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The latest news & weather from Symi, reported by Adriana Shum from 'The Symi Visitor' office. Adriana's Greek Recipe of the Week>> Symi Report, Friday January 30th 2004 The sun is shining on the puddles and yesterday’s storm skirted past us, tossing some rain in our direction as it rolled through the There is plenty of activity in the harbour, despite the fact that the road is still closed. Drying out operations continued and at least one shop has had to rig duck boards over the flooded bits between the shelf units so that shoppers can keep their feet dry. Walking home yesterday I passed, invisible, through the following scene. Picture the small square between Antoniades, the hardware store, and the green grocer in the lane at the foot of the Kali Strata. In your imagination replace the tomatoes and cucumbers with crates of oranges, red and green apples, lemons and huge loose-leafed cabbages. Pack away the café tables, close and shutter the bars and you will see that the space is quite wide really. See the cigarette kiosk, painted fresh ochre and flashes of blue. Someone whose cleaning up is done has hung a row of sodden mops and brooms to dry along the wall, on hooks and nails used to anchor various bar menus and sign boards in the summer. Below this row of much used tools there is a brazier made from a steel drum on which some small octopi and tiny fish are cooking, enough to nibble on rather than to make a meal. A shiny teal blue four by four, marooned by the road works, is parked at the back, outside the boarded up pizzeria. The car doors are open and the stereo is on full blast, playing bouzouki music. Two fishermen are dancing slowly, arms outstretched à la Zorba, while a companion applauds and turns the morsels on the fire. A winter’s afternoon in Yialos. Have a warm weekend, planning your holidays.
Regards, Adriana
The Symi Visitor
www.SymiVisitor.com
Not all the snow that fell
on the Vigla in the storm on Sunday melted away and as
Monday was still very cold but quite calm further falls
occurred in the vicinity of the Agios Constantinos and the
munitions dump. The municipality sent a bulldozer through
to clear the road and also remove some rock falls. When we
went up early yesterday morning it was already melting as the
day warmed up. There were still several snow men
lining the road, built by kids who had ducked school on Monday
to play in the snow for the first time in their lives. As
much of the area affected fell within the prohibited military
zone and the army were out in the valley below on shooting
exercises we had to be fairly discreet about what we
photographed! See photos here>
Yesterday was a gorgeous
clear day but by nightfall the clouds rolled in and it is
pouring with rain this morning as the wind has shifted to the
south west, bringing with it warmer temperatures and lots more
rain. There is a gale warning for today and tomorrow.
Seems like we're having a 'real' winter this year!
By the way, regarding snowmen
and ouzos, at really low temperatures ouzo goes slightly cloudy
in the bottles, much to the consternation of some shopkeepers
whose stocks have gone the colour of dilute Jeyes fluid!
While it was snowing at high
altitudes, in Chorio and Yialos we had sleet and hail. The
road around the harbour is still closed and the workmen are
struggling to get the job finished, so it is another trudge up
the Kali Strata this afternoon.
Symi Report, Monday January 26th 2004
We've had quite an
exciting weekend on Symi as Greece was hammered yet again.
Hail stones in drifts in the doorways and floating like ice
floes on the flood waters in the harbour... Needless to
say it is unpleasantly cold. The municipal clean up squad
is out shovelling mud and driftwood out of the town square and
pumps are running from many flooded shops and tavernas around
the harbour. The sky is a mixture of charcoal and
ink, the tepid sun barely perceptible and temperatures are
only just above freezing. The road around the harbour is
still closed and the bad weather is slowing the work. By
the time one has walked all the way round to the fuel station to
catch the bus, negotiating flooded trenches and dodging the odd
breaking wave, one might as well climb the Kali Strata and have
done with it! The Symi II left nearly two hours late this
morning and the big boat which was expected at 9.15 am is now
only expected at 12 noon. It will, we hope, be bearing the
February edition of the Symi Visitor to the printers in Rhodes.
Getting it back again is another story as there is more bad
weather on its way.
Several visitors to the Chat
Page are swopping notes on holiday reading. We regularly
review books on topics connected with Symi and Greece when they
appear in the book shop in Rhodes. A little background
reading can make all the difference to how one perceives - and
appreciates - a place!
The Greek elections are only
a few weeks away and campaigning is hard and furious judging by
all the flag waving and baby kissing shown on television between
shots of old ladies shovelling snow in ice bound villages and
cars skating around on icy highways. Greek politics have a
certain dynastic feel to them as the political parties are in
effect family businesses.
