Fancy a week on Symi over Easter?

Easter is nearly upon us. The bangs have started – the firecrackers that are thrown to ward off evil spirits. The church bells have been ringing, the devout have been following the fast, and the plants have shot up after recent rains to welcome Great Week, Holy Week, which starts on Monday.

It’s not too late to be here. I had a quick look around for cheap holiday deals to Symi currently being advertised. It used to be a case of going to a travel agent and looking through a brochure, waiting for calls to be made and then having to decide on where to stay based on a few images and a write-up. Now, of course, you are inundated with websites advertising ‘cheap Symi holidays’, and it’s a case of not knowing where to start. I did a quick Google search and found the usual suspects, Booking.com, Expedia, Monarch and Olympic (and a post from Adriana’s blog coming up fifth in a global search, well done!). Thea Apartments came in seventh and a post from me came it at number eight – this was while searching for ‘Symi Easter holiday deals’, I must have once written something of note about the subject. I just had a look and it was a post from last April, talking about Easter and a visit to To Spitiko (which opens for the summer this Saturday, by the way).

Anyway, I ran two searches, one through Monarch and one through Olympic Holidays. Both were looking at London to Symi next Wednesday for seven nights. Monarch bummed out with no results found – a case of a business grabbing search engines rather than actually offering what they’ve advertised, perhaps. But Olympic came up with nine options, many at around the same price and all great for a place to stay.

Irini Studios – Yialos, €381 pp

Taxiarchis – Horio, €384 pp

Sevasti – Horio, €386 pp

Anastasoula – Yialos, €386 pp

Anastasia – Horio, €388 pp

Pedi Beach Hotel – Pedi, €491 pp

Opera House – Yialos, €497 pp

Nireus Hotel – Yialos, €508 pp

Iapetos Village – Yialos, €608 pp

These were package holidays with transfers included. These can cost you quite a bit if coming on your own – bus or taxi to boat, boat tickets, taxi up to Horio etc.

That was only one quick look around the package holidays on offer, and I did look at other sites that, like Monarch, offered a promising search engine result but no actual holiday – so they wasted my time. There are others, and it’s perfectly easy to arrange things yourself or get advice from the likes of The Symi Visitor or Kalodoukas Holidays (just search for them online and you’ll get straight there).

Well, that passed a couple of minutes, and I thought it was worth sharing. It’s the weekend and not too late to book a quick trip across to Symi. The boats are running, there’s a 15:00 Blue Star from Rhodes on Wednesdays now so if you can get a flight to land you on Rhodes no later than 13.30, you should be able to make that with no hassle. Go for it. I dare you.

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A bonus Symi photos day!

A couple of quiet days at home means not much news to tell you. Having said that, I am writing this with the window open, at 12.41 pm, and the office door has been open all morning, which says something about the weather – still warming, and managing to stay dry.

For want of something to say today, or should that be, for lack of something to say today, I went through my photos and sought out those which I still had that showed the variable weather over the winter. That’s all I can think of for now. Oh, most were taken in February.

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Courtyard action post-winter

Today we have a quick tour around the estate, as we are about to prepare it for the summer. The estate being our rented house, you understand and ‘prepare it for the summer’ means painting the bedroom, and throwing away the old outside table that has a broken leg and that is listing like the Titanic at 12.30 a.m. on April 15^th, 1912. We will also get around to painting the courtyard one day before too long.

Outside, the chilli plant is coming on nicely and has survived the winter, unlike a few other things. Something got eaten by a locust that came to live with us for a couple of months, and something else looks a bit done in but should recover as it’s already starting to grow back. The vine has started to sprout, and I am hoping the new courtyard fairly lights arrive before it takes over, as they are intended to go above the vine and shine down through the leaves. The lavender has woken up, and there are some pretty yellow weeds doing something in a planter in the corner. Neil’s frangipani (not an Italian dish) looks like it’s given up the ghost and doesn’t look well at all. The rose isn’t even thinking about doing anything, and there are several other pots that once contained ‘things’ that seem now to be dead. The bushy thing that was a gift is doing okay, though. As you can see, I’m not very good with plants.

