July Postcards from Symi

The Cypriot  Salamis Filoxenia is the largest cruise ship that can actually dock in Yialos.  The rest, if they come our way, anchor off in Nimborio bay and bring their guests ashore in lighters.  

After a searing heatwave of over a week with temperatures in the mid to high forties, Symi's plant life is a bit frazzled.  The bougainvilleas and many trees and shrubs are shedding flowers, bracts and leaves with every puff of wind.  Temperatures have now dropped back into the thirties and feel quite reasonable after what we have been through recently.

Discreet advertising on the Kali Strata.  Symi is popular with artists of all kinds, inspired by the architecture, the landscape, the sparkling Aegean light...  If you are looking for somewhere to spark your muse, come to Symi!

The view from the Symi Visitor balcony is much busier than it was a week or so ago.  Ferries, cruise ships, water taxis, excursion boats, gulets, private yachts - there's always something coming or going every time I look out.

The Blue Star Paros has taken over from the Patmos for the summer.  Smaller and nippier, you can't miss her arrivals and departures as she plays little ice cream van jingles as the ramp goes down and up.

Once upon a time the sponge merchants of Symi sat out on these balconies, looking out for the fleet returning from the sponge grounds off Bengazi in Libya. That black car in the background is actually on the top of the hill on the other side of the harbour!  Symi's dimensions are Toy Town.

Keeping to the shady side of the street.

Looking up the Kali Strata from near the bottom, near the Old Markets hotel.

Summer colours

A new cantina has opened above me, at Agia Marina cemetery  (not to be confused with Agia Marina beach which is a different place altogether!).  A low budget enterprise, most of the furniture has been made from old pallets.  They will be grilling souvlaki on hot summer nights and we have already discovered that we are teased with tantalising aromas when the wind blows from that direction.

The view from the new cantina.  That is the Pedi Valley and Pedi Bay on the right.  On the left you can see over the ridge towards Nimborio bay and Nimos island.

Book your accommodation with us at Symi Visitor Accommodation and you will receive a totally personalised service.  All your questions are answered and your needs are taken into account when we make your booking.  

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Life on Symi in July 2016

A flotilla of cruising yachts sailing out of Yialos early this morning.  It was nice to see so many sailing boats, many of them obvious live-aboards, all rafted up in the harbour while their crews enjoyed breakfast ashore in the many waterfront cafes and bakeries.

A water taxi loaded up and ready to head for the beaches.  Most of Symi's beaches are not really accessible by any other means as they are surrounded by steep cliffs and hillsides.  Apart from the stretch from Harani to Nimborio, there is no coastal road on Symi due to the sheer nature of the coastline and the road that connects Yialos and Chorio with Panormitis monastery at the south-western end of the island, goes along Symi's spine.  If you ever get the chance, it is well worth going up on the Panormitis bus or hiring a car or scooter for the day as the views from the top are quite spectacular.

The state of the art new Hellenic coastguard cutter rounding the bows of the Panagia Skiadeni while a tourist gulet from Turkey waits patiently to depart. There is always something to watch in Yialos and Pedi and anyone who spends their time in the water front cafes peering at cat memes on a device instead of watching the passing parade is missing one of the many reasons for coming to Symi on holiday.

A very unusual high speed motor craft, all the way from the Ukraine and painted in the Ukrainian national colours.

Symi harbour is not all hustle and bustle and glamour yachts.  Sometimes Symi harbour is peaceful fishing boats and sparkling reflections.

Look up as you walk around and you may be surprised at what you see.

Fishing nets below the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning.  

Steps to no where on the Kali Strata.  Many of the ruins have had their doors and windows blocked up with stones to discourage people from wandering about and possibly having an accident.

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Celebrating Eid in Safety on Symi

7.30 a.m. Tuesday morning and Pedi bay was pretty busy.

Symi is a very steep island with more steps than roads.  This view is from the top of the Kali Strata, just below the village square with its tavernas and traditional bars. Chorio is where the main permanent community lives and has its own shops, cafes, tavernas, bakeries and supermarkets.  If you look carefully at the hills behind the houses you can just make out the scar that is the big sweep the motor road makes to get from Yialos to Chorio.

Looking down at Yialos and Harani on Tuesday morning, even the harbour and outlying anchorages were full. Most of the yachts you can see in this picture are Turkish, even if they may be carrying US or other flags of convenience.

One of the alternative pedestrian routes to town, there is a broad turn off to the right about halfway down the Kali Strata, on the lower side of the high school, which zigzags down to the harbour and pops out near the bus stop.  Various lanes and contour paths branch off this, leading to other tiers of houses.

Yialos early on Wednesday morning.

Thursday morning and a most welcome sight - the water ship!  As Symi has no natural water it is dependent on a small desalination plant on the Pedi road and water boats that come in from Rhodes and even further afield. This is why swimming pools and water features are not a part of Symi's landscape and you won't find many bath tubs either!  Mind you, Symi's sheltered beaches with their spectacular surroundings offer an attractive alternative to swimming pools.

The waterfront in Yialos is lined with pretty cafes, bars and tavernas.  With so much maritime activity in the summer there is always something to watch.  Most of these venues offer free wifi to patrons these days, for those who prefer to spend their time in one of the world's prettiest harbours looking at cat memes on their devices.

Who needs cat memes when there are local cats of character to observe? This one belongs to one of the supermarkets in Yialos and is, as you can see, quite polite and very well fed.  He has appeared on this blog before over the years.  Many harbour businesses keep a cat or two as working cats to keep pests under control.

