ANES have produced their timetable for the early part of the summer season. (The Easter timetable, I guess.) I’m not sure when a longer timetable will be available, but there are some sailings if you are coming from Rhodes to Symi between 22nd April and 8th May. (The 8th May is a big parade day in this part of the world.) Timetables can change and be added to over the Easter period with some of the regular Rhodes/Yialos ferries only going from Rhodes to Panormitis, so, as usual with travel advice, I suggest you look at Andy’s travel blog as he is the expert; I’m just a messenger.
Here is the link to the site (in English) where you will find the links to the Itineraries. https://www.anes.gr/en
And here are a few random Symi shots to top you up for the weekend.
Most shops/businesses are ready for summerThe ‘Judas’ plants are flowering.
We have local elections coming up on Symi, with voting day coinciding with European elections, as you may know. There are three candidates for Mayor of Symi, and here at Symi Dream, we offer to publicise each one’s manifesto without prejudice. The first to send us their information is Ilias Tsavaris. If you follow the link below, you will find his introduction and manifesto published in English. You can also see the full site in Greek.
I am told that Ilias’ team is looking for a representative from the foreign (i.e. non-Greek) community, so if anyone is interested, or if you know of someone who might be, you can tell them to contact the team through their site. Or, if that proves tricky, you can contact me, and I will pass along your contact details. You don’t have to speak Greek fluently; he and members of the team are bilingual.
That’s enough of Rhodes, now we’re back to Symi which has been sheltering beneath a grey and cloudy sky for a few days. The sky is now clear, but the breeze if from the north, so it’s not that warm. Yet. I’m sure that in a few weeks people will be wandering around saying, ‘It’s hot, isn’t it?’ as we do suddenly at the beginning of June, or sometimes earlier.
I’ve been out on a couple of my self-enforced walks, only up to the monastery on the hillside (three-miles round trip), or up to the old cantina (2.6 miles), but once the legs have adjusted and the body recovered from the shock, I may go further afield as I did last year. I’m trying to fit those in after I’ve done my admin and messages, and before I then settle in for the rest of the day at one of my desks, so this week, I’ve set out at around seven-thirty, or earlier. I am again saying hello to others who are out and about at that time, mainly ladies heading to church or the cemetery, the workers waiting at Campos for their lifts, farmers coming down from the hills, our hard-working refuse collection team and, if I go that way, the goatherd on the path to To Vrisi. I’ve been past him and his flock so often now, when he is not there they come down from the hills expecting me to feed them. I had a very close examination by the handsome Billy goat leader of the pack the other day. He’s got massive horns which I keep an eye on as I pass; I don’t want to get head-butted and butt-butted off the side of the road.
Oh, with no connection to the above whatsoever, I must point your attention to an interview that’s just appeared. It’s on a blog from Lynne McVernon, ‘Guest Writer James Collins’ – just click that link if you want to read it. It covers both my author names, the real one and the pen name (inserts smiley wink).
Yesterday continued…
The slow walk from Mandraki to the Old Town took us past the taxi rank on the seafront, past the artists selling portraits, and the craft stalls, over the moat bridge and into Symi Square with the art gallery to the right, and then up to join Socrates Street. We were leapt upon by a leather salesman because we ricked examining a leather bag, and then explained that we had one each already, but he wasn’t even satisfied that we’d bought one of them from him last year (it might have been a different shop, but they look the same after a while). We pressed on…
Here’s a Caesar salad and chips to keep you going
Down to the main square with the fountain, and bar-boys doing their kamaki business, shouting greetings in various languages until they have your attention and then telling you theirs is the best café, coffee, steak, octopus etc., and trying to drag you in. That’s something which immediately puts me off, so if you have a shop or a bar and you see me heading your way, leave me alone if you want my custom… And on past the jewellery shop where we bought our wedding rings and Sam’s new chain for his baptism cross (receiving a friendly wave through the window, recognised after all this time), and to ‘Parrot Square.’ I can’t remember its real name, but we have taken to stopping there at ‘Mike’s Café,’ because he was one of the only ones to ignore me when I walked past a few years ago. Again, we were welcomed like long-lost relatives. I’m only there once or twice per year but am remembered, ‘How’s Symi?’ and so on. I still don’t know how people do this; I can’t remember names and faces from one day to the next. There, we sat for a drink, moving onto something more fortifying now that it was later in the afternoon and all our tests had been done. In Rhodes, and other places, you can find beer in a boot or wine in a fishbowl, it seems.
