The Sun is Out

Autumn light and cloud shadows.

Pediment details on the Kali Strata.

On the Kali Strata there are many mansions, some restored, some ruined, some decaying with quiet neglect, waiting for absent or impecunious owners to one day find the money to restore them to their former glory.

The bell tower of St John's church at the back of Yialos.  

There's a cat posing among the pot plants near St John's courtyard in Yialos.  Can you see him?

An inscrutable cat pretending to be invisible.

Drying out wet deck cushions on the Poseidon on the right. The water taxi service is now finished for the year.

The bunting is up for tomorrow's Ochi Day Parade.  Tomorrow is a major public holiday in Greece so banks and government offices and many businesses will be closed. There's a lone late season megayacht on the quay but otherwise very little activity.

After a very wet weekend the sun is out and the harbour is ringing with the sound of excited children, practising for the Ochi Day Parade tomorrow.  As the wind is coming down from the north it is now quite chilly in the shade.  Temperatures will be around 20 degrees at midday this week although the nights will remain fairly mild with not much difference between day and night time temperatures.  More thundershowers and storms are forecast for later in the week and early next week.  At the moment there are no seriously strong winds forecast but the weather is so changeable at the moment there are no guarantees.

As the tourist season draws to a close many of the locals are busy with preparations for the Panormitis Festival at the other end of the island.  This takes place over the 7th and 8th of November and pilgrims come from all over Greece to stay at the monastery.  It is a very Greek event and is an opportunity to celebrate in a way that is totally divorced from mainstream tourism.  A bit of a travelling fair sets up around the monastery with hawkers setting up stalls to sell socks, oranges, Chinese power tools and freshly fried doughnuts plus anything else that can be loaded onto a pickup truck or sold from a market stall.  The ferry timetable is now available for the Panormitis festival period if you are going to be here at that time.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Clear Breezy Autumn Day on Symi

It is a clear breezy autumn day on Symi and the long range forecast remains warm and dry with only the occasional passing cloud. The vapour trails are back. Temperatures are expected to remain in the mid to high twenties for the next week or so.  Usually by this time the Pedi valley is humming with rotavators but this year there has been no rain and the ground is far too hard to work until this happens.

Symi is very quiet now and many summer houses are well and truly shut up for the winter with storm shutters and plastic sheeting to protect doors and windows from the lashing rain and hail that will inevitably arrive at some point in the next 6 months.  I walk to work a little later now and apart from children heading for school I see very few people.  The high price of fuel means fewer cars on the road, and more children being taken to school on motorbikes and scooters or toiling up the Kali Strata on foot.

No cruise ships passed through Symi this week and Yialos is emptying rapidly.  The few yachts visible in the photos have pulled out in the course of this morning. The Proteus and the DodecaneseExpress have come in with day trippers, mainly Russian, which suggests that Rhodes still has some tourists.

Dodecanese Seaways’ schedule for the rest of October is very limited and there are days in the week where they skip out Symi altogether. Fortunately the Proteus continues until the end of the month and there is the Blue Star Diagoras on Wednesday.

A General Strike has been called for 18 October but at this stage it is too soon to tell what may or may not be affected.  I will try to put up more information about this on Monday if it is relevant.  You can also check out www.livingingreece.gr for regular updates.  

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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