A Family Celebration

The Easter Exodus is in full swing and all internal flights and ships are full as the Greeks vacate the mainland cities for the islands and rural villages for the Easter holidays. Easter is very much a family celebration here and everyone tries to get home. Every boat that docks in Symi brings more students back to their families – a happy time as, of course, a large number of the island’s young people are forced by circumstances to live a long way from home in order to continue their studies and are not able to travel to Symi as often as they might wish.

The television news is full of market surveys and scandals, mainly focusing on the Easter Feast and its essential component, lamb. Greek lamb commands a very high price in the market and the scandals involve butchers in places like the Athens meat market trying to pass off cheap imported lamb from neighbouring countries as the more expensive local product.

The weather is very unsettled and many parts of Greece are experiencing stormy weather and, in the case of Florina and other mountain areas, snow. We have had strong winds since yesterday afternoon with intermittent flurries of rain. The wind is slamming at our shutters and there are several yachts rolling violently as they try to shelter in the harbour. The Dodecanese Pride left Rhodes this morning but disembarked all passengers apart from those destined for Symi as it was uncertain if it would be able to continue northwards. The Aegli was unable to do its 8 am trip to Rhodes and is still sitting outside Katerinettes. The Symi, on its scheduled tourist run, came straight to Yialos and gave Panormitis a miss. Squally conditions are likely to continue until Saturday. Easter Sunday should be clear but windy and the outlook for Monday and Tuesday varies wildly from balmy breezes to howling gales depending on the pessimism of the respective forecasters.

Just in case I don’t get near a computer again between now and Tuesday, happy Easter everyone.

Regards,
Adriana