July Postcards from Symi

Looking across the Pedi valley towards the windmills on the ridge of hill that divides Pedi from Yialos. That is the top of the island of Nimos in the background.

Boats lying off Harani earlier this week.

A glimpse of the harbour between the buildings on the Kali Strata.

When a hen goes 'off piste' there is no knowing where she will decide to nest. This biddy was spotted near the bottom of the Kali Strata, just up from the Old Markets hotel.

Kokkimides, one of the oldest churches on the island. Built on the second highest peak on the island during the Byzantine era, the monastery was rebuilt in 1760.  In recent years an access road has been built up to the monastery and it is no longer necessary to climb up.  There is usually someone there and I have never known it to be closed. The church is through the small entrance on the right and has many Byzantine frescoes.

One of the oldest trees on the island, up on the top of Kokkimides.  It is propped up with stones to prevent it from collapsing.

Sunset over Panormitis monastery bay, looking down from the view point at the top, before one starts the steep descent of hairpin bends down to sea level.  There is a mini bus service connecting Yialos and Chorio with Panormitis 2-3 times a day and also excursion buses.

Looking beyond Panormitis to the island of Sesklia.

The interior of Symi is rugged rocks and conifer forests with occasional small fertile valleys and ancient terraces planted with olives, figs and vines.  

Toli Bay on the west side of the island, is a beautiful place to watch the sun set and enjoy a delicious meal at the Dafnes beach taverna, so named after all the oleanders that grow wild nearby. 

If I stay very still, maybe no one will notice me.

A Greek Orthodox priest popping into the clinic in Chorio. Unlike many parts of Britain where several parishes often have to share one priest, Greece has no such pastoral problems and Symi's priests are always in evidence to lend a hand and provide support when needed.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning.

Read more...

Monday Musings from Symi

The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin of the Castle is having a facelift. Symi has no shortage of churches and there are several on and around the Kastro.

The Blue Star Patmos came through from Piraeus on Sunday after the shipping strike was temporarily suspended, bringing with it such high bulk items as toilet rolls and kitchen paper.

The dress shop in Chorio, flaunting a fabulous Christmas bow.

A flourishing fig among the ruins on the Kali Strata.

A glimpse of Christmas spirit near the bottom of the Kali Strata.

Storm clouds looming over Mavrovouni this morning. Rain is forecast from this afternoon through to early on Tuesday  morning, followed by a sharp drop in temperatures.

Yialos.

Wash day at Lemonitissa church.

The ferry didn't just bring practical things like loo paper.  It also brought these cheerful poinsettias.

The Petrides school at the back of St John's church looks wonderful with its new paint.  Whoever undertook to do that elongated meander frieze had a lot of patience and an incredibly steady hand.

Hibiscus in flower in the Metropolitan's garden next to St John's church.

Angels on an old grave stone incorporated into a bench in St John's churchyard.

Read more...

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!

Read more...