Fair Weather February

Two unusual things about the view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning. The first is the water boat which seldom comes in during the winter as in theory the town's reservoirs should be full of free rainwater.  The second is the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran heading for the 'wrong' side of the harbour.  The road around the harbour, from the bridge to the clock tower, has been closed since Saturday while the roadworks and paving project proceed.  As vehicles can't get round and the catamaran brings in fresh produce for the island, she is coming in by the bus stop for the moment.

Another view of the water ship.  Symi has no natural fresh water supply.  What we don't harvest from our roofs into cisterns during the winter rains has to be produced by a small desalination plant on the Pedi road or shipped in by boats such as this one.  This is why Symi is one of the few Greek islands where you won't find 'villas with pools' on the accommodation listings.  Fortunately Symi's pretty beaches are sheltered and calm for summer-time swimming.

Lemonitissa church peering down at Yialos from the Kastro, the old castle mound.

Oranges and cabbages, ladders and ropes.  One can buy most necessities on Symi - as long as you are realistic about your definition of 'necessity' and can adapt your plans according to what is available. There is no point in pining for peaches in February when oranges are in abundance!

The paving project between the town square and the bridge.

Roadworks outside the National Bank.

Artisanal cheeses and an interested feline audience.  Foodies look out for the cheese man who comes round about twice a month on the Blue Star.

The oranges that grow on Symi are usually very bitter, like Seville oranges, hence the hawker with his truck of oranges.  It is a curious thing that when growing citrus in drought conditions, oranges become bitter whereas the Symi lemons are surprisingly mild and sweet, regardless of the variety.

The Kali Strata is fast becoming a mossy landscape with weeds and grass popping up wherever there is soil.  Regulars to this page will know that at some point in April, May or some years even as late as June, some brave soul from the municipality weeds the whole flight of 360 or so steps and then whitewashes the step fronts for the summer.

Off street parking on the Kali Strata.

Free range Fred playing chicken on the road out of town this morning.

A rare glimpse of Profiti Ilias monastery through the trees.  In the summer the oak tree has leaves and the monastery disappears from view.  Profiti Ilias is one of the many ancient sites on Symi and fragments of  pre-Christian masonry hint at the possibility of a temple to Apollo on the site.

Wild cyclamens.  One of Symi's seasonal secrets.

The work on the new commercial harbour continues at a steady pace. They have laid out the harbour front with concrete blocks and are now back-filling while at the same time cutting away the hillside to create a large level area for trucks and vehicles coming off the car ferry to turn and park.  It is not much fun for the houses in the immediate vicinity of the construction work but once the project is completed, they will probably get a new lease of life as commercial properties close to the port.  

After a fairly wet and humid week the wind is once again blowing from the north, bringing clear skies and low temperatures.  Midday highs will be around 13 degrees or so this week, dropping to around 6 degrees at night.  The two main projects on the island, the paving around the town square and the construction of the new commercial harbour, are proceeding well. So far this February has been very mild with none of the storms and floods usually characteristic of February in the Aegean so if the rest of the month continues like this, with no extreme weather, they should all be on schedule. Fingers crossed!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Water Barrels and Holy Basil

Clouds over Pedi on Sunday morning. A group of yachts spent the night tied up to the water boat jetty at the head of the bay.  The sails you can see at the entrance to the bay are those yachts departing.

Yialos, Harani and Nimos on Monday morning. The only vessel to be seen is the patrol boat out in the bay. The buildings in the foreground are the Panormition, the island's academic high school.

We had some muddy rain on Saturday.  It didn't last long but when it was over all the cars looked like this. With luck the rain later in the week will wash it all off again.

Magical rockery gardens are sprouting in the stone walls of Chorio.  Completely self-seeded, these gardens of  indigenous stonecrops, ferns and mosses are an attractive sight in the lanes and alleys throughout the rainy season.

At this time of the year it is possible to walk to the shops in Chorio and see more animals than people en route.

Shadow-play in Chorio on Sunday morning.

