A truly Homeric sunrise

Yesterday was one of those gloriously clear winter days where one can see for miles in all directions and the sunshine is quite dazzling. I went to Rhodes, braving the top deck of the new ferry to enjoy a truly Homeric sunrise - nearly 3 millennia later, dawn is still rosy-fingered over a wine dark sea so it can't be all bad! The 'new' ferry is quite pleasingly old-fashioned, with elegantly curved lines and an impressive turn of speed. We left Symi promptly at 6 am and arrived in Rhodes at 7.40. Twenty minutes later she set off for Kastellorizo.

There was a huge cruise ship in Rhodes harbour, one of those ones that looks like a cross between a block of flats and a Stalinist hospital. I overheard a taxi driver explaining to one bemused group of Germans that the reason why they could not see the Parthenon was because it is in Athens and they are in Rhodes. Makes sense, I suppose, but I wonder what the brochure said...!

The snow-caps on the Turkish coast from last week's snowstorms are still in evidence and it is not exactly warm. Another wet weather system is rolling in and the sky turned a uniform gunmetal grey mid-morning today. Heavy rain and force 8 south-easters are on the cards for tonight, tomorrow and Thursday and the alerts have changed from blizzards to flooding. Well, it is winter and February is often the coldest and stormiest month of them all.

DEH, the Public Power Corporation, is busy upgrading Symi's grid at the moment. This means frequent power cuts. There has just been an announcement over the tannoy telling us that the only places that will have electricity tomorrow will be Pedi bay and Panormitis. The verge of the road going out of the harbour has become a dumping zone for the cable drums, transformers and poles that have been arriving daily on the Proteus. It would be nice if at some point some of the old poles would be taken down when they put new ones up as the sky over Symi is becoming a tangle of wires on a par with downtown Beirut in the early 90s.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com