Sizzling Symi

Yialos and Harani, Monday 8 a.m.

Yialos and Harani, Tuesday 8 a.m. As the heat haze builds, the monastery over on Nimos is fading away.

Monday morning in Yialos.  The Pentecost bank holiday long weekend but very few boats in comparison to previous years.

The Customs House is nearing completion. The office furniture and fittings for the duty free shop arrived on Friday and are now inside.

The view from the balcony at Symi Visitor Accommodation just after 11 this morning.  Symi is very quiet for the third week in June and all the businesses are down on last year, which was down on the previous year and so on.  Even the excursion boats don't seem to have many people on them so Rhodes must be quiet too.

As Symi's shoreline is mostly steep cliffs very little level land is wasted and in the harbour the buildings are tightly packed. There was never a tradition for horse-drawn vehicles here on Symi so the lanes are very narrow in places.  The balcony on this building almost overlaps the awning of the greengrocer opposite.  Note the washing line - no one is coy about hanging their washing out  in the street here and sunshine is free.

We may all be flagging in the on going heatwave but the grape vines are going mad. This one on the Kali Strata is heading up the electricity lines.

Free range hens taking advantage of a leaky water pipe in Lieni.

The heatwave rolls on and Symi continues to sizzle in the 40s.  The rocks are soaking up the heat, turning Symi into a giant storage heater and it was over 30 degrees at midnight last night.  Extreme heat conditions are normal in July but rarely start this early, in the third week of June, so it is going to be a very long hot summer for the Symiots. The air is thick with haze and visibility is dropping by the day, as you can see from the first two photographs, taken 24 hours apart.

Anyone with any sense is under an umbrella on the beach or lingering in the air conditioning at the bank or supermarket.  Now that we have air conditioning in the office we have noticed that those who pop in to say 'hello' show a marked reluctance to leave again - and who can blame them?

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Hot Round the Clock

 A procession of gulets leaving Yialos and heading back to Datca through the Nimos channel, early on Wednesday morning.

A welcome sight - the watership in Yialos this morning.

When the larger cruise ships come in, they lie off shore and ferry the guests to and fro in the these bright orange life boats.

The upper reaches of the Kali Strata, heading towards the square in Chorio.

It is traditional to sit outside ones house of an evening and watch the passing parade.  Apart from providing an opportunity it catch up on the gossip, it is also considerably cooler than indoors. Air conditioning is still a luxury in most homes here.

An impromptu gate made out of old pallets.  The countryside is drying out fast now.

Cats and cars - getting dustier by the day.  As very few houses on the island have vehicle access and Symi is notoriously short of water car washing is a luxury rather than something routinely done with a bucket, sponge and hosepipe on a Saturday afternoon.

Tomatoes ripening on the Kali Strata.

Mother love on a scooter outside the dentist on the Kataraktis.

The searing temperatures and low humidity of summer strip the trees of their leaves long before autumn comes whistling through the trees in November.

Golden grasses, so dry that they shatter at the touch.

Temperatures continue to rise and Symi is hot round the clock.  July is always the hottest month on Symi. The days are long, the humidity is very low and the rocks just soak up the heat from 6 in the morning until sunset at around half past 8 in the evening, with the result that temperatures are still in the thirties at midnight.  In the big cities like Athens the municipality opens up air conditioned public buildings for people to cool off in.  Here in Symi you will find crowds building up inside Taxas supermarket, mainly in the vicinity of the fruit and vegetable display chillers.  As our air conditioner in the office failed to make it through the winter and all the big fan does is paddle the hot air around we tend to hang out in the supermarket too.  We have pleaded and cajoled with every air con man on the island but they all seem to be up to their eyes in emergency call outs for hotels or have gone fishing.  No doubt it will be repaired come September, when the pressure is off.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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From the Kali Strata, Symi to the Datca Street Market in Turkey

An imposing door to a neglected mansion on the Kali Strata.

The municipal whitewashing marathon is now working its way down the Kali Stata. This is the section from the view corner up to the square with its tavernas and kafeneions.  The Symi Dream shop and the Olive Tree are on this stretch.

A municipal employee weeding and sweeping the Kali Strata in anticipation of the painter who is working his way down from the top.  No rogue lettuce or stray dandelions will stand a chance.

Cartoon carpets airing on the Kali Strata.

The new organic ethnic food shop that has opened in Yialos, near our Symi Visitor Accommodation office.

A butcher's shop in Datca, Turkey.  No one in Turkey is squeamish about window displays in this part of the world and butchers in both Greece and Turkey have no problems with displaying carcasses in the window or in the display cases.  The red colour of the sausages comes from generous quantities of sweet paprika and tomato.

The fresh produce market in Datca.  Shopping bags on wheels are standard kit for street market shoppers, whether in Datca or at the Laiki (popular street markets) in Rhodes and Athens.

Another view of the street market in Datca.  As the rainfall is higher there, they are able to grow all sorts of things in their sheltered valleys.  You can find anything you want as long as it is locally grown and in season.

Bling and some rather formidable foundation garments on the right.

Time for the shop assistants to take a tea break before packing up at the end of the day.

I went to Datca, Turkey,  for the weekend to help friends bring their boat back.  We had a little time in the street market on Saturday afternoon before it was all packed away.  This market goes all round the region and is set up in the back lanes of Datca town every Saturday.  It sells everything from fresh produce and artisanal cheeses to designer knock-offs, jolly plastic housewares and agricultural implements. There is even a fellow who fixes new handles on saucepans and hoses on vacuum cleaners.  Although there is no longer an official weekly excursion to Datca from Symi as the legislation became too onerous and expensive, there is none the less still a lot of traffic between the two ports.  It was interesting to observe that a lot of the larger and more glamourous boats that we see coming into Symi, flying the US flag and registered in Wilmington, Delaware, are actually Turkish owned and this is simply a flag of convenience.

On Sunday morning a succession of fat rain clouds drifted across Datca and poured rain upon us.  We had quite a bumpy trip back across in the early afternoon in a brisk south-westerly wind and big thunderclouds hovered, growling purple over the Turkish coast. Symi remained determinedly dry and only had the benefit of the special effects.  According to the long range forecast, however, there is the possibility of more thunderstorms and squally weather later this week so we may yet have another downpour like the showers we enjoyed last week.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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