Bright Week on Symi

The pink bindweed is one of the last of the spring flowers to appear on Symi, lingering on into May.

An attention-seeking poppy.

The black plastic water pipes that snake along the roads and lanes of Symi are masked, albeit briefly, by verdant verges.

You are probably getting a bit bored with poppy photos but they really are splendid this year and in a few weeks they will be gone, replaced by dusty hillsides and scrubby brown bushes.

This is the first year I have seen taverna chairs being painted along our road but there is a first time for everything!

Petunias lighting up a shady terrace in Chorio.

The massive task of weeding and painting the Kali Strata has begun.

He has a long way to go!

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony today.  Yes, those are rainclouds!

Easter was celebrated with the usual exuberance and a mixture of fireworks and enormous bangs, whether dynamite or fertiliser bombs I don't know.  To the best of my knowledge, everyone's windows survived the weekend.

The weather was lovely - sunny and dry with a cool breeze.  The clouds came back on Monday and we had a lingering thunderstorm with light rain overnight.  This is the time of year when North Africa and the Middle East are heating up and continental Europe remains cold.  The Mediterranean is right between the two so we get thundershowers and occasional storms as the hot and cold air collide over us. Amazingly we haven't had any red rain or dust storms so far this year which is quite unusual.  Temperatures on Symi and in Rhodes are still around the 20 degree mark so not really beach weather yet.

The Panagia Skiadeni is now operating day trips from Rhodes, offering a diversion for early season tourists staying in hotels in Rhodes who are looking for an alternative to shivering on the beach or by the pool.  This is good for the cafes and tourist shops that have opened up along the waterfront in Yialos.

Have a good week!

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Is Open for Business!

The leather shop and some of the other tourist shops along the Mouragio side of the harbour are now open.

The view from the Symi Visitor balcony is still mainly fishing boats. I took this photograph early in the week when the Dodecanese Seaways catamaran did a day trip from Rhodes. The Panagia Skiadeni did her first day trip yesterday.

Work on the new harbour has stopped for the Easter weekend so that the crew can spend the holiday with their families.  Look at how green the hillside is.

The wild lupins have joined the poppies and corona daisies in the terraces.

Muscari - the wild grape hyacinth.

Muscari growing from the base of an old stone wall in Lieni.

More of the tavernas and cafes are opening up, ready for visitors coming over from Rhodes.

An abundance of clover.  No wonder Symi Easter lamb is so succulent.

Maria has been busy, cutting wild oregano to dry in the shade and sell to passers by on the Kali Strata.

The Turkish gulets are back.

Lemonitissa church looming over Yialos.  This is one of the main churches in Chorio for the Easter celebrations at midnight on Saturday night.

The beach tavernas are not open yet and it will be while a month before the water taxis come into operation but that's no excuse not to buy designer beach wear.

New stock, waiting to be unpacked.  

Suddenly Symi is a lot more awake.  The day boats have started from Rhodes and there are a lot more people about, mostly Greek rather than foreigners.  More businesses are opening up and there is a buzz of activity around the harbour.  At this point it is still very low key as there are few tourists actually staying on the island and the main focus is people coming over from Rhodes for the day and people visiting their families for the Easter holidays.

At this point there is no much open in the evening as everyone is in church.  The most solemn services take place tonight and tomorrow, Good Friday, when the epitaphs are paraded through the parishes with a lot of loud bangs and firecrackers to deter Satan and other evil spirits. At midnight on Saturday night there will be an altogether different kind of loud bangs as the Resurrection is celebrated with fireworks and dynamite.

The grocery shops are overflowing with fresh produce for the Easter feast and the smell of baking wafts through the lanes of Chorio.  Every year brings more chocolate bunnies and eggs but Easter is still very much a non-commercial event in the islands.  The emphasis is on home-baked biscuits of all kinds and dyed boiled eggs to share with friends and family.

After a couple of days of drizzly weather it looks as though the Easter weekend itself will be mainly fine and dry with the possibility of thundershowers on Monday.  Temperatures are around 20 at midday, falling to around 14 at night.

Our office is closed for the long weekend so I shall be back on Tuesday with more photographs of Symi in April to share with you.

Kalo Pasca everybody!