Acorns ripening on the majestic valonia oak in Lieni.  Once upon a time Symi would have been covered with these grand trees but 3000 or so years of continuous habitation means that most of them were chopped down for boat-building, fire wood and other domestic purposes.  It takes centuries for a tree to achieve any sort of size in this climate and these days there are so few of them left they are practically landmarks.

This is what happens when a poinsettia is planted in the ground in a suitable spot - old Yanni has been nurturing this poinsettia in Lieni for years and it is almost as much a landmark as the nearby oak.

A new addition to the neighbourhood.

Water barrels and holy basil - an unusual combination of goods to sell. The gypsies won't be leaving with an empty lorry though as they are collecting scrap metal, old batteries and dead domestic appliances to take back to Athens on Wednesday.  We do not have any formal recycling system here as it is not economically viable so they are providing a valuable service.

Symi's orange dump truck has turned up its toes so the municipality of Halki has loaned us theirs. Well, with a population of 200 people, most of whom leave the island for Rhodes in the winter, they probably won't need it again until the spring.

The weather is changing again and we are heading for a sustained period of unsettled and stormy weather as the weather system that has caused havoc in the central Mediterranean works its way east. Temperatures will continue to fall and later this week midday temperatures will be below 20 degrees for the first time since March. It is becoming decidedly chilly indoors and the layered look is the style of the day so that one can peel off or add on, depending on whether one is in or out. Symiot houses are difficult to heat as they have high ceilings and very few houses on the island have oil-fired central heating systems - aside from the expense to install such systems, it is extremely difficult to get the fuel to the houses as very few homes on the island have close vehicle access.  Running air conditioning on heat is very expensive as electricity tariffs are high in Greece.  So we all put on more layers a la Michelin man.

Anyone with Christmas travel plans is keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts as shipping disruptions are common once it becomes stormy in the Aegean and with so few boats in November and December, there may not be a second chance to catch that plane. The Chinese say that a 1000 mile journey starts with a single step.  Well, on  Symi that single step is often the challenge of getting off the island!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Heavy Dewfalls and Misty Mornings

High pressure continues to dominate the weather over our corner of the Mediterranean, bringing calm seas, heavy dew falls and misty mornings.  It is very quiet now that all the tourist businesses have packed up for the winter and most cruising yachts have headed to their winter berths in nearby Turkey.

Our winter lifeline.  The Dodecanese Seaways high speed catamaran, either the Pride of the Express as they are taking turns through the winter, stops off in Symi on its north and south bound routes on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays we  have no boats at all.  On Wednesdays and Fridays we have the Blue Star and those are the only two days where it is possible for Symiots to go to Rhodes on a day return. 

A novel way to block a mouse hole in the door of a ruined house on the Kali Strata.  Note the detail on the woodwork.

Looking down the Kali Strata.

The island's many oleanders are now in full bloom, adding splashes of colour to sun-bleached views such as this one. The upstairs of this traditional house has been restored as an apartment. The downstairs, which would once have been a shop, is the home of the Symi Gallery.  Many of the buildings on the uphill side of the Kali Strata would have had shops at street level as this was effectively Symi's high street.

There are very few large houses on the island so this one, looming above the Kali Strata, is something of a landmark.  Trees  in the ruin in front have just been cut down, making more of the house visible. Symi is famous for its beautiful - and well-protected - neo-classical architecture. The nature of the terrain means that the houses have very quirky layouts and are seldom as spacious inside as the exteriors may lead one to suppose.  For instance, this house has two fronts and no back and is actually slightly wedge shaped. The main entrance is from the lane running behind the house at the middle level, the bathroom is in the basement and the bedrooms are on the third floor.

Jasmine is popular here as it is very drought hardy and flowers twice a year, in April and May and again now until the weather turns too cold. The fragrance is not as strong now as it is in April and May as there isn't enough warmth to bring out the volatile oils but it is pleasant none the less.

Peaceful Pedi.  The sun doesn't reach most of the valley until about 10 a.m. at this time of the year and by 3 in the afternoon the shadow starts creeping across the valley again.  As the  winter sun only just clears the ridge on the right, the southern slopes remain pretty much in shadow all day from October to March.

