May on Symi

This house on the Kali Strata was abandoned recently enough to have had an electricity connection.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Cooing on the Kali Strata.

Gleaming whitewash, all ready for summer.

These glass eye amulets are popular in both Greece and Turkey.

Symi colours

Health and safety? What's that?

The path to St Nicholas beach, Pedi

Oregano

Hen and chickens

Rush hour, Symi style

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning. The storm reached us about half an hour later and we had an hour of gentle rain.  The thunder and lightning stayed well out to sea.

We have had all sorts of weather this week, ranging from hot and dry to cool and breezy with showers and passing thunderstorms.   The sailors' strike for Tuesday and Wednesday was extended for another 48 hours so we have not seen the Blue Star at all this week.  Dodecanese Seaways was unaffected by the strike action and their vessels continued to run to the advertised schedule.  It is worth remembering that when you see big headlines about 'paralysing' strikes and so on, this is very seldom really the case and small local shipping companies continue to run.  They can't afford not to.  It is only the big companies operating out of Pireus that are usually affected so if you are flying into Rhodes, you can still get to Symi.

The number of yachts and Turkish gulets passing through Symi is slowly increasing and there are a few more people around, mainly regular visitors to the island and their friends.  Saga Holidays, Olympic Holidays and Titan Travel also have people on the island at the moment.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Life on Symi in November

Apparently this privately owned yacht went aground at Nimborio earlier this week and was towed round to Yialos, kept afloat by these bladders.  Salvage attempts to raise her will be taking place soon.

Wednesday morning's Blue Star Diagoras was absolutely packed, as you can see from the crowd at the clock tower.  It was our first day return to Rhodes in 10 days because of the strike and limited winter schedules and at the same time also the last for some time as Thursday's strike meant that the Friday boat would not be coming through in time for anyone needing to get to Rhodes during business hours to benefit.

If you follow this lane at the back of the harbour you will find yourself climbing the Kataraktis, the ancient path up to the Akropolis and Chorio that was used for centuries before the Kali Strata was built by wealthy sponge merchants in the late 19th century.  The fancy paving quickly turns to cobbles once one is clear of the houses and it comes out, not surprisingly, in the oldest part of upper Chorio.

One of the two dental surgeries on Symi.  While there is a constant crisis when it comes to doctors serving the community through the clinics as they are outside appointments, the two dentists are local men, indeed they are related as uncle and nephew, and they provide excellent treatment at affordable prices.

An orange tree, swelling with fruit which will ripen in the course of the next few weeks. The heavy rain in September and again in October gave the citrus trees a head-start this winter.

Symi is an extremely steep island with lots of steps.  They don't always follow any kind of cohesive order as  in many cases, such as this one, each property has built its own access steps over the years and they only merge where they pop out at the bottom.  This photograph shows access to at least 6 households built into the cliffs of Symi's Akropolis.  The remnants of the Kastro are right at the top, beyond the Greek flag.

Now that the Great Winter Sleep has begun it is very quiet in Chorio and often the only life to be seen is in feline form.

A windy sky on Tuesday.  The weather is still dominated by a big high pressure system which is showing little sign of shifting.  Temperatures remain between 16 and 23 degrees centigrade and the long range forecast remains rainless.

A rebel in Chorio.  I don't know to whom this Mercedes belongs as it has only appeared in the neighbourhood recently but whoever it is is determined to ignore the request in triplicate.

Not all of you use Facebook but if you love Symi you are undoubtedly aware of the work of Solidarity Symi, a registered charity set up by Wendy Wilcox of Symi Visitor Accommodation and Andrew Davies of the Old Markets Hotel to help refugees and other people in need on Symi.  Here is a link we posted on Facebook recently to an article in Kathimerini, a mainstream Greek newspaper which interviewed Wendy and Ian Leckie, a British policeman who decided to take a year's sabbatical to help out on Symi.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Merry May Day, Everyone!

The view from the office balcony just after 8 this morning - the Blue Star Diagoras gliding into Symi. She was not affected by today's strike as she left Piraeus before the strike began and will only return tomorrow, after the strike is over.  

An hour later, enter our old friend, the water ship. When I first came, before the present desalination plant was built, the water ship from Rhodes was a regular sight in both Yialos and Pedi. These days she comes in when the desalination plant cannot cope with demand.  We have not had any rain for a month now and the summer drought has begun. The cisterns and reservoirs are running empty. At the same time the hotels are starting to open and need to be able to fill their cisterns and there is increasing pressure on the island's water supplies, hence the water ship.

Touching up the paintwork in the back streets of Yialos.

The elegant entrance to the churchyard of St John's at the back of Yialos.  There is a junior school, the Petrideon, at the back of the church and that is where the little girls are heading.

Cleaning awnings, Symi-style.  The blue steps in the corner mark the start of the Kali Strata, the famous steps connecting Yialos with Chorio, the old upper town.