Up in Chorio this small supermarket is keeping the flag flying.

The most photographed sunflower on Symi just keeps on going.

Symi benefited vastly from the Eid holidays this year as hundreds of Turks, mostly on boats of various shapes and sizes, elected to celebrate the end of Ramadan on a peaceful Greek island with no security concerns.  Symi is the perfect get away from the cares of the world and those with access to visas and boats made the most of an opportunity to visit a safe EU destination on their doorstep.

The landmark Lemonitissa church is having a fresh coat of paint.

A concession to our many Turkish visitors - an ouzerie near our office, advertising mezzes and live Greek music in Turkish.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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July Postcards from Symi

Not a cloud in the sky.

The castle is long gone from the Kastro hill - all you can see are the remnants of the fortified walls. The castle was pretty much in a state of disrepair by the time the Germans were using it as a munitions store in the Second World War and when they blew it up, there wasn't much left.  The main damage was actually to the surrounding houses and this part of Chorio has been very slow to be rebuilt. The lanes are very narrow, often too narrow for donkeys, making reconstruction difficult and expensive and as the population is only about a tenth of what it was, there is little pressure to rebuild the more labyrinthine areas of Chorio.

Pedi bay at 7.30 a.m. today. Looking at that sparkling sea.

Those sunflowers are hanging on. That is the Vigla, the highest peak on Symi, in the background. When I first came here 23 years ago there were only two beacons up there - one to relay the TV signals from Rhodes and one to relay the radio signals likewise.  Now it is bristling with towers for the different mobile phone networks.  

If you have anything shipped to Symi, no matter how vehemently the removal firm or supplier will promise you door to door delivery, your goods will arrive on this yellow lorry which will park at a suitable spot in Yialos and then in Chorio.  Everyone comes to collect whatever they are expecting and somehow or other get it to their house.  Very few properties on Symi have close vehicle access so door to door deliveries are just not feasible, anymore so than dustbin men collecting from the houses.  

Yialos and Harani at 8 this morning. Suddenly things are looking busier.

There are even people on the Kali Strata.

One bougainvillea and a light breeze make confetti.

The motorboats are back. The  mooring men work out a system with all the sailing boats in one place, the motorboats in another and then all the gulets lined up in a row.   This way little boats don't get crushed by bigger ones and the hull shapes are compatible.  The mooring men work hard in the summer to keep everyone happy and fouled anchors to a minimum.

Water taxis ready for the beach.  Most of Symi's beaches can only be reached by sea and this is the most effective way of doing this.  When the temperature is 39 degrees the beach is a sensible decision. And yes, that is Michael's trusty 3 wheeler from the Hotel Fiona parked in the foreground.  He was enjoying a quick coffee and chat at Pachos.  That 3-wheeler must be 20 years old by now and he goes all over the island on it so it is something of a movable landmark if that makes any sense.

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Time Out in Unlimited Sunshine

8 a.m. Wednesday - the Dodecanese Seaways Panagia Skiadeni had already set off at 7 a.m. for Rhodes. This is the Blue Star Paros docking en route from Pireus to Rhodes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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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Sizzling on Symi

This might not look like a comfortable nest by northern European standards but she chose it herself and is sitting on a clutch of eggs in the shade of a holly oak.  We put her food and water nearby for her and are awaiting developments with interest.

Early risers can enjoy the ephemeral flowers of the indigenous caper bushes.

It is now several months since we had significant rainfall on Symi and with temperatures 40 degrees and above the trees and shrubs are shedding their leaves with alacrity.  We don't have a proper autumn here because by the time it does start to cool off and the days shorten, most of the deciduous plants and trees are already bald.  

A lone red balloon bobbing on the stones near the junction at the top of the Kali Strata.  I wonder what stories it has to tell.

In these temperatures no one has much inclination to cook indoors and heat up the house.  These small, basic but efficient BBQs are commonplace outside front doors, used to quickly grill a couple of fish or a handful of pork souvlaki. They are also good for grilling aubergines and peppers for dips.

When I went to the bank at 11 a.m. there was hardly anyone about and the horse was taking a rest under the tamarind tree.  Visitors staying on the island are all on the beach or somewhere shady by this time of the day and the day excursion boats hadn't come in yet from Rhodes.

By the time I emerged, the Symi excursion boat had docked over by the bus stop and tour parties were already making their way around the harbour. The tour guides carry parasols so that they are easy to spot in the throng.

Not so long ago there used to be an EU flag in the middle, flanked by two Greek ones, but times have changed.

The noddy train, heading round the harbour on the 40 minute round trip to Nimborio.

It is another scorching hot day on Symi. The bank, being one of the coolest places in the harbour, was busy this morning - mostly with locals intent more upon enjoying a gossip in the cool than high finance.  Business owners are all busy paying taxes and social security payments for their staff, transactions that were delayed because of the extended bank holiday and are now due.

It is much quieter than usual for July as very few Greeks are able to take holidays this summer due to the banking restrictions.  It doesn't matter how rich you are, in a cash based economy if you are restricted to withdrawals of 60 euros per account per day you can't withdraw enough money to cover holiday accommodation, ferry fares, meals and all the other things that a family needs on holiday.

Although the official Symi Festival has not happened for some years due to the economic crisis, a sort of alternative festival has sprung up, started by a committee of various enthusiastic locals plus the usual Sunday night film club in Chorio. Watch out for posters advertising various events around Symi including concerts, recitals, film  shows and art exhibitions during your stay.  Most events are free.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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