An Easy Way up Through the Village
Here’s a random thought and walk to put on your list of things to do on Symi – for when you are able to get here. Many people say they’d like to explore the village but are a) afraid of getting lost or b) can’t hack the steps. I must admit that when we first came to live here, we did a certain amount of getting lost, and I sometimes find the steps a bit too much, especially first thing in the morning. I used to start my walks with a hike up the main road, and that’s fine as it’s step-free, but it’s still a fair old haul up the slope. Another way to go is straight up to the museum and up, up to Periotisa and the top road, but that too involves loads of steps…
So, recently, as I try and shift from days spent sitting at desk and on sofa to at least some kind of leg movement, I have tried a new way to get to the top road. It’s not that simple a route until you get used to it, but it’s an easier one. So… Start off at the lane that leads from the village square and heads towards Lemonitisa church, the ‘road’ if you like. This takes a gentle slope upwards to a viewpoint overlooking the back of Yialos, so it’s a good route for views.
Continue on until you pass a second lot of bins and cats to the church on your left, and keep going. The ‘road’ becomes a cobbled path. Keep going until you have to go left or right. (Right will take you to the kataraktis and down to the back of Yialos.) Turning right, you pass another church on your left. Follow the path around to the right and keep going until you find the old pandapoleon, the old ‘everything shop.’ There, turn left (not straight on), and follow that narrow, rough path around, and keep going until you pass the courtyard of Agios Athanassios, and keep going… Up a few steps to a rundown old house at a T junction and turn left. Follow that narrow path with high walls on either side, and you come to a small square…
There, you head up under the tunnel/arch via an S bend and up a few more steps where you turn left before the second, longer set of steps. You’ll see the side of a house and some wasteland. Pass that with both on your right and keep going up a few more steps, and then some more, and you come to the square at the top of the village by Ag Triada church, the square with the big tree. Nearly there.
At the square, ignore the long, elegant steps ahead, and cross to the upper left corner and follow that narrow path around and up… A few steps… A few more…Turn right here:
Nearly there (honest) and around the back of a house to where you should be able to see Pedi below and ahead, and George’s goats wandering around the houses and hillside. The path then becomes a track for a short while…
…until you suddenly appear on the top road with its new wall. It’s obvious where to go from there (left and downhill, yippee!), and within a minute, you’ll be on the main road zigzag, and it’s downhill to Agia Marina and the path to To Vrisi, or back to the village. It sounds like a long way, but it only takes about 10 minutes, and it’s less exhausting than the ‘straight up’ routes via the museum. That, btw, you will find if you take the left path from the small square with the arch/tunnel as it’s on that level. There, I hope that was of interest.