One of my neighbours is experimenting with rigging his boat to save fuel.  As he cannot afford proper sailcloth, this is made of plastic tablecloth fabric.  The pattern is a mixture of geometrics and tulips reminiscent of the 1960s so it may well come from a trunk or attic. The sad thing is that under Greek tax legislation he will pay as much per annum for his much-loved and largely homemade little boat, with its plastic table cloth sail, as someone with an equivalent size Sunseeker or Riva as the only criterion looked at is length over all.

Nobody talks about olive blossom.  It doesn't get the same attention as the more showy almond and cherry blossom and no one enthuses over it like apple blossom.  It doesn't feature on postcards and Instagram.  Poets don't write about it and no one names things after it.  The truth of the matter is that olive trees blossom copiously and all the olive trees on Symi are covered in a haze of tiny creamy-greenish flowers.  

The cyclamens are long gone but the pink bindweed is taking over, tumbling out of rock faces and up fences in an early morning show of cheerful pink.  The flowers burn off in the heat of the day and a new flush opens each morning.

Making the most of the last of the daisies on the Kali Strata.

The poppies are feeling the heat and it is only a leaky pipe that is keeping this clump going.

Growing in a gutter in Lieni, watered by the outflow of the washing machine from the house above.  It is amazing what can survive on a diet of grey water when the rain is over.

The gypsy hawkers do the rounds of the islands, selling their wares. This wonderful display of garden plants arrived on Wednesday and will no doubt leave on the Blue Star tonight.

May Day, Protomai, the first of May, is a holiday in Greece.  It marks the beginning of summer and is celebrated with flowers and wreaths.  As I was walking down to work early this morning many of the local housewives and their daughters were heading into the valley and up the mountain to see what they could find to make the traditional May Day posies and wreaths for the their doors.

This evening there is the annual Koukoumas celebration. This is a traditional event that takes place at Agios Thannasis church in Chorio every year in early May and is organised by the Symi Women's Association.  The local girls perform a ritual dance in traditional costume that is supposed to enable them to foresee their future husbands.  It is a joyful event with a lot of dancing and music and goes on for about an hour. The music can usually be heard all round Chorio and the Pedi valley so if you are on the island and unsure of the way, just follow the music!

Tomorrow evening there is more dancing in the form of the annual concert of the Rhiannon Wheeler Dance School at the Opera House Hotel conference centre in Yialos.  Rhiannon teaches local children (and enthusiastic adults) everything from ballet and tap to jazz through the winter months and then they have a concert before the season starts to show off what they have learned.  Once the tourist season starts everyone is too busy for personal stuff and dance classes become something to look forward to again in the autumn.

The first cruise ship of the season came through for a few hours on Wednesday evening.  As it was of modest size it was able to come alongside at the clock tower.  When bigger ones, the sort that dock in Rhodes, come to Symi they have to lie to anchor off Nimborio and bring guests ashore in small boats. It is rare for cruise ships to spend the night on Symi. They just stop off for 2-3 hours so that passengers can have a stroll around the waterfront and investigate Symi's many small shops and boutiques. Sometimes people who have seen Symi from a cruise ship come back for a longer stay so it is a good way of promoting the island.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Perfect Poppies

Perfect poppies

Last year's Christmas tree finds a summer home on the Kali Strata.

Bee hives in the shade of an oak in the Pedi Valley.  That is Profiti Ilias in the background.

Waiting for a new roof in the harbour.

The view from my office balcony this morning after the rain.

They don't make padlocks like this anymore.

A new ceramics shop opening in our lane.

All set for the season.

Spring flowers outside one of Symi's boutique wine shops.

Symi awoke to the rumble of thunder this morning and a short sharp storm rolled over the island at dawn, dumping some hail and a fair amount of rain on the island as it headed east to Turkey.  The sun is out now and everything looks fresh and perky.  After a windy weekend and today's showers it looks as though the weather will be more settled for the rest of the week.  Next week is 'Big Week', the big run up to Easter so everyone is flat out busy with painting, cleaning and baking in anticipation of the holidays.  The tavernas and gyros bars that are open usually switch to a strict fasting menu for Big Week so expect seafood specialities and pulses rather than meat dishes on the menu.

There are quite a few new shops and enterprises opening up on the island this year and browsers will find more interesting and artisanal gifts to take home as souvenirs.  I'll be taking photographs as I go about my errands in the course of the week to share with you on Friday.

There is a big nationwide strike scheduled for tomorrow, mainly affecting the major ports, railways and public services.  At this stage there is no mention of air traffic controllers being involved.  Please keep an eye on our travel blog http://symivisitor-accommodation.com/blog/ and also http://livingingreece.gr/strikes/ for updates and information if you are visiting Greece at this time.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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