Ice Cream Coloured Houses

When I walk to work in the morning these days the sun is only just breaking over the hills around Pedi.

We can confirm that essentials such as lavatory paper are still freely available on Symi so there is no need for visitors to bring their own, no matter what the foreign press may say.

The fuel ship bringing petrol, diesel and heating oil onto Symi. As the ship cannot come stern to at the fuel jetty the fuel is transported round in bunkering trucks. The white building on the corner behind is the police station.

This restoration project on the Kali Strata seems to have come to a standstill, but at least the electricity company has been in to fit a nice new metre.

This mansion on the Kali Strata, on the other hand, positively gleams in the early morning sunshine.  The roof was replaced recently and look at the beautifully detailed plaster and paint work.

This week's cruise ship, the Orient Queen from Valletta.  As you can see, the harbour is significantly emptier these days. 

Ice cream coloured houses on the Kali Strata, near the Old Markets Hotel.  The houses on the left hand side of the picture are just ruins but probably had shops at the ground floor. At the end of the nineteenth century the Kali Strata was  Symi's equivalent of the High Street and many of the houses had obvious business premises on the ground floor.  There are also a number of abandoned small hotels for commercial travellers, dating back to the boom days of Symi's sponge-diving industry, when a good view from the Kali Strata was important for watching the return of the fleet.

On a more sombre note, the Symi bus was in a bad accident on Wednesday evening this week and is currently out of commission.  It would seem that a local lad, driving too fast and on the wrong side of the road on his motorcycle, drove straight into the front of the bus at speed on the road out of the harbour.  Needless to say the young man was not wearing a crash helmet and sustained serious facial injuries.  Apparently he is now in a hospital in Athens, being patched up. The bus is in Rhodes for a new windscreen and Lakis our bus driver has bruised ribs from being thrown against the steering wheel.  Looking out of my office window, I do not get the impression that this has encouraged the widespread use of crash helmets, even though it has been illegal to drive a bike without one for years.

The Symi Dream 10th Anniversary on Symi celebrations went very well and we look forward to hearing more of James' piano skills next summer.  The collection of aid for the refugees at the police station is gaining momentum too. The Symi Dream shop on the Kali Strata is the Chorio collection point. Down in the harbour the collection point is the Sunflower Laundry/Symi Visitor Accommodation office.  For further information and updates please see our chat page.  If you are resident on the island and would like to cook a Halaal meal for 40 people, please contact us and we will put you in touch with the co-ordinating committee for information on how to go about this.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana