first really mild temperatures on the up side of 20 degrees centigrade and perhaps we will finally have a full week without any ferry disruptions so the things people need from Rhodes to prepare their businesses for the season can arrive.  Outdoor furniture, umbrellas and awnings, new mattresses and cushions, bamboo for pergolas, domestic appliances, building materials and all sorts of other essentials have to come over on the ferry, so when it fails to make it, as happened on Friday, projects are held up until the boat eventually arrives.  It is not unusual for part of an order to arrive on one boat and then the rest to arrive several days later on another if the person responsible for putting it on the ferry in Rhodes has gone off to do something else in the meantime or if two different suppliers are involved.  Sometimes things get sent to one of the couriers.  Sometimes you have to collect them from the boat yourself.  Sometimes the stockist forgets to tell you he has put it on the boat and your parcel goes to Kos, Patmos or Piraeus and you have to wait for it to pass through Symi again and grab it. In the spring one may be stopped by someone in the street, asking if one knows so-and-so because there is a package sitting in some unexpected corner with that name on it.  It all gets sorted out in the end but visitors unfamiliar with island ways are sometimes baffled at how long it can take for a seemingly simple thing like a sun lounger or an umbrella to appear.  Forget 24 hour deliveries!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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