Adriana's Symi-the latest news from the island. Julyl 2003

July/August 2003

The latest news & weather from Symi, reported by Adriana Shum from 'The Symi Visitor' office.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29th 2003
Who knows when this report will reach Mike - and the website. A major fault in Symi's telephone system has had the island cut off for much of the week. A troupe of technicians came over from Rhodes on Tuesday, thought they had fixed it and departed, only to have to return again. Fortunately the mobile phone network, apart from Cosmote, is largely functioning as normal but this does not help banks and businesses who need to be 'on line' to function. I suspect that we may be doing an investigative report on this for next month's 'The Symi Visitor' as it is most unusual for such a situation to occur without an obvious cause such as lightning or maintenance.

The office is very quiet with no phones ringing and no emails to answer - the filing is getting a lot of attention!

It is still quite hot and humid on Symi with temperatures in the mid to high thirties. The air is very hazy and there is mist in the early mornings. The shadows are getting longer. It is quite pleasant to sit out in the evenings, liberally anointed with mosquito repellent and listening to the strains of bouzouki drifting across the valley.

Have a good weekend!

Regards,

Adriana

The Symi Visitor
www.SymiVisitor.com

MONDAY, AUGUST 25th 2003
Another sultry summer's day on Symi. Visitors to our office show a marked reluctance to move beyond the downdraft from the air conditioning unit above the door.

Outside the streets are quiet - everyone with any sense is kipping under a beach umbrella with the sea within paddling distance. There is a cat asleep under every parked vehicle in the harbour and several in the pannier of the motorbike in the alley behind our office. The energetic stuff happened yesterday when some hardy souls ran all the way from Panormitis to Yialos - more about that in the September edition of the Symi Visitor which we are busy compiling at the moment.

The exodus from the islands back to the mainland is now in full flow as the Athenians troop back to work. Cars laden with holiday gear and bags of rusks to munch in case of ferry delays are squeezing onto ferries. The weather in the north and in the Ionian is turning stormy and travellers have been warned to watch out for strong winds, lightning strikes and possible shipping disruptions. Down here in Symi of course summer lingers on for a while yet and the only change to mark the shortening days is the burnished light of dawn which lingers on until midmorning, tingeing the whitewash apricot and echoing the golden patchwork of the dusty terraces. The schools reopen soon so the shops are full of satchels and the teachers are starting to arrive on the island.

Have a good week

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd 2003
Anyone who has never been to Symi in August may find it difficult to reconcile the sedate September Symi with the island as it is at the moment. Spectacular luxury yachts in Pedi and the harbour. Private helicopters whizzing about like mosquitoes and sleek dinghies ferrying elegantly clad passengers ashore... Pirelli Tyres, Wally Yachts and Todd Shoes have all been here this week. 'One', a Cypriot 'boy band', is performing in the Town Square tonight and the local teenagers are already staking their claims. We'll let you know when 'Hello' magazine presents its credentials...

The bike and car hire businesses are doing brisk trade and there are waiting lists for both. In the heat walking up the mountain is just not feasible and many visitors are enjoying the delights of packing a picnic and exploring the shady valleys and slopes of the interior as an alternative to baking on the beaches all day. Sunrise over Nanou and sunset at Megalo Sotiris are memorable experiences and accessible to far more visitors now that the road has been surfaced and reliable transport is available for hire. Certainly with the high cost of the water taxis people are finding other ways to enjoy their time on the island - and in the process are developing a deeper appreciation of the island.

Meanwhile down in the harbour, in the Symi Visitor office, between accommodation enquiries and information about every aspect of the island (including bike hire!) we are busy putting the September edition of the newspaper together.

Have a good weekend! More on Monday.

MONDAY, AUGUST 18th 2003
The holiday long weekend coincided with another heatwave and the meltemi which has been blowing quite hard in recent weeks decided to give us a break so it has been very hot and humid on Symi for the past 2 days. The island is very busy at this time of the year and we have been treated to some very glamorous motor and sailing yachts in the harbour and at anchor in Pedi bay.