Symi Report, Friday January 23rd 2004 The
snow ploughs are out in most of Symi Report, Monday January 19th 2004
Sorry about the absence of
a report on Friday - the cold that is doing the rounds of
the island confined me to bed for a few days.
The halcyon days have
started, albeit a little patchily. Temperatures nudging 20
in the sun at midday, dropping to about 8 at night, little wind
and some artistic puffs of cloud to decorate a baroque blue sky.
The almond trees are coming round to the idea that they can
start to flower properly now after all that on-off stuff last
month and there are new lambs everywhere, including skipping
down the Kali Strata. The first purple anemones and pale
pink cyclamens are popping up and the rosemary bushes are a mass
of blue flowers and zealous bees.
Down in the harbour the sound
of angle grinders prevails as Nemesis hits the awnings round the
harbour. The one outside Pachos was the first to go and
the men are busy now cutting down the one outside the White
House. From hence forth all awnings have to be retractable
ones without posts and have to be uniform cream in colour.
We have not heard any howls of anguish yet from the souvlaki bar
downstairs but maybe that's because he's closed at the moment -
he put up a very fancy mottled blue awning just before
Christmas, with pillars, zip up plastic drop cloths and a door
so that winter diners don't get soaked... There is likely
to be quite a lot of controversy about this one!
Meanwhile the section of the
road around the harbour front between the Aktaion and Petalo is
closed for resurfacing so there is very little vehicle traffic
at the moment. Motorbikes can get through some of the time
and the bus is only running as far as the fuel station.
Symi Report, Monday January 12th 2004 A violent southerly storm
struck the Dodecanese on Saturday evening and blew all night. The
various small boats hauled out during the winter are still all
lashed to park benches, bollards and anything else heavy and
immovable in the harbour as the sea levels rose to exceptional
heights. Symi Report, Friday January 9th 2004 We had a spot of wild weather on Wednesday so the Symi II could not make its scheduled run. After all, both the Patmos and the Dimitroulla were supposed to be stopping in both directions. What actually happened was that they both stopped on the Rhodes bound leg and only the Dimitroulla stopped on the northbound leg, the Patmos merely doing a sort of pirouette round the bay so that those on board who had been sold tickets to Symi could wave to their relations on the quay before being carried relentlessly northwards to Kos where they spent a miserable night in an unheated pension before making their way back to Rhodes. On Thursday morning I was up early to catch the Symi II to Rhodes. Dog was let out as usual and was back in seconds so I looked out to investigate. His water bowl was a solid block of ice... The temperatures did not climb much over 5 degrees yesterday but last night was a little milder with some cloud cover and light drizzle. It is a clear crisp day today and more rain, westerly winds and a slight rise in temperatures is forecast for tomorrow. Our potato plants were starting to thaw out and turn black this morning so they evidently did not enjoy the cold of the night before. Many businesses in Rhodes are still closed for the holidays as staff and proprietors make their way back from family visits in other parts of Greece. The return ferry in the afternoon was full, not just with those who had made the impromptu trip to Kos the night before, but also many returnees who had spent Christmas and New Year elsewhere. We are hoping that the print shop in Rhodes will reopen on Monday as promised so that the January Symi Visitor does not become a combined edition with the February one! Have a warm weekend. There will be more news from Symi on Monday. Symi Report, Monday January 5th 2004
After an extremely wet
weekend the sun has finally broken through and the flags are
drying slowly in the northerly breeze. It does look as
though the weather is going to remain unsettled for the rest of
the week but tomorrow, the Epiphany, should be dry. This
is quite important given that the local lads have to brave the
chilly chop of Yialos and Pedi to retrieve crosses thrown in the
sea and the last two years the weather has been truly miserable
for the event.
The barometer is still quite
low and there is water swilling around the bridge. There
is a tide mark of seaweed marking the sea's progress in one
direction while the scattering of pebbles, small stones and
twigs indicates the flow of the Kataraktis in the other.
The air is clear and the wet stones gleam on the Vigla.
The island is now very green with carpets of cyclamen leaves in
many places.
Speaking of the Vigla, the
television antenna on the top was struck during the storm on
Friday morning with the result that those who do not have
satellite dishes have been watching Turkish channels all
weekend. The mobile phone networks also come and go.
Have a warm week!
Symi report , Friday January 2nd 2004 Happy
New Year! We are
all squelching around in wet weather gear.
Cars are squidging through the puddles in the town square
and rain is seeping in under the doors and shutters.
The swell is squirting through the harbour gratings and
although the Symi II went over to © Adriana Shum 2003 Send Adriana E-Mail News Archives: | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | HOME |