Just a small one then
While we were at Mike’s (it’s actually Michaelis, and it’s a place used by locals all year round, so there were waves and greetings from others as well as the guys who work there), we fell in with a couple from the yUK who had just finished a rather wet and wild week in Rhodes. Committed Greekophiles, they had been to several islands including a day trip to Symi one year, and, yes, they asked, ‘Are your brothers?’ I said, ‘No. It’s just that master and dog thing where one ends up looking like the other after a few years,’ and the conversation moved on. We entertained them, and they us until a second bowl arrived. We finally left there with an hour to reach the boat and made it as far as Akandia Gate before…
Nimmos, just inside Akandia Gate, Rhodes
… We passed by Nimmos, a Symi-family run taverna only 15 minutes from the boat. Handshakes and greetings ensued, the family came out, and we were pressed into chairs and to a glass of ouzo while we caught up on news. The boys are now men and tall, the taverna is doing well (I hope), and it’s already open for the season. It’s a handy stop-off on your way to the boat, and we left with 30 minutes to go before departure and were on board by quarter-to bearing our bags, new clothes and two pillows we’d been carrying since before lunch.
Our ride home
The boat left dead on time as usual, and the crossing back was steady and relaxing. Neil had done some wheeling and dealing and arranged a taxi for us which we shared with others up to the village where we tried to slip past the Rainbow Bar unnoticed. Unsuccessful of course and a final glass of wine (not bowl this time though still pretty much a vat) was thrust upon us. The rest is a bit of a blurred history, but I did wake up to new pillows the next morning, so we must have got something right.
Yesterday, I was talking about the technical side of our Friday trip. Today it’s more general. We caught the Blue Star Patmos, the inter-island ferry, which was due in (and arrived at) 7.30 for a departure at 7.45. You can book ferry tickets online and collect them from an authorized pick-up point before you board, or you can buy them from one of the island’s travel agencies. I’ve done both, but prefer to have them in advance, so I bought them from Symi Tours. €8.00 per person each way, or €7.00 if you have a Sea Smiles loyalty card, which we both have. The only downer about our morning’s tests and things was not being able to eat until after we’d done the blood tests and I was, as usual, awake by 4.30. I had a couple of green teas and lots of water to keep me going. On the other hand, one of the good things about going for the boat is seeing who and what is coming on and off. On Friday, it was the usual smattering of soldiers, residents, vans, deliveries, the post, trucks, usually at least one donkey and a few visitors. There was a huge pile of luggage delivered to the quay as well, but that was still there when we left, so I wasn’t sure where that was going. Or not.
Waiting for the morning boat
The journey takes about an hour-twenty, and this boat arrives at Akandia harbour. That’s about a 40-minute walk around to Mandraki, or you can usually find a taxi if you’re quick, and buses stop just outside the port. We had a lift, went to Euromedica and were back in Mandraki just after 11.00 – see yesterday’s post. Hungry, having not eaten since five the evening before, we had brunch on a bench. We bought a pie each from ‘Tasty Corner’ a kiosk/shop next door to H&M – where we called in after to admire the ancient ruins in the basement, if not the clothes. Then an orange juice in the street of new café’s behind the old fish market, before some other window shopping and a wander, ending up at the Plaza Hotel for lunch. A La Carte meals are served just about all day, and non-residents can have breakfast, lunch or/and a buffet or menu dinner and use the bar, pool and facilities. While we were there, we met our local Symi-hero, Michaelis, who was running in the Rhodes marathon on Sunday. (He’s also the guy who reads our water meter.)
grilled halumi and mint pesto starter at the Plaza
Having wished him luck, we dragged ourselves out for a slow walk through the Old Town towards Akandia for the 19.00 boat. We were both a bit knackered after the early start and lack of food and, tempting though it was to return to the bench for a kip, we soldiered on and made it as far as the old fish market before we stopped to have a drink with Irini at the Symi Café. Catching up on news, we fell in with a group of locals, had a good chat and ended up talking to someone who was born 14 miles away from me who later lived in the same small town in Wiltshire as I did – though I was there around the time he was being born, so we hadn’t known each other. The thing with many of the cafes in that area is that they don’t have WC facilities, but there’s a very nice public one beneath the ‘bandstand’ in the centre of the market. It’s not a bandstand, it’s the slabs where fish were sold, but it looks a bit like one. For €0.50c you have cared-for facilities where, for the men at least, you can stand and watch YouTube ‘fail’ videos while you do your business.
View from the Symi cafe (YouTube can be found just over there on the left)
The point of mentioning that is to not only be helpful but because we had one of ‘those things’ happen to us. The group at the café asked us if we were brothers; a common question these days. ‘It’s the glasses,’ they said, mildly shocked when we said we were married and explained that no, we weren’t brothers. Preparing to leave and move on, Neil popped across the path to the public conveniences to ‘spend a penny’ (the cost of a wee in London in 1851 at the Great Exhibition if you were wondering where the expression came from). That done, it was my turn. I put my money in the slot to gain access, and the two ladies on duty looked at me in surprise. ‘Back again already?’ one asked. When she saw my look of confusion, she realised her own. ‘Oh! You are twins?’ she spluttered, realising I wasn’t Neil back for another round of YouTube. I explained, again, that we weren’t, and spent a happy few minutes watching people fall off skateboards and being hit in the face by footballs.
At the Symi Cafe, Mandraki
That done, we headed off into the Old Town to continue the slow walk to Akandia, but that’s a story for tomorrow.