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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March Postcards from Symi

Another cyclamen shot - because in a few short weeks they will be gone as though they have never been and the landscape will revert to the baked bare earth of summer. Let us revel in this verdant and fragrant abundance while we may.

Poppies are another spring flower seen in abundance in Greece from late March until early May, depending on the rains.

6 a.m. sunrise over Pedi bay.

One of the ruins on the Kali Strata is now sporting this impressive riveted steel door.

 A delicate fern growing out of an old grape vine on the Kali Strata.

Waiting for tidbits outside the butcher in Yialos.

Good Friday is only a fortnight away and some of the traditional Easter items are for sale in the shops.  Beautifully decorated prcessional candles are popular.  Originally decorated with religious motifs, they now have all sorts of decorations on them, both religious and secular.  

Symi isn't really cycling country unless you are very fit and have a good mountain bike.  These bikers must have arrived on the Blue Star this morning.

31 March and Yialos is still empty.

The water level is very low due to a barometric high over the area and the cats like to hang about on the exposed foundations of the bridge, batting at the fish and hunting for any scraps of bread.

The day's catch, on display at the fish market by the bridge.  There are far too  many fishermen around for the cats to try a smash and grab raid on this bountiful display but the fishermen do toss them the odd fish.

Although the tourist season proper does not really start until May, there is quite a bit of internal tourism over Easter as Greeks go to visit their families.  A lot of the shops and cafes are starting to get ready for the first guests and there is a major spring-clean underway.  the weather is warming up, the plastic 'tents' are disappearing from the cafes and the air is buzzing with power washers and the whiff of detergent.

The Merakles is ready in case anyone drops in for lunch and the boutique behind is having a thorough clean before the new stock is unpacked.

The sea and the land have supported the inhabitants of Symi for at least 3000 years and as tourist arrivals have dwindled in recent years, many Symiots have fallen back on those two resources to sustain their families through hard times.

March is drawing to a close.  The weather is warming up and we have had a few light rain showers, mercifully clean, in the past 24 hours.  Midday temperatures are around 19 degrees, falling to about 11 at night. We have had a couple of days where it has been 20 in the sun but it is still quite chilly in the shade.  There is heavy dew fall at night and anything left out is very damp in the morning.

I shall be in Athens next week and am not sure exactly when I will be back so my next blog is likely to be the following week which is, of course, Big Week, the run up to Greek Easter and a period of serious fasting in Greece.  Lent is not just a matter of giving up treats in Greece.  It requires serious self-discipline but all that abstinence is well rewarded come Easter Sunday!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Kalo Pasca!

The Pedi valley yesterday.  There is a chilly north-westerly wind blowing which is only expected to drop some time tomorrow so it is unusually cold on Symi for the time of the year.  It is only about 14 degrees at the moment.  There is a shipping ban in effect so the Blue Star ferries are tied up in Piraeus and many parts of Greece have experienced late snow.

Looking across towards central Chorio from Lieni.

Some optimistically placed no-parking cones along the waterfront in Yialos.

A windy sky and a chilly sea. The two Dodecanese Seaways catamarans are sheltering from the storm as Rhodes harbour is untenable.

More places are opening up for the Easter weekend.

A ruined shopfront on the Kali Strata steps. This must have been quite a fancy business in its heyday as there are fragments of quite elaborate plaster and wrought iron still visible.

Wild lupins and poppies in the Pedi valley.

Irises and a prickly pear.

One of my cockerels enjoying the feel of freshly sieved soil between his claws.  These stones were dumped on our terraces when the Agia Marina river burst its banks during the winter and we are having to sieve all the stones out of the soil again before we can plant anything.

It is Good Friday in Greece.  Many people have been fasting scrupulously this week and even the gyros bar is only serving taramasalata (cod roe dip) and salads.  Meat isn't back on the menu until Sunday when the Resurrection is celebrated with traditional spit roast lamb and goat. No wine today.  No oil in cooking.  Good Friday is observed very seriously and there should be no manual labour.  Most shops are closed apart from those selling essential foods and people spend a lot of time in church.

Tonight there will be processions of the Epitaphi which represent Christ's body through the streets of Symi, a very dramatic event with much chanting and many explosions to keep evil spirits at bay. The different parishes have their own processions and there is an element of competition as to who produces the most beautifully decorated Epitaph.

Have a good weekend and Kalo Pasca!

Regards,
Adriana

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