April Postcards from Symi

The spring flowers are setting seed and will soon be over for another year.  Only about a fortnight more of sneezing and then my hay fever should be over too!

The end of an era - Syllogos restaurant is now closed and the premises are to let.  Luckily Giorgio and Maria's taverna, next door, is still doing well and you can also stroll further up to Zoe's taverna for more traditional home-style Greek cooking.

The two traditional cafe bars at the top of the Kali Strata, just off the village square, are a popular meeting place in the evenings.  Easy to find and centrally located, they are a good stopping off point on the way home from a day on the beach or for enjoying pre-dinner drinks with friends before a meal at Giorgio's next door.This is also the  new venue for the Symi Gallery Sunday cinema club.  Look out for posts advertising what is on each week.

The narrow lanes of Chorio offer picturesque glimpses of village life.

You might think that building a house out of stone on Symi would be cheap, considering that the island has this resource in abundance. The thing to remember is that stone is very labour intensive.  Here two stone masons sit, in the shade of the trees in Lieni, chipping stones and rocks into appropriate shapes for building walls.

A spot of free grazing.

The vibrant reds and yellows of the poppies and daisies are giving way to the pale pink of bindweed and tiny wild chamomile.

Symi parking.  The horse was actually tethered to the boat trailer, waiting patiently for his master to come back.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office at midday today.  Still not much yachting activity but the only day trip boat from Rhodes still missing is the Symi Sea Dreams.

There are even a few day-trippers around including a lot of young families on package holidays to Rhodes.

Symi colours

April is drawing to a close and the temperatures continue to rise.  The island is all-set for a sunny bank holiday long weekend and the 10 day forecast mentions neither rain nor clouds so this is probably it!  Monday, 1 May, is traditionally celebrated in Greece by gathering wild flowers (whatever is left!) to make wreathes and garlands with which to decorate front doors.  I hope to share some of these with you in my blog on Tuesday.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Spring Pastels

Pachos kafeneion near our office is closed for a few days for its annual spring-clean and repaint.  It is quite common here to see business owners doing their own painting and decorating.  

The two boutiques on the other side of us are now open.

You must admit, Symi harbour is exceptionally photogenic.

The herb and spice shop by the bridge has opened for the summer.

The mulberry trees that were planted in the town square a few years ago have suddenly turned into proper trees and should provide good shade.

One of Symi's several sponge shops.  That is the National Bank of Greece next door. They have an ATM just inside the doorway. There is another ATM further down, in the vestibule of the Alpha Bank and then there is a third on the opposite side, next to the pharmacy.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony today.  

Pretty spring pastels are always in fashion on Symi.

There is an amazing array  of fresh produce available at the moment as there is an overlap between the cool weather vegetables like leeks and cauliflowers, the strictly spring time artichokes and then the first of the summer cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines. No, the pineapples on the right are not local - they, like the bananas, come from South America.  Greek produces a wide range of fresh produce through the year but tropical fruits are not on the list.

A quiet lane in Yialos.

It is still fairly cool with a light north-westerly breeze and we had several hours of steady drizzle on Saturday night.  Temperatures are forecast to rise steadily through the week, peaking at 26 degrees on Saturday, just in time for the May Day long weekend.  There is no further rain on the horizon and unless we have a shower in May, the summer drought has begun.  Symi has one of the longest dry seasons in Greece and can go without any rain at all from April through to early November.

Work has resumed across the bay, on the new commercial harbour and jetty, and I can hear a steady distant 'tok-tok-tok' as they chip away at the rocky shoreline.  They are still creating a large flat area at the base of the hill and widening the frontage as far as Petalo.  Once this becomes operational there will be far less heavy vehicle traffic through Yialos as the car ferries will dock and unload there instead of at the clock tower.  Symi may also then provide shelter to occasional cruise ships late in the season when strong winds and heavy swells close Rhodes harbour.

Sorry but that's it for poppy pictures for another year!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Walking Down the Kali Strata

Still hanging on - today's poppy photo from the Pedi valley.

Count the cats.

The sea of yellow corona daisies around the Taxiarchis hotel has gone, replaced by haystacks.

An innovative way of keeping the cats out of the roses.  Water bottles, filled with tap water to weigh them down.  They probably act as a sort of mulch and insulation too.

