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| A festive glimpse through the door of the butchery. |
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| The Symi Flower shop is always a cheerful sight. |
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| This is how fuel arrives for the petrol station in Yialos. Tankers roll off and drive round to the fuel station to fill the bunkers. |
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| Oranges and lemons for sale in the square in Yialos. Most Symiots have lemon trees somewhere but Symi oranges tend to be extremely bitter and are only suitable for marmalade or glykos. Oranges for squeezing or eating come from Rhodes or Kalymnos. |
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| Fresh fish for sale, straight from the boat. The cats are optimistic. |
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| Down in the Pedi Valley. The bare brown bits are where water washed through in the storm. |
This will be my last blog for 2017 as I am going to England to visit family and friends for the festive season. Leaving Symi is often a fraught business in the winter. This time I will be missing a 24 hour shipping strike by a mere 24 nail-biting hours! The 5.50 a.m. departure on the
Blue Star is not an attractive prospect either! In the winter the Blue Star serving Symi fits in a quick trip down to Karpathos and back on a Wednesday so instead of the extremely civilised 8.15 departure from Symi that we enjoy in the summer, in the winter we have to be down in the harbour in the dark at 5.30 a.m. Fortunately the weather forecast is good so there are no gales to worry about and it won't be raining.
Christmas is only a fortnight away and a few more decorations are putting in an appearance. There still isn't much in the shops - the main holiday supplies will arrive on the big boat on the Friday before Christmas. Anyone with premature Christmas cravings has to take the Blue Star to Rhodes on Wednesday or Friday to buy goodies at Lidl! No Aldi in Greece - they pulled out early in the economic crisis - but Lidl and Praktiker are stalwarts, particularly in these times of austerity. The other great source of Christmas bling is Jumbo, a huge jolly junk Greek chain store out in the middle of the island and thus only accessible by car or taxi.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
See you in January!
Regards,
Adriana
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HAPPY CHRISTMAS ADRIANA and thank you for another year of really interesting blogs and fabulous photographs.
I would not say Jumbo is in the middle of the island. Its just off the Lindos to Rhodes town road not far from the IKA office. So is reachable by bus.