Civil Unrest? No, Haggling over Fish.

Civil unrest?  No, haggling over fish.

Today is one of those early spring days where everyone one meets exclaims, ‘What a glorious day!’ and yearns to be out of doors.  Indeed, looking through my office window, this is the most people I have seen out on the streets since I returned from South Africa 3 weeks ago.  No they are not having a protest meeting or staging a demonstration, despite the sensationalist obsessions of the foreign media and the alarmist propaganda of the British Foreign Office.  They are standing around in the sun, buying fish for Clean Monday and discussing the merits of the different kinds of seafood that have just been brought in on the fishing boats.  It is the final weekend of Carnival and Clean Monday, a day traditionally spent in the countryside, flying kites and eating seafood picnics, marks the beginning of Lent for Orthodox Greeks.  Speaking of the media, there is a Greek film crew on the island today, filming Symi in the sunshine.  Something that the international press often forget to mention is that Greece is actually a very safe country  and has an enviably low crime rate.  This is particularly apparent in the areas mainly visited by tourists.  One of the reasons why a place like Symi is so popular with single women as a holiday destination is that one can walk home alone at any time of the night without fear or threat and there are not many places in the world where one can truly say that.

A Welcome Sight

 The sky is cloudless blue, the sea calm and clear.  Spring flowers blanket the hills and valleys and the first poppies are opening.  Walking to work I saw munching sheep and, oh joy, the Blue Star ferry!  While the car ferry situation is still precarious with no long term schedules available as yet, it is reassuring that the Blue Star is flexible enough to make a detour through Symi en route from Pireaus to Rhodes. As the Blue Star Diagoras then continues to Kastellorizon the departure from Rhodes will be quite late this evening but it does mean that goods and vehicles have another opportunity to reach the island. For regular updates on how to get to Symi, my companion blog written by Andy Ward is a mine of information on the subject and is not just aimed at British visitors either.  He covers flight details from other countries of origin too, as well as monitoring the ferry situation.  If you are a Facebook person, you can also catch up with the updates on our Symi Visitor Accommodation Facebook page.  For day to day life on the island, www.symidream.com is also entertaining reading.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana