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| Friday, August 31st. 2001 |
| It is
the last day of August. The silences murmur with falling leaves.
At dusk the goats come down the mountain in rush of tinkling bells, looking for any morsel they can find. At this time of the year the big feral goats that live in the valley by the municipal dump also come down in search of food. They don't have bells to warn of their coming, but one can usually smell them! They are capable of doing a tremendous amount of damage and leap tremendous heights to clear fences and gates in their quest. The wild billy goats are great shaggy creatures with twisted horns - primeval Pan incarnate. Domestic goats, with their little brass bells and neat brown and cream dungaree-like markings seem quite mundane by comparison. Down in the harbour the excursion boats from Rhodes are as busy as ever. One of the big cruise ships from Limassol is stern-to by the Clock Tower at the moment and a surprising number of Paxymadia (Greek rusks) are to be seen in transit from bakery to boat - no self-respecting Greek traveller embarks on a long journey without a sackful of these dry biscuits and a stop in Symi harbour is as much to top up on these essentials as it is to admire the houses. Like olives, I suspect they have been a sea-farer's staple since Homeric times. Everyday life here is enmeshed in these ancient strands of tradition and Paxymadia will endure long after the potato crisp has faded into oblivion. Have a pleasant weekend. Regards, The Symi Visitor
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| Tuesday, August 28th 2001 |
| The
last week in August is always a bit weird because the character of the
island changes from summer to autumn, from romance languages to
teutonic - the brightly clad French and Italian visitors are replaced by
more sedate British, German and Scandanavian visitors and pots of tea take
over from espresso and capuccino on the cafe tables.
The days are perceptibly shorter. Catching the ferry at 6 o'clock on Saturday morning to go to Rhodes involved walking down the Kali Strata in the dark. In upper Chorio I passed a few old ladies heading up to the cemetery but on the Kali Strata the only human traffic consisted of the last dedicated all-night ravers crawling home from the island's two clubs. Returning on Sunday evening, it was twilight when the Symi I pulled in to Yialos and the twinkling lights in the pink afterglow must make Symi one of the prettiest landfalls on the map. Even though it had been a wet and bumpy crossing everyone trooped up onto the deck to admire and take pictures. Mind you, there had been a brief rallying of spirits as we approached Cape Apostolis when someone spotted a school of dolphins racing alongside, tumbling in the waves. It was very very windy in Rhodes over the weekend and the tug boats were doing sterling work, shovelling cruise boats and ferries around, but in Symi not a breath stirred the trees or rippled the water. It is amazing the extent to which the climate can vary in twenty miles, thanks to shelter of the Datca peninsula. On the glamour yacht front, there was a particularly splendid Spanish sailing boat in the harbour on Sunday night, sporting a feature I have never seen before - spotlights in the bottom of the hull to illuminate the water under the stern. While this did not reveal anything particularly spectacular in the murky depths of Symi harbour, I should imagine going over coral reefs in the dark must be quite fun! And on that novel note, I shall leave you until next time.
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| Friday, August 24th 2001 |
| As
August draws to a close the shadows are lengthening and the evenings are
getting shorter. It isn't much cooler though - night time temperatures
are still over 30 most evenings and the mosquitoes come armed with knives
and forks. Symi has hosted some very glamorous yachts lately. Some nights
Pedi looks like a floating city with all the lights. Huge sailing yachts
with red lights to mark their mast heads in case of low flying aircraft
and great varnished gulets with all kinds of extraordinary sailing rigs
add glamour to the harbour.
Thundershowers and rain storms are starting to occur in the Northern Aegean and the Ionian but we are still weeks away from our first likely rain here on Symi. Meanwhile work continues apace on the harbour widening project. In the area near the bus stop all the blocks are now in place and the first concrete capping has been poured. A temporary metal bridge has been placed over one section of the road as reinforcing while this work continues, which has considerably reduced the amount of heavy traffic in the harbour itself. We should soon start to notice the benefits of this project, particularly the island's bus driver who at the moment has a fairly fraught time turning round. Have a good weekend!
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| Tuesday, August 14th 2001 |
|
The
August humidity has smothered this little corner of the Aegean, reducing
visibility to a less than a kilometre at times and bathing the island in a
rosy gold light.
Although temperatures are only in the low thirties, it feels
considerably hotter and stickier. The
vegetation seems to be drawing some of this moisture out of the air –
the banks of dried out thistles along the verges are turning green from
the top down, with tufts of purple flowers forming at the tips, and the
caper bushes are sprouting. There
are plenty of prickly pears, grapes and figs ripening but the olive groves
are sadly lacking in fruit – last winter was too dry and March was too
warm so they didn’t flower when they should have.
The various nut trees are quite bare this year too. As
it is Panagia, the Assumption, tomorrow, much of Greece is on holiday and
Symi is no exception. This is
usually the busiest week of the whole season and this year appears to be
no exception.
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| Friday, August 3rd 2001 |
|
Last
week’s dry conditions have been replaced by sultry humidity and clouds
have reappeared.
August is usually a muggy month with heavy evening dews at sea
level. We may even have a ten
minute down pour if we’re lucky! The
island is filled to overflowing and the predominate languages heard around
the harbour tend to be Italian, French and Athenian Greek.
One of the big bookshops in Athens sets up long tables on the quay
each evening, selling books. The
Festival has events almost nightly, either in the harbour or in Chorio.
Posters are going up around the town, advertising various beach
parties and BBQs. The hawkers
are selling huge watermelons. The
bus struggles up and down the hill day in and day out, inflatable beach
toys and elbows poking out of the windows, as the endless shuffle to and
from the sea continues until late in the evening.
Have
a good weekend. I’m going
sailing! |
| Monday, July 30th 2001 |
|
The island is tinder dry in the summer sun. On Wednesday evening one of the big cypress trees at the Ayia Marina cemetery only 250 metres behind my house went up in flames. The cause of the blaze has yet to be determined but the army and police were prompt in putting it out. This may have been helped by the close proximity to the Ayia Marina reservoir. According to those who saw it go, it was quite spectacular and provided an interesting diversion from a certain taverna terrace. As so often happens in these cases, the wind was blowing the other way and my husband and I slept through the whole thing! Fires are always a problem in Greece in the summer, which is why camping is forbidden outside designated areas. We had a grass fire at our place last year, caused by a spark from the angle grinder. It doesn’t take much when the grass has turned to straw and there isn’t much sap in the vegetation. Carelessly discarded cigarette ends tossed from car windows are a common cause of roadside fires which spread rapidly before anyone notices them. The bees are also noticing the lack of moisture around.
They gather round the dog’s water bowl like wildebeest at an
African watering hole and it is advisable to check carefully before
drinking from any receptacle. They
are so desperate for water they drink anything at the moment, from soapy
dishwater to hot coffee! It’s
high summer and suddenly the rest of the world remembers the little island
of Symi. The third big cruise
ship this week is nosing its way alongside at the clock tower, without the
assistance of the tugboats that facilitate such manouevres in Rhodes and
elsewhere. The skill of the
Greek sailors in handling these big vessels in tiny and eccentric harbours
is truly admirable. More of
the large ferries are stopping here too.
Great lorry loads of beer kegs sway past the town square, heading
for the warehouses on the Pedi road.
The truckers are also required to perform some fairly nifty tricks
to negotiate the waterfront and the road out of the town.
Until next time. |
| Monday 23rd
July 2001 |
| The long
awaited Meltemi has finally condescended to give us a few cooling puffs of an evening. Not enough to send brollies
and taverna furniture flying but enough to ripple the water and blow out the citronella anti-bug candles. Well,
it's better than
nothing, considering that shade temperatures at midday in Symi over the weekend topped 44C. The sheep stand stock still in
huddles in any patch of shade they find and the only living creatures moving in the heat of the day are the lizards as they
scuttle among the stone walls. Even the spiders are seeking the shade these days and are respinning their webs in less exposed
places. My aubergines are deep purple on the shady side and golden where they are burnt by the afternoon sun. |
| Friday, July 20th 2001 |
|
There's a bit of a breeze this afternoon - the flags are fluttering slightly on the bridge. Of course now that the office air conditioner has been repaired, things are definitely breezier. Last week's basket sellers have been replaced by tottering piles of plastic chairs and tables again, this time in red and grey. The gypsies have arranged their wares in a corner of the town square and are now napping on blankets in the shade of their truck. Tonight is the world premiere of the film, 'Anna's Summer', which was shot on Symi last summer. The film is being screened at the basketball court at the back of the town. A large number of local islanders were involved as extras so the turnout should be good! I merely fed the cast, which was quite an interesting exercise considering the multinational multicultural nature of the film crew and actors (an Anglo Greek German Spanish production) It was a long time before I could look at a buttered bun again! As Mike is setting off next week on an
epic journey round Greece,
my reports may be a little thin on the ground for a few weeks but of one
thing you may sure - the sun will be shining on Symi and it will be very
hot! |
| Monday, July 16th 2001 |
| The
Spanish may be using bulldozers to clear their hailstones
and the
Swiss may be awash but Symi swelters on with nary a dewdrop, never mind a
raindrop. Some afternoons fantastic lilac storm clouds form over the
distant Turkish peaks but they are too far away to affect us. All this
sunshine is sweetening the figs and grapes as they ripen - the warmth
concentrates the sugars in the fruit. This is why Mediterranean tomatoes
taste so much sweeter than those which have ripened in cooler climes.
More lorry-loads of hay are arriving on the island to ease the fodder shortage. Sheep cannot survive on oregano bushes alone... The Meltemi breeze which normally breaks the afternoon heat at this time of year is very reluctant this summer. If the sea isn't like molten lead, it is whipped up into serious waves, but that dependable few hours of moderate breeze every afternoon, finishing at nightfall, just isn't happening. The shortening of the days is becoming perceptible and we should start to notice slightly cooler evenings soon, we hope. At the moment, it can still be in the thirties at midnight, which is not conducive to a good night's sleep unless you're in one of the rare air conditioned places on the island.
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| Friday, July 13th 2001 |
| Another
airless day of purple shadows and blinding sunshine. The local dogs
down in the harbour have found an entertaining way to beat the heat. They
wade down the slipway next to the Customs House and paddle in the
shallows. I kid you not. They are to be seen splashing around and, in the
case of those with seriously short legs, doggy paddling, every afternoon
while their owners tend to the needs of the tourists. Well, why not? The
cats, being less inclined to such vulgar displays, prefer to snooze under
the parked cars and boats.
And the rest of us plod along in a heat induced daze, dripping embarrassingly in bank queues and bakeries and seeking coolth among the refrigerator cabinets of certain supermarkets. The leaves continue to wither and fall and even the geraniums are faded in the sun. The grapes grow fat on the vines and the gypsies are selling those big two-handled wicker baskets used for harvesting grapes. Very romantic but, on Symi, usually used for laundry! Have a warm weekend!
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| Monday, July 9th 2001 |
| A tremendous pressure
gradient between a high over the mainland and a low over Rhodes
precipitated an unexpected Force 7 on Saturday with gusts up to Force 8,
resulting in the postponement of the Saturday morning Datca run and
disruption in the water taxi service. The main ferry service was not
affected. Yachtsmen spent a tedious afternoon dragging and relaying
anchors around Pedi bay.
When the wind stopped on Sunday morning it was replaced by extremely hot still conditions with shade temperatures in the high thirties. At midnight on Sunday night it was still 35C - not very pleasant. The sea temperatures are relatively high which makes batheing more like taking a bath!
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| Friday, July 6th 2001 |
| While
Athens enjoyed a refreshing shower early in the week, nothing has happened
to break the heat on Symi.
From the office balcony I see sprawling cats stretched out in the shadow of parked cars and boats and sprawling humans slumped under awnings watching the ice cubes melt in their drinks. The afternoon catabatic breeze stirs the leaves on the big bay trees that shelter the coffee bar next door and clatters the shutters but does little to alleviate the enervating heat. After a few hot afternoons muttering quietly to itself "document jamb", "bleep", "out of ink", "bleep-bleep" and "transmission error" the office fax machine has finally succumbed to heat stroke and refuses to talk to anyone anymore. As the temperatures climb, electronics become increasingly cranky and unreliable. Mobile phones twitter and hang up without a button being pushed. Televisions change channels by themselves and radios wander from frequency to frequency as critical bits of circuitry expand and make unwanted contacts. No one has yet to come up with a refrigerator that can cope 100% with a Symi Summer - the safety cutouts to prevent motors overheating come into play long before the thermostats inside register the correct temperature resulting in puddles on the kitchen floor and lukewarm beer. I'm surprised this computer is still talking to me... (touch wood!) Off to find a shady spot in which to melt! More on Monday.
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| Monday, July 3rd 2001 |
| Symi continues to bask in relentless sunshine. The
hotter the day gets, the louder the cicadas seem to buzz in the trees.
That peculiar fragrance that is a mixture of coconut oil suncream and
melting vanilla ice cream is competing with the whiff of roasting meat
from the gyros bar downstairs.
A big cruise ship from Cyprus was tied up by the clock tower this morning, so, for a change, the harbour area was swarming with Greek-speaking tourists haggling over T-shirts and sponges. A gypsy couple, man and wife, are busy in one of the alleys, restringing restaurant chairs. It is amazing to watch the speed and dexterity with which they do this. A pile of rickety chairs at one end, a neat stack of finished ones at the other and a sort of blur in the middle. He removes the old strings and cleans up the frames and she restrings them. It is gratifying to know that these skills still exist - and that some restauranteurs would take the trouble to restring their old chairs rather than replace them. Speaking of chairs, great piles of the plastic variety are on the move around the harbour as the basketball pitch is being prepared for the Film Festival which starts tonight. As tonight's program is 'Gladiator', tomorrow's is 'Billy Elliot' and all the ones to follow are similarly well known, there should be a good turnout |
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© Adriana Shum
2001 [HOME] |