In the heat of the day it is only day trippers who are to be seen in the town as everyone else is on the beach or undercover. In the evenings, however, there is plenty of activity and the sounds of music linger until late in the night. Last week, over the full moon, many of the main archaeological sites on the mainland were open for the night and held free concerts so that people could enjoy the romance of music among the moonlit ruins.

Every year among Symi's visitors there are the inevitable grumblers who complain about the island's limited water supply, the lack of air conditioning in many of the houses, the heat, the sporadic power cuts etc etc followed by the inevitable observation that, of course, what can one expect from such 'primitive' people... so there has been a certain smugness in the community as Greek television has revealed the 'collapse' of Western Europe the moment temperatures reached the thirties - conditions that we regard as normal here in the summer.The news that offices in Berlin close as soon as the thermometer hits 29 degrees was met with particular amusement - if that was the case here, we'd all be on holiday for half the year! And when we have power failures, DEH usually has us up and running again in no time, even if the voltage isn't always a clean 220 volts. An advantage of the semi-autonomous infrastructure in Greece is that the kind of domino effect that just crippled New York, Canada and large chunks in between, cannot happen.

Have a good week!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1st 2003
August is upon us. Suitcases on little wheels trundle in all directions and the taxi drivers wear a demented air. It’s the coffee shop season as the French and Italians arrive and the whiff of espresso mingles on the air with vanilla ice cream and coco nut oil suncream. Bright beachwear vies with the bougainvilleas and oleanders.

Greece is now officially on holiday. Ring any Athens number and the chances are you will get an answering machine. Where do Greeks go on holiday? Mainly the islands, either to visit relatives or to see parts of their country which are unfamiliar. Although Symi is particularly hot due to its sheltered location, generally the islands are considerably cooler than the mainland in August. There is also a strong tradition of summer-house ownership, with an estimated 30% of Greeks having a second home. This is a spin off from the migration from the rural areas and islands to the cities in the search for work. Those little village houses remained in the family and see a lot of use in August. Here on Symi houses that are shut up for much of the year are suddenly opened up, soft furnishings dragged outside to air in a fog of ‘klorini’ and incense, and everywhere there is the sound of happy chatter as seasonal friendships are resumed from where they left off the previous year.

Enjoy your weekend. Mike will post up another report sometime next week if he can find a cybercafe in the remoter reaches of the Cyclades…

MONDAY, JULY 28th 2003
The sunflowers are drooping lower in the heat as the summer moves on to its zenith. The island is becoming increasingly crowded, not just with day trippers from Rhodes but also with those who have come to spend 2 or 3 or even 4 weeks on the island. Athenians, Italians, French, Germans, Danes, Americans, Turks… It is the most cosmopolitan time of the year on on Symi. The Festival is now under way. The official opening ceremony was on Saturday night with fireworks, music and the presentation of awards to various women from Symi and elsewhere. The whole story is covered in the August edition of the Symi Visitor.

The drawbacks of the boom system are becoming apparent as the traffic flow is now confined to limited periods, resulting in enforced ‘rush hours’ and cars parked all the way along the harbour front from the boom right back to the fuel station as it is not possible to park in the town itself. Thursdays are particularly bad as a Cypriot cruise ship docks by the clock tower so the Nissos Kalymnos , which is a vehicle ferry, comes in by the boom, at about the same time as the hydrofoil arrives from Rhodes and before the tourist boats (forced to tie up on that side because of the cruise ship) leave, resulting in a gridlock that last week ran right the way back to the hairpin bend and necessitated several policemen to sort out. This congestion is not helped by people who trailer their powerboats to Symi for the summer with the result that not only are they compounding the vehicle problem on the island – and boats on trailers are not easy to manouevre on and off car ferries either – but places to park the trailers have to be found as well. One can only hope that those who discover that by the time they have parked the car they have further to walk than if they had just walked down the Kali Strata in the first place will leave their cars at home next time.

