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| No sooner had the Blue Star departed than further rumbling engines and tootings of horns announced the arrival of the Cypriot cruise ship Salamis Filoxenia. |
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| She stayed until 16.30 when the Blue Star was due back in so there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to accommodate the Symi, the Panagia Skiadeni and the Nikolaos X, all of which had to get in in turns to drop off passengers and then lie off shore until they repeated the process to pick them up again. |
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| As soon as the Blue Star had gone, the next cruise ship waiting in the wings came in - this time Celestyal Cruises. This stayed until 8.30 p.m. when the Panagia Skiadeni came in again, this time with the Wednesday evening arrivals. |
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| Other days are no where near as busy - I took this today, after the Blue Star Paros had been and gone and before the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran popped in en route to Kos. We aren't seeing as many mega-yachts as in previous years - they have probably moved on to the next trendy cruising area. Part of the importance of having a huge gin palace is to be seen by other people in gin palaces so they tend to travel in packs. |
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| That's better. The new bus stop at Kampos has now been bolted to the ground. Just to be on the safe side, though, if you look very carefully, there is a bit of baling wire securing the top of the shelter to the crash barrier behind. I am not sure how gale proof this is going to be but it may not last that long, given that this is one of the busiest bits of road on the island! |
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| A reminder of the summer drought - St John's Wort is the last wild flower we are likely to see until October. It is all dry prickly stuff now and the hillsides smell of dried sage, thyme and oregano bushes. |
Symi is the perfect place to take time out from the affairs of the world and enjoy doing absolutely nothing for days on end in a beautiful environment with unlimited sunshine. Symi isn't a resort so you won't find theme pubs and frantic organised activities. Symi is a heritage site that offers visitors a unique experience - to live in restored
traditional homes in authentic Greek neighbourhoods, far from the distractions of modern city life.
While the rest of Europe is in political upheaval, here on Symi it is very easy to escape the bad news. If you are a tourist you are unlikely to have television in your accommodation (Greek terrestrial channels have little to offer to foreigners and the subscription services are much more expensive than in places like the UK where the market is bigger) so there is no way you can wake up to bad news with your breakfast. The newspaper shop in the harbour does get in some foreign press in the summer but it is often a couple of days old by the time it gets here and in these turbulent times it is hardly worth worrying about. Wifi is readily available, either in your accommodation or in the many cafes and bars, but who wants to spend all their holiday on line when there is sunshine to bask in, picturesque beaches to explore and the ever-changing views of the harbour to watch? Of course there are major decisions to be made, like whether to breakfast on the balcony or go to a cafe, which beach to sample today and whether to dine in Yialos, Chorio or Pedi or maybe buy some fish from the fish market by the bridge and BBQ it back at the
accommodation (many of our properties have BBQs for this specific reason!)
If you haven't booked your summer holiday yet, why not drop us an
email and let Symi give you some respite? And if you have, we look forward to seeing you!
Have a good weekend.
Regards,
Adriana
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