Last Minute Offers and Favourite Views

Climate change has had a big impact on Symi's trees and many well-established deciduous trees have died in recent years from the stresses of increasingly long hot dry summers with too many days in the 40s and much shorter winters.  This 35 year old almond tree, one of the last left in my garden, is weeping resin all over the bark, an ominous sign.

I never tire of this view.  

Thomas and friends, the bin cats on my corner.  As very few places on Symi have vehicle access, instead of rubbish collections from the houses there are skips at strategic points along the way.  Everyone takes their rubbish to the nearest bins  when they go out and the bins are emptied daily all year round with extra collections in the summer.  At the moment there is no viable recycling system so all rubbish is taken to a lined dump up on the top of the mountain, above Nanou bay.  Not ideal but still more efficient than the refuse collection systems in many other parts of the world.  As long as you remember to take the rubbish out with you when you go, there is no need to have smelly bins in the house and the plagues of insects that are inevitable in a hot climate.

Symi chic.  This bike has featured on my blog before, when it was sporting a Burberry print plastic table cloth.  Now it is wearing a coffee motif.  The original black vinyl upholstery will have long since cracked up and disintegrated in the Mediterranean sun.

Virginia creeper turns this old building at the bottom of the Kali Strata into something mysterious.  Who knows what lurks behind that boarded up balcony?

Another one of my favourite views, this time taken at sunset by Dawn Sproson.

September is drawing to a close but we are still surprisingly busy with new arrivals this week including many walkers.  The weather is still mild with midday temperatures in the high twenties and pleasantly cool evenings.  The long range weather forecast teases us with rumours of rain which always seems to pass us by.  The waterfront bars and cafes have not yet rigged their plastic tents - that will happen later, in October.  It is still warm enough to sit outside in the evenings with a shawl or sweatshirt if there is a breeze.

The ferry schedules have changed as Dodecanese Seaways is no longer operating its Samos service and have simplified their schedule to give the crews a break.  Remember, if Dodecanese Seaways does not suit your itinerary, you can always try Sea Dreams and the Blue Star.

We still have some last minute availability for various houses from 7 October so if you are wanting to enjoy some late Symi sunshine, please email us. We have some great properties at discounted prices.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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September Symi Sunshine

The view from Symi Visitor Accommodation this morning.  The harbour is much quieter with fewer boats now that the Turkish holidays are over.

What the best-dressed yachts are wearing this year - a pink inflatable flamingo!

It takes a long time for the sun to reach the Kali Strata in the morning.  Only 10 days or so to the equinox.

Hello!

The squills are back.  They are the first sign of the approaching rainy season, punching up through the hard-baked earth.  The leaves follow much later. The bulbs are like gigantic onions and are traditionally tied to the front door for good luck at New Year.

Castle walls.

The morning sun reaches Pedi quite late too.

Sunset over the windmills of Chorio.

And on Pedi bay.

The floating crane has gone, revealing the current state of the new commercial harbour.  The streetlights are already up and it looks as though there isn't much left to do before it becomes functional.  The idea is that the big car ferries like the Blue Star will dock here instead of the clock tower, reducing the amount of heavy traffic around the harbour.

Monday morning rush hour on the Kali Strata.

It looks as though this grape vine  near the high school has found a cistern or septic tank.

Spotted on the quay last week. This one is registered in Malta.

The children are back in school. The French, Italians and Turks have gone home.  September is the month for couples who can chose their holiday times and don't have to worry about school terms, either because their children are very young or because they have long since flown the nest.  It is a popular month for British and northern Europeans.  It is also a popular month for weddings on Symi - our congratulations to Neil Gosling and James Collins of Symi Dream who celebrated their civil partnership on Friday and to Mike and Sarah Porretta who are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their wedding on Symi.

The weather is warm without the scorching temperatures that we experienced in late June, July and early August.  When it is still it is quite hazy and humid. When the breeze blows it is from the west and visibility clears for miles.  The sea is as warm as it is going to get and the weather remains fairly settled. The thunderstorms experienced in Spain and Italy at the moment seem to be tracking north as they reach the Adriatic, leaving the Aegean in sunshine.

Have a lovely week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Walking in the Valley

A privately owned solar farm in the Pedi valley.  The main use of solar power on Symi, as in many countries in the region, is in the form of solar water heaters but there are quite a lot of solar panels around once one starts looking out for them. The combination of ever increasing electricity prices and a steady reduction in the cost of solar power systems makes this an attractive proposition for rural dwellings.  Some years ago Symi municipality installed solar panels on the roofs of some of the island's reservoirs to provide power for streetlights.

Looking across the Pedi valley towards the Kastro, the oldest part of Chorio, from the path to Drakos, an early settlement on Symi that has had little archaeological attention, despite being about 2000 years old. One can see why that hill would have been an appealing site for the knights to build their castle. All that is left now are fragments of the castle walls and there is now a cluster of churches at the apex.

The path to old Drakos in the Pedi Valley - overgrown with thistles but reasonably easy to find as one follows the wall.

We were last here 10 years ago, when the wall was capped and the sign put up.  It doesn't look as though anyone has done anything to maintain it since then.  That is a small goat perched on the wall on the left, beyond the squill.

Symi has no shortage of mysterious old walls and terraces and in many cases little is known about who built them or why.  As you can see, this is an incredibly arid landscape with little soil to sustain agricultural activities.

This length of dry stone walling has collapsed along the path and the vegetation is taking over.

If you are on Symi now and are wondering why your eyes are itching and you are sneezing you may be allergic to tamarisk pollen.  Tamarisk trees have very fine wispy flowers and produce clouds of very fine pollen.

The Symi Flower shop is in autumn mode now - lettuce and brassica seedlings, onion and garlic sets and broad bean seeds have taken over from flowers and pot plants.  The rainy season can't be far away now and it is important to make the most of the crucial combination of warm days and water to get the vegetables started before the cold dark days of winter take over.  The rainy season runs roughly from October to March and is the main growing period in the Mediterranean basin.

The water taxis are busy, taking visitors and locals to the beaches.  With temperatures in the mid to high twenties and the sea still pleasantly warm, a day with friends on one of Symi's picturesque beaches is an important part of any Symi holiday.

Yialos in the early morning light.

Autumn is taking over from summer and the season is drawing to a close.  Temperatures are pleasantly mild - between 25 and 28 degrees during the day, falling to around 18 degrees in the evenings. The breeze has turned cooler and the humidity is gone.  The harvest moon has been replaced by clear star-spangled skies and visibility is infinite.

Many of the boutiques in the harbour have clearance sales now as they will be closing in a week or two.  If you want to buy designer beachwear with 50% discounts, now is the time.

The ferry schedule for October comes into effect at the end of the week. If you are planning on coming to Symi in October, it is a good idea to check Dodecanese Seaways and Blue Star Ferries when making your plans as overnight ferries from Rhodes to Symi come to an end after 1 October.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Playing Tourist on Rhodes

First rains - we woke up to a showery Tuesday with lots of thunderstorms hovering around but no serious downpours.  

On Wednesday I went to Rhodes for the day and played tourist in the Old Town.  This is the big mosque at the top of Socrates street, at the top end of the Old Town.

Looking down Socrates street towards the harbour. This is the main shopping street in the Old Town.  Rhodes Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and behind the tourist tat there are some amazing old buildings.

Like this one, for example.

And this old Ottoman coffee shop with its pebbled floors and bric a brac. This style of coffee shop with its high vaulted roof, straight-backed chairs and walls lined with memorabilia is found throughout the old Ottoman empire and could be anywhere from Cairo and Jerusalem to Damascus and Istanbul. The uniquely Rhodian feature is the pebble floor.

At the bottom, looking through a ruined church and an Old Town gate at a glimpse of the sea.

Some of the ruins in Rhodes Old Town are of archaeological interest.  Others are ancient ramshackle buildings in which people are eking out a living.  The side streets beyond the cruise ship visitors and tourist crowds reveal the realities of a frugal life with no funds to indulge in authentic restorations or gentrification.

Here is an example of what I mentioned above.  In the foreground is an archaeological excavation of a Byzantine church.  In the background is a lovingly restored 19th century town house.  In between there is someone, probably an elderly woman judging by the washing line, living in a partially ruined building.

The view from the balcony of room 303 at the Hermes hotel in Mandraki.

The Italian Art Deco fish market in the Nea Agora, Mandraki.

Guardians of the gold - spotted inside the Nea Agora, Mandraki

Tuesday's rainy day marked the start of autumn and although it was still hot walking around Rhodes on Wednesday, there is now a brisk north wind blowing and temperatures are firmly in the twenties.  Rhodes is busy, mainly with Russian package holiday tourists and cruise ship passengers.  Mandraki harbour, however, which used to be popular with the yachting fraternity, is empty with only a few locally owned motor boats in evidence and there were no megayachts berthed in Kolonna.

September on Symi is always the month for the island's many regular British, Scandinavian and German visitors and there are a lot of familiar faces around.  It is a good month for those who aren't tied to school holidays and want to avoid the heat of high summer.  We are still taking last minute bookings for late September and October so it looks as though this year Symi will be busier in October than it was in April and May. We have now also opened booking for 2017.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Golden September

Club Med 2 spent Thursday in Symi this week. As the boat was anchored off Nimborio instead of alongside and she was here for a full day with the guests coming ashore in small groups in those little white boats you can see in the stern the visit worked out very well. There wasn't the sense of the harbour being invaded by hundreds of people all at once and all the shops, cafes and tavernas benefited.

Turkish gulets in Yialos on Wednesday morning.

One of the few large yachts to visit this season, slipping out of Yialos very early on Wednesday morning.

Fishing boats below the Symi Visitor Accommodation office window.

Lemonitissa church looming over Yialos.  I sometimes try to imagine what the hilltop must have looked like when the knights built their castle up there.  All the buildings you can see in this photograph are relatively recent, built in the late 19th or early 20th century. At the time that the castle was built the population lived up in Chorio, huddled around the hilltop and up the lower slopes of the Vigla and at the top of the Kataraktis.  Many of the surviving really old houses up in that area have thick walls and relatively small windows, easy to defend against pirates and invaders.  The castle was already in disrepair when the retreating Germans blew up the last structures during the Second World War and all that is left are a few fragments of  the massive stone walls.

An autumnal view of the Pedi valley and Pedi bay.

September shadows.  I remember that little oak tree when it was just 2 twigs and a handful of leaves but then, I have been walking past it twice a day for 20 years! The curious shadow on the right is a chapel bell-tower.

The parental oak, a few metres further along the road.

Who is leaning on whom?

After an abnormally quiet season, September is bustling with activity and happy reunions as the island's September 'regulars' start to arrive. Symi has a very high return rate and many of the British and Scandinavian visitors who come to Symi in September and October have been visiting Symi since they first discovered the island as backpackers in the 1970s and 80s.  Friendships have been made among each other and also with the locals and there is many a Symiot with a foreign godparent. Symi is that sort of place.  No one remains a stranger for long.

The weather remains warm with day time temperatures in the 30s falling to the low to mid twenties at night.  There is the possibility of thunderstorms early on Monday morning and strong westerly winds next week.  It is time to start keeping an eye on the weather forecast as the equinox is only 3 weeks away.

Speaking of nostalgia, some of you may have seen old photographs of seaplanes landing in Symi and Kastellorizon.  Over the years we have heard of several proposals to reintroduce seaplanes to the islands that don't have airports.  Here is the latest one and it sounds fairly promising.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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The Weather is A-Changing

Kokkimides is the second highest peak on Symi after the Vigla and the views from the monastery at the top are spectacular.

Ancient stone walls and a shepherd's cottage, high up in the mountains above Symi.

The churchyard at Kokkimides.  The church is tiny and accessed through the small door to the right of the photograph. It is believed to be over a thousand years old.

A tiny window, thick stone walls and a stone tiled roof.

At some point someone etched these patterns into the threshold.

A modern touch.  The Swiffer duster evidently failed to serve its designated purpose and was repurposed as they say.

The heavy stone walls of Kokkimides have withstood centuries of extreme weather.

Looking down at Panormitis bay and monastery from the motor road above.

A mellow September morning in Yialos.

A sure sign of impending Autumn - the peripatetic carpet salesmen are back!

The weather is a-changing with a brisk cool breeze blowing and the evenings have become a lot cooler. Day time temperatures are still around 30 degrees out of the wind but the change in the winter from warm to cool has brought about a general drop in temperatures.  Suddenly people riding motorbikes are wearing long sleeves again and more of the tourists are wearing trousers and T-shirts rather than skimpy beachwear when they stroll around the harbour.

I have had family visiting and we went for a rare drive up the mountain at sunset this week. When one lives here and is working through the season it is easy to forget that there is an island out there apart from the bits we see every day on the way to and from work.  It was quite fun playing tourists for a change.  One of the places we visited was Kokkimides, one of the oldest and most fortress like monasteries on the island.  The peak of Kokkimides mountain is the second highest on the island after the Vigla and the views are marvelous. The chapel is dedicated to St Michael and is very ancient, with wonderful frescoes including some very lifelike sheep and horses as well as the obligatory scenes from the scriptures.  It is well worth taking the time and trouble to go up there.

Have an enjoyable weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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