A rose carved in marble on the underside of a balcony on the Kali Strata.  As marble and other forms of lime stone are abundant in Greece it is a popular and durable building material rather than a luxury item.

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February Postcards from the Mainland

Inside the tomb of Atreus at Mykenae.  The good part about travelling in winter is that one has most of the archaeological sites to oneself.  The bad part is the weather!

Mykenae in the rain.  I am the red dot in the middle!  That is a coach park glistening in the wet in the middle distance.

We only had about 10 minutes in the museum at Mycanae as they close at 3 in the winter so this is just a quick sample. We'll have to go back!

Nafplio in the rain. This coastal town was the first capital of modern Greece so like Symi it boasts some lovely neo-classical architecture.  Unlike Symi, however, the Archaeologia (Ministry of Culture) did not intervene fast enough and there are some real eyesores.  The modern hotel on the left of this picture is quite innocuous in comparison to some of the places we saw!

The pension where we stayed for 2 nights.  It made a good base for our travels as it meant we did not have to look for somewhere down in Monemavasia, a much more expensive town even in the winter.  We dined at two different tavernas and they were both good value and very friendly. There were a few out of season tourists around and a handful of shops open but the locals are mainly in the more modern town on the other side of the harbour.

As Nafplio predates Symi the roofs have Roman tiles rather than Marseilles ones. Sensibly they also have overhanging eaves so the rain does not run down the walls of the buildings as happens on Symi. The Symiots had to adopt a different style of roof in order to harvest the winter rains and channel the water into cisterns in the houses, causing a lot of damp problems in the winter.  Nafplio has a far higher rainfall and abundant water from the nearby mountains.  The plains are covered in orange orchards and olive groves and this is good agricultural terrain.

A seriously wonky example of Nafplion architecture. The walls are much thinner than those in Symi and are often a mixture of wood, small stones and plaster, rather than the big dressed stones we are used to here.

Looking down on the old town of Nafplion from the Venetian fortress of Palamidi. That large oblong structure on the rocky outcrop to the left is an abandoned hotel, covered in graffiti and never a thing of beauty, right next to the castle of Akronafplio.  There are similar abandoned relics of  60s and 70s concrete dotted around the place.  Horrible.  Some of the mountains in the distance were covered with snow.

The fortress of Palamidi, guarding the port of Nafplio.  It was started by the Venetians, added to by the Turks and conquered by the Greeks.  It was used as a prison until 1920.

Down south in the Peloponnese, this is the causeway linking the mainland to Monemavasia, the Gibraltar of Greece.

The rooftops of Monemavasia.  Look at that swell rolling in.

This was a Byzantine town, abandoned eventually in the 19th century and redeveloped in the 20th.  Symi is often compared to it as it is also a heritage site of architectural importance. There is, however, minimal population as the locals actually live in the modern town on the main land and the houses on the island are used as chic summer homes by wealthy Athenians. As the town was abandoned long before the advent of electricity, when it was rebuilt it was possible to hide all the electricity and telephone cables below ground so there is isn't the raffle of cables that are a feature of Symi's skyline.

We had a good light lunch at this little taverna - homemade spinach pie, gigantes and the famous local wine for a very reasonable 15 euros for the 2 of us.  Note the size of the cats looking in through the window. The lady proprietor made a great show of chasing the cats away but they did not achieve that size on a diet of mice and dustbin scavengings!

On our way from Nafplio to Athens we stopped off in Epidavros to visit the famous amphitheatre.  I am the small red dot sitting in the front row!  Once again we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  There was a party of Italian teenagers with their teacher and that was all.  The location was idyllic, with bird song, wild flowers and bubbling streams - it is easy to understand why it was a centre of healing in ancient times.

The view from our cabin on the Blue Star Diagoras as we waited to leave Piraeus.  We had the same cabin in both directions. It was spotlessly clean and very comfortable. The crew are very friendly and helpful. The a la carte and self service restaurants on board are both excellent with very reasonable prices and attentive service.

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