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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The Sunshine is Guaranteed

The autumn leaves are starting to fall.  It is many months now since we last had rain and the almond trees are desperate.  Six weeks to go before the anticipated start to the rainy season!

The Blessed Virgin of the Castle, sporting sunshades as well as flags for the Assumption this year.

If you book your holiday accommodation through Symi Visitor Accommodation you will always be met from the ferry and won't find yourself with a pile of suitcases, asking directions from the locals.  It is all part of our service.

Off to the beach!

When I used to sail it was considered bad form to leave port trailing fenders but times have changed.

The houses that line Symi's famous natural amphitheatre harbour cling to the cliffs in a jigsaw of steps, lanes, ramps and contour paths. There was no overall master plan at the time but the overall effect is infinitely charming to the eye.

A typical August morning view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office.

If you are travelling light you can always top up your  holiday wardrobe when you get here.

The pomegranates are swelling in the old gardens of Chorio.

Orange!

Central Chorio, overlooking the Pedi Valley.

A quiet moment in Yialos early this morning.

As August draws to a close autumn is just around the corner.  The shadows are lengthening and the edge has gone from the heat.  The breeze has changed to the north, freshening the air and taking away some of the humidity.  The plants know that the end is in sight.  Wherever there is water, seeds are starting to germinate and on close inspection even the most frazzled geraniums seem to have a few tiny new green shoots.

The official Mediterranean holiday season is coming to an end and everyone who traditionally takes August off is heading back to work or school.  The Blue Star car ferry to Pireus is very busy as many Greeks, Italians and French 'drive' here for their holidays, making use of the car ferries connecting Greece and the islands with Italy and continental Europe. Clean and efficient, this is often a pleasanter way to travel than the indignities of modern air travel and you don't have to worry about liquids and whether your hand luggage meets the varying criteria of different airlines.

The Greek schools reopen soon and the island's young people will be heading off to college or university in the next week or so.  Others will be in the army as Greece still has military conscription. The demographic shifts in September as Symi's regular visitors from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia start to arrive.  If you aren't tied to the school holidays, September is one of the best months to visit Symi. The sea is as warm as it is going to get, day time temperatures are between 28 and 32 degrees so not too hot and the evenings are mild enough to sit outside without needing sweaters and shawls.  If you haven't already booked, drop us a line as we still have some availability left and one thing about Symi in September - the sunshine is guaranteed!

Have a good bank holiday long 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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A Warm Sunny Spring Day on Symi

Lemons in Yialos.  I noticed that all the ones that can be reached safely from the balcony have been picked.  Someone with a ladder will have to take down the rest. Citrus trees carry flowers and fruit simultaneously and the scent is intoxicating.

The shop under the nautical museum at the back of the square in Yialos is opening up for the season. The daisies, on the other hand, open up every day as long as the sun shines and someone remembers to water them!

Either the pot and basket man had a very good weekend and this is all that is left of his stock or he didn't bring much with him this time.  All sorts of things arrive on trucks and in vans at this time of the year and the hawkers bring everything from ropes of garlic to garden furniture to cheap tracky bottoms and trainers.

Open for business on the water front in Yialos.  As it is about 25 degrees today one might want a summer frock or cotton kaftan. As it is cool in the shade or out on a scooter, one might also want a warm scarf.

The shops on Symi are unique and so are their signs. This is the new icon shop near our office.  No perspex and neon on Symi!

The mammoth task of weeding the Kali Strata has begun. The lone municipal employee responsible for this epic job was taking a breather much further down  when I was passing at 8 this morning - he is the blob next to the electricity pole in the middle distance.  

Faded grandeur and fading alexanders near the top of the Kali Strata.

The rose scented geraniums have started to open in the last few days - another fragrance evocative of warm Mediterranean summers.

It is a warm sunny spring day on Symi. It is about 25 degrees, warmer on the sunny side of the harbour, and temperatures will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. Old Symi hands will know that it is not unusual to have the odd day in the 30s in April. Evenings are around 16 degrees centigrade at the moment so a shawl is useful if sitting outside.  There is an amiable buzz of activity in Yialos and everyone has something to do. Even from the splendid isolation of my desk upstairs at Symi Visitor Accommodation I can hear the sound of someone sanding wood by hand in the lane and the distant chink-chink of plaster being chipped off another building near the tinsmith and the buzz  of conversation.

There are also some familiar faces around the island as Symi has devotees who would not dream of coming to Symi at any other time of the year.  I was talking to one of these returnees this morning and this is the first time she has been back in 8 years. She said what struck her was that there were far fewer cars than in the past and far more people seemed to be using bicycles to get around the harbour side, making it quieter than it was when she left here, shortly before the global economic downturn really kicked in. An unexpected bonus of the punitive austerity measures that have made it too expensive for many Greeks to keep their cars on the road.

