Back to Symi Dream

Here I am, back from Tilos and back to Symi Dream. I’ve been posting some photos on the Facebook page while I’ve been away, so you may have seen some of these before if you follow us there. There’s lots to catch up on, and it’ll be here over the next few days, probably in random order as I remember things.

The trip started on the Friday with a pleasant trip across on the Blue Star Patmos in the afternoon, arriving by seven in the evening. My apartment at Elli Bay was only a couple of minutes’ walk along the seafront, and Katarina was waiting to show me my room. This was to be the centre of operations for the next six days, and it didn’t take me long to unpack and head out for dinner. I went to Nicos’ taverna because I like it there. The traditional Greek meals are prepared in their own way, lots of things are cooked in the wood oven, and they have other dishes that are different from the norm. When you live on a Greek island, you can get accustomed to the usual chop-and-chips-and-rice, used to the same menus and places, so it’s good to go somewhere different. Hence, in Rhodes, we head for the Indian or Thai restaurants, sometimes Chinese, because we ‘do’ Greek all year round.

It was election night on the islands, and when the news came in that the incumbent mayor and party had been re-elected, the horns went off, there were a few bangers and, later, many celebrations in the streets and square. The incumbent mayor of Symi was also being re-elected that night, so no doubt there were celebrations there too, at least from the winners and their supporters. That’s about as political as I’m allowed to get here, but needless to say, I read a lot of articles and reports from the disaster that is the current state of the yUK while I was away. That was when I wasn’t writing 7,000 words a day, researching and reading. In fact, my trip was mainly: eat, write, sleep, rinse and repeat.

More tales to come along with any info I learn now I am back on Symi where we have my nephew staying with us for a week. Hopefully, there will be more Symi photos mixed in as the coming days go past, but if the blog ends up being short, it’s because I am entertaining and normal Symi Dream service will resume after next weekend.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Updated

Film Festival Update

Before I vanish, I promised to post this news about the Symi Film festival:

The festival is still open for entries and so far, “the early bird entries are 170 films submitted from 42 countries.”  The next deadline for entry is 15^th June. The final deadline is 30 June.

That’s already a lot of films for the committee to choose from, so it looks like it’s going to be a packed festival later this year. The Festival will be screening here on Symi between 16^th and 20^th September. http://www.symifilmgroup.com/

A quick reminder: I will be away for a few days now, possibly two weeks, though I am around next week so there may be some posts then, but if not, don’t panic! Just vote in the EU elections and don’t waste your vote. You are lucky to have one.

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Some local news

You know I’m not a news channel, but here are a couple of bits of information that may be of use. I had a message from the British Consulate in Rhodes saying that their meeting with British residents of Symi will now be held on the island probably on the evening of Thursday 30^th May. The venue is still to be finalised, but the opera House Hotel or the Rainbow Bar in Horio look to be the likely locations. I will be away from 24^th to 31^st May, so keep an eye on Facebook and other Symi news sites for more details nearer the time.

Secondly, I mentioned the new taxi drivers yesterday and included a phone number. I’ve been sent another one: +30 698 756 9469, John Nikolis. I’m not sure what hours these guys are available to take bookings, but assume that their phones are off when they are not working.

Thirdly, and more fun, the repair to the drains/road outside our house is nearly finished. The water seeping into the downstairs flat turned out to be from a pipe under the main road, hence the reason for digging it up. Our landlord reported this the other, evening and the following day, the workmen arrived to see to it as it was a council problem. We were able to lend them the use of our electricity for the compressor, a bucket, water and washing up liquid for filling it in. (I’m still trying to work out what the washing up liquid was for). The job took two days. However, the hole is only filled with sand right now, and the stones have not yet been replaced, so take care if you’re driving that way. I assume that the stones will go back once the sand/filling has settled, but it’s been a long time since I did building studies and I don’t think we covered road repairs anyway.

There, that’s my local news for the time being.