We have a new light up in the kitchen so we can dispense with the anglepoise that has been lighting us, slightly, since the old light fitting blew up. Only taken two months to get that done. The shutters are now more open than closed, except when it’s windy, and the sterna is now full of rainwater after the storm a few days ago. Most winter clothes have been put away, and the summer ones brought out and tried on. Last year’s shorts still fit me, in fact, a couple of pairs are too big. Would love to know how that’s happened.

Our landlord is back from his extended leave and seems to be well. He’s already back to his usual routine of being up early and pottering around with useful bits of building, adding a bit here and there to his house over the lane. Good to see him back and back to his usual self. Outside in the big wide yonder (the village square), we sat chatting to a few visitors and what you might call ‘stayers’ who are here to check on their houses and have a holiday. So, it’s starting to feel like winter is coming to an end and, before we know it, everyone will be saying ‘It’s hot, isn’t it?’ as they do as soon as the sun comes back. Looking forward to that.

And that’s all I can think of today. My head is into another idea for a book, the details of which I might bore you about another day. We are still heading downhill to ‘The Saddling’ publication date, ‘The Judas Inheritance’ has its new cover as you know (and another five-star review on Amazon), I have ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’ in draft one form to consider when the weather is better and ‘Saddling’ is out there. Neil has just phoned me, there’s a frappe in the offing at Rainbow, so I’m off out now. Back tomorrow.

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Preparing for a party

A quick visit to Yialos on Saturday confirmed that the summer season is poised on the edge of ‘ready to go.’ Almost.

Tables and chairs are being made ready, bars and tavernas tidied up, dusted down, cleaned again (they are usually cleaned up at the end of one season and again at the start of the next, even though they have not been used). New parking restrictions are already fighting valiantly with parkers on the front, deliveries are being made and painting is being seen to. There was a long line of cars heading over to Rhodes on Friday on the Blue Star. I guess people are shopping for supplies, seeing to the endless paperwork, settling bills, debating others, seeing officials over in Rhodes to make sure all licenses are in order, that kind of thing. I wonder what new processes there will be for those who work in cafés and restaurants this year. The usual health checks that include chest X-rays and blood tests (and others I shan’t go into), health and safety exams, books to be signed and photos to be provided for new workers. Some of the tests and exams last for several years — or used to — and there are papers to complete for those on IKA and other insurances. It’s a busy time of the year.

There were at least two tourists on Saturday. I know they were tourists because they were wearing the uniform, backpacks, shorts and t-shirts. There were other Saturday visitors from Rhodes too, and it was good to see that Meraklis was open, in its usual place. The rumours of it moving or closing were unfounded then. It’s all starting to ‘kick off’, as they say.

The same goes for the village where, although there may be news about some places not opening this year, others are preparing for Summer. Georgio’s has been redecorated inside; all the photos were off the walls, and the walls have been painted. The outside has been stripped and re-rendered and undercoated. Lefteris’ kafeneion has been painted and has some extra netting up in the square to help stop the footballs from coming over, providing the children with a decent goal to aim at. Taverna Zoi was being painted and tidied ready for opening at some point, a forklift was in use to bring supplies to Sotiris’ supermarket, and the new pie shop and bakery has been open next door all winter.

There is a feeling of hopefulness in the air. Yiannis Rainbow is away next Friday but, as there are now visitors here and some day-trippers, he has asked Neil to start work on Friday and man the bar all day. We sat there on our way back up on Saturday and chatted to two American tourists who had come over for the day; the start of the usual afternoon conversations. The weather is warming up, but we have had some rain and a thunderstorm, and I have seen electricians and plumbers, decorators and so on preparing properties.

So, it looks like Symi is almost ready to welcome arrivals and visitors, day trippers and those with properties who come for longer periods of time. The party is just about ready, and all we need now is you.

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