Official Opening - Symi Festival - 'The 13th'

Symi regulars may remember a Kickstarter project a few years ago to raise funds to shoot a horror film on Symi called 'The Judas Curse', screenplay written by local writer in residence, James Collins. The film was shot on location on Symi with a combination of international actors and locals.

Now entitled 'The 13th', the film has already premiered at a Greek film festival in London earlier this year as well as at film festivals in Athens and Cyprus where it was well received.

The film is being shown on Symi on Monday 24 July at 9 p.m. at the undercover sports facility in Chorio - the big red building behind the Taxiarchis hotel in Chorio.  Admittance is free and everyone is welcome - unless they are very squeamish in which case, wait over at the Secret Garden and enjoy some live music instead.  Billed as an old-school horror film this could become the next best thing to the 'Blair Witch Project' so don't miss it!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

PS Symi felt the earthquakes off Bodrum and Kos but by all accounts the only damage reported locally was pictures falling off walls, broken jam jars in the supermarket and some broken wine bottles.  There were no reported injuries on Symi.

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A Hint of a Rainbow

The view from my office window earlier this week.  The harbour has been really busy with lots of Turkish yachts visiting because of the Eid holiday.  A welcome last minute boost for the shops and cafes around the harbour before the long winter sleep begins.  The last Olympic Holidays guests have already left.



Whichever way one looks, there are always electricity wires in the way on Symi.  In other historic towns and villages around Greece all the cables are underground but for some reason, probably to do with the complexities of Symi's hundreds of steps, all our cables are festooned overhead.



As I was saying...  Agios Elefterios church in Chorio with a cross hatching of cables.



We had a big thunderstorm in the early hours of Thursday morning, the remnants of a storm that caused flooding and tornadoes on nearby Rhodes.  Symi received about 15 mm of rain and occasional showers for the next 24 hours.  The sky is starting to clear now but there were some interesting cloudscapes as I was walking to work this morning.



Just a hint of a rainbow over the Kastro this morning.



My elderly neighbour, Yanni, has pruned his mulberry tree to let in more light and air now that the darker days are upon us.  Look at all the lemons on his trees to the right.



The ducks in the harbour, as seen from the bridge.



The duck enclosure and the National Bank of Greece where one of the three ATMs on Symi is located.  The wheel barrow full of wood on the left belongs to a bakery just out of the picture. They still use a wood fired oven for their baking.



The Blue Star, only half an hour late this morning.



The date palms are flowering.

This is my last blog for a few weeks as I am off to England on Monday to visit my mother.  Not surprisingly I have to leave Symi on Sunday as there is no Monday morning ferry at this time of the year.  By the time I return the Panormitis Festival will be over and the island will have hunkered down for the winter. The filming of the Judas Curse will be in the can as they say and the view from my office winter will be predominantly of local fishing boats.

If you are suffering from Symi deprivation in my absence, don't forget you can visit Symi at 30 second intervals with our webcam, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter and there is always my fellow Symi blogger, James Collins, at Symi Dream.

Regards
Adriana

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One View, Two Different Mornings

One view, two different mornings.  Every day brings its own surprises and this weekend we were also visited by Eclipse, currently the world's largest superyacht which anchored off Nimborio.  I didn't get a picture of it myself but you can see more about it on this link.  The rocky hillside in the background of the photo of the Eclipse is typical Symi shoreline.

 

 

 

 

Someone has made an early start from Yialos and is already under sail.  Another boat is chugging out of the sleepy anchorage in Pedi Bay.  It is hard to do justice to the delicate colours and light on the water with my little Nikon.
 



Jasmine is in full bloom in gardens all round the island and in the evenings one can also smell the heady fragrance of night-scented jessamine, known as nichtalouloudia by the Greeks.

Although the season is drawing to a close and the ferry timetables are barely providing a service from this week on, this is one of the busiest Octobers we have had in many a year and there are still plenty of people about.  Filming has already started on the Judas Curse up in Chorio and Kurtis Stacey, the British actor who plays the protagonist, Chris, is arriving on the Panagia Skiadeni at 13.05 today - not because he particularly wanted to take the slow boat via Panormitis but because there was no alternative.  If you are on Symi in the next week or so you may bump into all sorts of strange things in the more abandoned corners of upper Chorio as shooting a horror film involves weird props and even weirder lighting.

Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow and Thursday so the Judas Curse may well resort to the cliché 'It was a dark and stormy night...'

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Food for Many a Romantic Dream

Just add water.  A week after the rain and the wild grasses are germinating among the stones.



Desiccated oregano bushes are reviving on the hillside, sprouting tiny furls of new green leaves.  The flower buds which are dried to make the Greek herb rigani that we know and love only appear in the late spring, around April.



The Symi Gallery on the Kali Strata, easily identifiable by the Kate MacKay colour boxes about the entrance, is currently hosting an exhibition of drawings by Ian Bishop.



A grand but neglected mansion on the Kali Strata, food for many a romantic dream.



Early morning calm.
The number of yachts is steadily dwindling as the cruising season draws to a close and they return to their winter berths, often in Turkey and Cyprus.



The heavenly blue of the plumbago, referred to locally as blue jasmine.  It is a popular choice here as it flowers for many weeks in the summer and requires very little water.



An old commercial building in the back lanes of Yialos.  Downstairs is the modern lotto shop.  Upstairs is boarded up and abandoned.   Although a lot of people who work in the harbour live in apartments above shops for reasons of convenience, many of these buildings remain unoccupied and in poor repair.  The stencilled numbers above the doors are relics of early attempts during the Italian occupation of the island between the wars to set up a property registry.



The Blue Star Diagoras arrived this morning, delivering amongst other things the lighting van for the filming of 'The Judas Curse' which starts in Chorio this Sunday.

We are enjoying a few days of settled autumn weather before the next rainy front reaches us around Wednesday or Thursday next week.  There is heavy dewfall at night.  The Dodecanese Seaways ferry schedule has also dwindled considerably with limited options for getting to and from Symi. There is a partial timetable up now for November.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana





 

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It's All Happening on Symi

The peaceful pebbled yard of St John's church in Yialos.



Pedi bay is virtually empty these days now that the main holidays are over.



The only other pedestrian I saw on the Kali Strata this morning was a solitary calico cat.



Most of the neo-classical houses lining the amphitheatre harbour have balconies or terraces with views of Yialos. The television aerial on this one is an unusual touch as these days there are so few terrestrial channels available that most people have satellite dishes.



When the Stani ice cream man arrived on Symi a few years ago there was something of an aesthetic outcry but nowadays he is accepted as another quirky part of the Symi landscape.



There is a new photographic exhibition opening this evening at the Symi Dream Gallery from 5 p.m. onwards.  Everyone is welcome.  Please join us for a glass of wine.
Poster by Jordan Blakesley - Symi Art.  Based on a photograph by Ged Horton.

It's all happening on Symi at the moment.  Apart from the opening of the Travels with my Camera, an exhibition of photography by Ged Horton, the nail biting is over as the necessary funds have been raised through Kickstarter for the filming of The Judas Curse, a horror film to be shot in the back alleys and ruins of upper Chorio in October.  The screenplay is by local resident writer James Collins.  It is hoped that this film with its well known cast will bring the island some much needed publicity and revenue in these difficult times and also open up new opportunities for employment for the island's young people as it is intended that this will be the first film of many.  Many thanks to all of you who have contributed to this project.

Dodecanese Seaways have now put up their ferry schedule to 27 October which effectively takes us to the end of the season.  Sometimes I really do wonder where the months have gone!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Autumn Beckons

The first of the many bends in the long and winding road from Chorio to Panormitis monastery at the southern end of the island.  Although Symi is quite a small island it is very steep and mountainous and the road offers some spectacular views.  On a clear day one can see as far as Kos in one direction and Rhodes in the other. It is worth hiring a bike or car for a day to go up to the top and at the same time visit Kokkimides monastery on the second highest peak on Symi as well as Roukonioutis monastery and Toli Bay.

The olives are swelling on the trees. Still green, they will ripen and darken when they reach full size after the first significant rains in late October or early November.  As Symi is such an arid island our olive harvest is later than Rhodes only a few nautical miles away.  Few people have water to irrigate their olives and there is no communal olive press on Symi.

Temperatures are still in the thirties but the worst of the heat is over. The shadows are lengthening and autumn beckons. Autumn in this part of Greece is more like a second spring as when the first rains come in October the temperatures are still warm and plants start growing again. The almond trees put on new leaves and a fine carpet of green appears over night after those precious first rains.

Most gardens are now pretty frazzled but the robust survivors are putting on a late blaze of colour.

My attention was drawn by a delicate cooing from this pergola in Lieni. 

The mysterious noose has gone - or rather, the donkey man has moved on.  The Judas Curse is gaining momentum with fresh announcements every day from www.symidream.com regarding fund raising and the latest names to join the cast.  Kurtis Stacey from popular British soap, Emmerdale, is joining German actress and Symi regular, Wookie Mayer in Symi's first ever horror movie. Filming takes place in October.  Further funding is still required on Kickstarter so if you would like to participate in this exciting project please click on the link.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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