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Mythos and taxis

Tuesday night: We met up with a friend for dinner in Yialos and decided to try the new Mythos restaurant. This is now on the north side of the harbour, beside Manos’ fish taverna, Stavros is the chef, and there is a good choice on the menu. The boards outside list traditional Greek food, but the classic Mythos menu is also available. Stavros came to greet us, as he does with his guests and told us what he had prepared that day from the Mythos menu. Customers are also able to choose from a printed menu. With the weather suddenly warming up, it was possible to sit at the front tables overlooking the harbour without being cold. The restaurant has kept the design and fittings from before and looks stunning.

The staff are also efficient and friendly, the prices are very reasonable considering the standard of cooking, they make their own bread; you can see it being made. It’s also possible to look into the kitchen, so it’s all very open and ambient. As for the food… Well, there’s a reason we like to go to Mythos. I’m not saying we pigged out, but we did a bit. Garlic pitta, a tuna salad and chilli feta from the oven got us off to a good start, and it came with homemade bread. Neil and I went for our favourite, the chicken breast in blue cheese sauce, and our friend had a pork dish, all were rather wonderful as you would expect. After, full and delighted, we were presented with three desserts and a shot of tsipouro (think raki) on the house, and later, a very reasonable bill.

Being full and lazy, we asked our waiter to phone us a taxi which arrived a few minutes later. Now then, visitors often grumble about not being able to find a taxi in the late evening hours or the early mornings, if you like. Well, we have some new, young taxi drivers. I mentioned one of the guys here the other day. Yiannis picked us up from the restaurant and took us to the village. On the way, he told us that he and his brother (possibly cousin, either way, the same surname) were planning to run a late night service. Kind of: let the older guys drive during the day and the younger guys will take over for the late evenings and early mornings. He said he would still be running at two or three o’clock, but that, in my opinion, might depend on the time of year. The point being, these young entrepreneurs have listened to what people want and are now offering to be around when most needed – most needed by stay-out-laters who don’t want to risk the steps after dark or after one too many free tsipouro. He gave us his card so you can make a note of his number: +30 697 462 3492 – Yiannis and George Petridis. I’ve not yet got the details of the other drivers.

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Sleepless drainage

I had one of those nights last night. Bed at just after nine and off to sleep. Woke at 22.50 thinking it was time to get up. It wasn’t. Same happened at 00.10. Rinse and repeat at 01.34, 01.50 and then at 02.12 and finally gave up on the idea at 02.30, wide awake and looking forward to getting some work done. Peaceful and quiet down below in Yialos, apart from one idiot who thinks it’s macho to remove his/her baffles and roar his 50 cc motorbike in the early hours. Didn’t disturb me as I was awake but glad I wasn’t trying to sleep nearby. Next thing I know it’s dawn and time for lunch. I think a siesta will be in order later as we are dining out tonight. I may be asleep in my kolokithokeftethes otherwise.

While in Yialos tonight, I need to organise some boat tickets. I am off to Rhodes for Saturday and Sunday so there may be no blog next Monday, and then the following Friday, I am off to Tilos for a week, so may take a break then too – from the blog I mean. I am there to write so will probably be working longer hours as there will be fewer disturbances. So, if I ‘go dark’ you will know why. Or, if I am off-and-on for the rest of this month, you will know why.

If you have been following our water issues, you’ll be delighted to know that there was another plumbing emergency on Monday afternoon. This one wasn’t draining the water from our limited tank, so we weren’t directly affected, but water was trickling through a wall downstairs in the unoccupied flat. The strange thing is, on the other side is the ground beneath the road. The soil pipes from our place travel along the kitchen ceiling down there, and there are other large pipes that seem to come and go from nowhere (it’s rather Steampunk), and we, that’s me, the landlord and his plumber, were baffled for a while. I think it might be a large pipe from the landlord’s house opposite that travels beneath the road to meet up with this house’s drainage, but it didn’t smell nasty, and nothing upstairs was being flushed, drained or run, so it’s still a mystery. Another plumber came at seven in the evening, and after a while, everything went quiet down there, so I assume it was, in the end, an easy fix. And now, twelve hours later, I think I might go back to bed.

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