The Kali Strata, the 19th century staircase connecting Chorio and Yialos, is my usual walk to work.  Many of the mansions lining the route are looking very sad now and quite a few are up for sale.  What was once the most desirable address on Symi is now quite forlorn as few people these days want to climb up and down so many steps on a daily basis.  Many of these houses have fabulous views and traditional interiors just waiting to be loved again.  

Still weeding - he is about half way down now.

This is what awaits our intrepid municipal worker with his weeding tools and black bags.

A levitating cool cat at the bottom of the Kali Strata.

Wood for the baker's oven.  Symi still has several bakeries using traditional wood ovens and each bakery on the island has its own specialities.  The gluten-free diet is never really likely to catch on in Greece - bread, rusks and savoury pies are too much a part of the local culinary tradition.

Even on an overcast day Symi's famous amphitheatre harbour delights the eye.  Yialos is still very quiet though, with few yachts coming through.

No cats fishing here today - the water level is too high.  I spotted this shoal of tiny fish in the shallows this morning, swirling about in the eddies of a wake thrown up by a passing fishing boat.

Overcast and murky, one of the last major weather systems of the spring is passing over Greece at the moment, bringing strong winds, grey skies and rain showers countrywide.  The weather is expected to improve from Monday and from then on the forecast shows days of rising temperatures and lots of sunshine.

April used to be a very popular month for walkers, photographers and families with small children who wanted to enjoy the spring flowers and avoid the heat and high prices of school holiday times.  It is a great shame that in recent years so few people come to stay on Symi in April and May.  It is a glorious time to be here, as you can see from all the spring flower photographs I have put up in recent weeks.  While we might not have the abundance of Crete and Cyprus, Symi's wild flowers are still pretty spectacular.

Shops, cafes and tourist businesses are slowly opening up for the season.  As there are fewer visitors staying on the island in April these days, some places stay closed until late May as it is not worth their while opening up early, but the essentials are certainly available and the island has a more authentic feel.  Part of Symi's attraction is that it is not an out-and-out tourist destination. Real people live here. Thanks to the strict rules on tourist development on the island and the protected architecture, when you visit Symi you really are staying in a genuine Greek island community.  We still have some May availability in some of our houses so if you are looking for a last minute spring break, why not email us on symi-vis@otenet.gr this weekend?

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Big Week on Symi

Summer-time visitors to Symi may have problems associating Symi with daisy lawns so here is the proof!

The Pedi valley is still green.  As most of the trees are now leafed over, very little of the earth beneath is visible and the cyclamens are disappearing fast.

Kali mera!

I think I might just make this my desktop wallpaper for the summer.  Green relief for tired eyes!

People are arriving for Easter and shutters are opening all over the island.

Cafes, bars and restaurants are opening for Easter visitors.

Once again the municipality has optimistically placed anti-parking devices along the waterfront at the head of the harbour.  You can see how effective they are from this photograph.

Spring flowers feed happy sheep and goats who produce lots of milk which turns into beautiful artisanal cheeses that in turn become tasty little cheese pies to share with friends on Easter Sunday.  That's the kind of food chain we all aspire to and which is readily traceable in Greek.

Preparing for sunny days.

It is just about warm enough for ice cream.

The Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony rail provides an over-pass for lazy cats making their way across the rooftops.  They don't often linger long enough to be photographed.

Today\s poppy picture

Today marks the start of Big Week, the solemn run-up to Greek Easter.  It is a very busy week in Greek households as the spring-cleaning, whitewashing and preparations for the Easter weekend and its celebratory Sunday feast all have to be completed in addition to attending many church services.  All of this is done on a strict fasting diet of pulses and halvah.  Oil and other fats are not allowed and wine is also not permitted. By Easter Sunday everyone will really deserve their lamb feast!

Good Friday and Easter Monday are both religious holidays here. Good Friday is particularly serious and there are strict taboos on manual labour on both Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is more of an extension of the Easter Sunday celebrations as well as providing time for people to travel home.  By the way, just as this is Big Week (Big as in solemn or momentous), next week is Bright Week and in theory anyway is a week of feasting to celebrate the Resurrection plus any name days that might have been missed due to Lent.

The weather remains mild with little difference between daytime and night-time temperatures.  It is around 20 degrees at midday and around 14 at night.  Once again some rain showers are expected midweek. Lovely in the sun, it is still chilly indoors and in the shade so take an extra layer when venturing forth. There is a distinct cold bite to the north wind.