The Blue Star Diagoras is off to have her bottom scraped and other essential annual maintenance done so the smaller, nippier Blue Star Paros is taking over the route for a few weeks.  Although the ferry schedules are available on the respective ferry company websites, not all routes are bookable at the moment so if you are trying to book tickets on line, please be patient.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Philoxenia - Love of Strangers

Another foal, spotted on my walk to work this morning.

It was very humid last night and we woke to low cloud rolling over the Vigla and adjoining hills.  There is a lot of thunder activity around and about and we see distant rain falling over Turkey but nothing on Symi.

Luminous lantana in a small garden on the Kali Strata. Very few houses on Symi have gardens in the conventional sense as the land is so steep and the houses are built into the hillsides and cliffs.  This house is one of a matching pair of merchant houses on the Kali Strata.  The gardens connect each house with the steps and give the impression of a pair of single storey dwellings whereas in reality, the houses are actually much bigger and face out across the harbour.

The mansion next door with its luxuriant plumbago.  The Greeks call plumbago 'blue jasmine' as it is similar in appearance and habit but it is actually a completely different plant and has no scent.  

When I first came to Symi in 1993 there were lots of herb sellers on the island, making a living out of gathering wild thyme, rigani (Greek oregano) and sage on the mountains and drying it to sell.  This is one of the last in the harbour and he sells all manner of herbs and spices, not just local ones.

When the Noddy train arrived on Symi a few years ago there was something of an uproar from the purists who felt it was out of character with the island.  In reality we have come to love it as it rattles round the harbour to Nimborio and back, playing kitschy Greek music with the passengers singing along and radiating happiness.  One cannot help but smile and wave as it passes.  In the day time it is used mostly by day trippers but in the evenings it is popular with the local children, particularly for birthday parties.

The peaceful pebble courtyard of St John's church, the most important church in Yialos as it is now the Metropolitan's cathedral.  During the war the church was seriously damaged when a bomb landed on it and fell through the roof.  Fortunately it failed to explode and it was possible to rebuild the roof.  Black and white pebble work is common in the churchyards around the island and also in the courtyards of some of the houses.  While in Lindos on Rhodes it is sometimes used as interior flooring, on Symi it is usually an exterior finish.  Patterns can be geometric and traditional but there are also some narrative ones up in Chorio, including images of the Gorgona (mermaid) pulling ships beneath the waves.  Greek mermaids are quite blood-thirsty creatures and have little in common with the lovesick mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen.

The clinic in Yialos is just off the cathedral grounds, in a quiet back lane.  We are fortunate to have two clinics on Symi. This one, in Yialos, and then another up in Chorio. The one in Chorio is not always open in the mornings but is usually open in the evenings, which is convenient for those who are working.

One of the two dentists on Symi. For a small community of 3000 souls we manage quite well health wise, despite the economic crisis.

It is a hot and humid day on the peaceful island of Symi in the Dodecanese.  Temperatures are around 30 degrees at midday, dropping to around 20 degrees centigrade at night.  Every day we see big thunder clouds build up over Turkey and the weather forecasts speak of thunderstorms and rain showers but they always seem to burn away without shedding a drop on Symi.  The long summer drought is with us and we are unlikely to have any significant rain again until mid October.

The season is off to a very quiet start and there are far fewer people about than usual.  Fortunately Symi has many loyal visitors who have been coming to the island for years, in some cases, decades but for islands that don't have such a high repeat rate things must be very difficult indeed.  When newspapers report stories, exaggerating the bad at the expense of the good, they forget the impact of their stories on communities and livelihoods.  Our banks are still functioning, we do still have food in the shops and tavernas - plenty of it and delicious it is too.  Yes, desperate refugees are arriving but they have been arriving on Symi for the past 20 years that I know of and they are welcomed and treated as they always have been, with compassion and to the best of the capabilities of Symi's police station and coast guard, and then leave on the twice weekly Blue Star to Piraeus to continue the long journey to their future lives.  This is nothing new.

Symi looks forward to welcoming all her visitors with the abundant hospitality for which the island is famed and we hope that you, dear reader, are not deterred from enjoying Greek 'philoxenia' (hospitality, literally the love of the strangers) by what you see in newspapers that base sales on sensationalism and fostering a sense of outrage.  Philoxenia is the opposite of the dreaded xenophobia, fear of strangers.  Let us try to spread the concept of philoxenia far and wide so this word becomes as well known as its dark antithesis.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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