Have a good week! The next time Mike is near a computer on his travels, he will update the site again.

MONDAY, JULY 14th 2003

Another sunny day on Symi. Not a cloud to be seen and a wind like warm velvet is plucking vaguely at the flags on the bridge. The sunflowers are starting to droop but the oleanders are still putting on a good show along the road. The mauve thyme flowers have turned brown on the hillsides and won't reappear for another year. The caper bushes and agnus castus trees provide green patches among the rocks and the olive leaves gleam silver in the Pedi valley.

Down in the harbour the excursion boats are busy and there are plenty of people around. At this time of the year the Greeks themselves start to take their holidays and tourism within Greece is on the increase. Every heatwave precipitates an exodus from the smog laden air of Athens and the Greek papers are full of supplements extolling the virtues and beauties of the various islands.

Have a good week!

FRIDAY, JULY 11th 2003
The meltemi blew hard for much of the earlier part of the week, only finally dropping on Thursday morning. On Monday afternoon the Nissos Kalymnos came through on its way to Rhodes and was not permitted to continue on its way until 1 am Tuesday morning. Half a dozen pickup trucks loaded with watermelons travelled round the island in convoy, advertising their wares over load hailers and becoming ever more competitive in their prices and sales patter as the evening wore on.

Temperatures have moderated considerably. The harbour is busy with plenty of visitors from the excursion boats as well as those actually staying on the island.

The sunflowers opposite the bridge survived the onslaught and are still smiling on the passersby. This morning a couple of local women were working their way down the motor road, carefully staking the oleanders which keeled over in the wind. The fellow who is whitewashing the fronts of the Kali Strata steps is about two thirds of the way up now. Municipal workers are busy building a new kerb by the ramp opposite the supermarket in Chorio so another scruffy corner is being tidied up.

Have a good weekend.

MONDAY, JULY 7th 2003

The heatwave finally broke this morning with a brisk meltemi wind which reduced the temperature to a more bearable 30 degrees - and the ferry timetable to chaos. There are no day trip boats today and it is unlikely that the hydofoil will manage the uphill fight back to Symi tonight. The change in the weather came too late for my two best laying hens who keeled over and died on Saturday when the thermometer hit 46 degrees. Mind you I don't think I'd be feeling too lively in a down jacket at this time of the year either.

The lower temperatures are not expected to last for long, however as there is another heatwave heading this way in the latter part of the week so I think it will be a while yet before we need to dig out the thermal long johns.

Have a good week.

FRIDAY, JULY 4th 2003

Another sunny day on Symi. The heatwave continues. Fortunately on Symi the air is clean so the smog which causes problems in places like Athens when the temperature rises is not a factor here. The dogs are paddling on the slipway by the customs house, the day trippers are swimming off the rocks in the harbour near the bus stop and the municipal workers are hosing the streets down with seawater twice a day to keep the dust down. And it is quite pleasant to lurk behind the Venetian blinds in an air conditioned office watching the world swelter by!

The afternoon bus from Chorio to Pedi is full of local children in bright swimsuits, chaperoned by soberly clad grandmothers carrying fruit, water, rusks and inflatable beachtowels. This year inflatable alligators seem to be the most popular choice, despite the difficulties of fitting several fully inflated alligators onto the bus...

While the visitors sleep late and head for the sea as soon as they are sentient, those of us who live and work here are up early to beat the heat. Walking to work at half past seven in the morning, in the houses I pass the day's chores are already well underway and the streetsweeper has to dodge the buckets of soapy water thrown energetically through doors and from balconies. While the ubiquitous chlorini takes care of the germs, many of the older women also use incense to purify the house each day. There is a certain magic in living in a place where frankincense and myrrh are on the daily shopping list and are as readily available as bread and jam!

Have a good weekend