It will be about a month before the excursion and taxi boats go back in the water and the beach tavernas start packing out sunbeds.  April is the time for walks in the countryside, enjoying the flowers and sparkling clean air.  In the old days, when people used to take several holidays a year, April used to be the month for walking groups, photographers, painting groups and so on.  In recent years the season has shrunk and we no longer see many foreign visitors in April.  Instead the main activity is Greek internal tourism - a combination of family members returning home for the celebrations and people exploring their own country in all its scenic glory. Springtime in Greece is spectacular and is reverting back to being a well-kept secret.  It is just as well there are bloggers like myself and James Collins to share it with you!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Making Hay While the Sun Shines on Symi

The Blue Star Paros at 8 a.m., Friday morning.  The boat comes and goes in a cloud of music as they play 'Fur Elise' as the boarding ramp goes up and down. a sound more evocative of old fashioned ice cream vans than a Greek island ferry!  You can see the new customs and immigration shed next to the clock tower more clearly in this photograph.

The faded elegance of the Kali Strata. Sometimes, as I walk down here to work I find myself wondering what it was like when this was Symi's shopping 'high street' - as you can see, the houses on the left all have what would have been business premises below. Seamstresses, cobblers (there was still one when I first came here), butchers, fishmongers, dairies (there was also one of those when I first came here) - all the things that a bustling town of 20 000 people would have needed.

This was probably a post office, if the bust of Hermes is anything to go by. These days it is an artist's studio.

Some of the bougainvilleas are starting to flower again.

Meanwhile, in the Pedi valley it is time to make hay while the sun shines.

Profiti Ilias, a monastery dedicated to the Prophet Elijah, sits high on the hill above the Pedi valley.  It is believed that there was an ancient temple to Apollo on that site and there are remains of ancient walls visible below the monastery.  

Goats using an old stone wall as a route from the hillside into a neglected walled garden.  This is the dry and arid side of the Pedi valley with more stones than soil and little grows apart from squills, thistles and euphorbia.

Keep out the goats and let the poultry roam among the daisies and this is what you get.  

Just in case you couldn't see the poultry for the daisies, here is a close up!

The austerity measures and high unemployment have turned many Greeks back to their agrarian roots.  Many long neglected patches of garden are undergoing a renaissance in the Pedi valley, not as a therapeutic indulgence but to put some food on the table.  Prickly pears and figs are easy to grow. The beds contain courgettes, lettuce, chard, spinach, rocket and herbs such as flat leaf parsley and mint which are used in abundance in this part of the world.  The main constraint is the lack of natural water so this is very much a winter activity.  

There is not much in the way of zoning here and bars, cafes and shops are often tucked among the houses in residential areas.  

Symi is warming up and there is no rain on the horizon.  Temperatures are now heading into the high twenties and we will probably see thirty degrees centigrade next week. There is a lot of dust suspended in the air and the sky has a pinkish hue today.  Ochre is a practical colour to paint buildings in a region often touched by the sandstorms of Africa and the Middle East. The kiosks have got their ice cream fridges up and running and the plastic drop cloths are rolled up.

Down in the harbour the epidemic of painting and decorating continues as shopkeepers press on with their preparations for the season.  Sometimes someone sets up a radio for some motivating music but today it is just the sound of voices, scratching sandpaper and swishing paint brushes that comes through the office windows.

The bus has gone to Rhodes again so I will be taking a taxi home if I can't get a lift.  As Symi is so steep, the usual pattern is to walk down and ride up - unless one is fit enough to walk both ways which quite a lot of people do if it is not too hot.  The arrival of the motor road about 35 years ago must have really revolutionised life for the islanders as before that there was no easy way to get from Yialos to Chorio and steps and ramps were the only option. The motor road is considerably longer than the Kali Strata and the other old pedestrian routes and has to make a generous sweep out of the harbour and back up to the windmills to cope with the gradient, making it quite a spectacular drive. Very few houses on Symi have close vehicle access as the lanes are very narrow and punctuated by steps.  The houses are close packed with little space where one could open up space for traffic.  There has never been a tradition of wheeled transport here as it is so steep. Those early Symiots must have been very fit!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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