Walking to ‘St Nicks’, Symi
Kalo Mina!
Sunday was something of a fabulous day; sunny, hot, not too much wind, and so a walk was in order. We headed off down to Pedi via one of the paths; the one that starts behind what was the Bloom nightclub and bar. It’s all goats and sheep, their young, flowers and blossom at the moment.
The sun was highlighting the damp still on the rocks on the hillside, in some places, as the day had started wet. Not through rain, simply through dew and humidity. The balcony was dripping with it, as was the courtyard, but once the sun gets onto these places, if it does in the winter, it soon goes.
We passed a fisherman mending his nets in Pedi, and then walked around to find the path to Agios Nikolas, ‘St Nicks’ as it is known locally. Michaelis, who has the taverna there, has been working on the path that links St Nicks to Pedi. This path is an easy walk, now made easier and safer where he and his son and workers have flattened it. They were drilling out some rocks, putting them to the side to make an edge, making steps where necessary and levelling off the earth. This means that more people will be able to walk there now, and he has also improved the steps at the other end. This should help his business, though there is still the taxi boat option if you want to get to one of the few sandy beaches on Symi without having to walk.
That reminds me of the book, ‘The Last Templar,’ by Raymond Khoury, which has its climax on the island of Symi. There’s a fair amount of license taken as the hero is fighting with the antagonist at the Kastro, then runs for a short distance and finds himself at the cliffs above St George (at least a two hour walk, if not longer, from the Kastro). But then, I did the same thing in ‘Jason and the Sargonauts’, where the group of SARGO holiday makers come ashore at St Vasilis and walk up to Stavros Tou Polemou via an army outpost which isn’t there. But what reminded me of ‘The Last Templar’ was his mention of ‘the sandy beach of Marouthunda.’ Visitors to the place will know that it’s a very pebbly beach, as are many on Symi.
Anyway, while at St Nicks there was a fair amount of sitting in the sun, and even some paddling by yours truly – it’s far too cold for me to go in the sea, and far too wet once you are in. I don’t think I went in at all last year. We sat and had our brown rice salad, threw stones, did some skimming and chatted to the only other two people who were there.
Afterwards the walk home was made easier by the new path where the guys were still working, and we headed back up through the valley – more lambs, kids, sheep, goats, flowers and blossom. We made it back to Lefteris’ kafeneion in time to spend an hour or so in the sun with a well-deserved but, these days, very rare ouzo. Our healthy lunch was added to by the healthy mezethes Yiannis served us; tomato, cucumber and homemade feta, and then by the not so healthy (but wonderfully smelling when cooking) addition of sliced sausage fried up with onions and pepper in olive oil. From then on it was kind of downhill to Sweeny Todd, the film version for act one (with a lot of the real act one missing) followed by the live recording for act two. Angela Landsbury being more bonkers that Sweeny, played by George Hearn. Well worth adding to your musicals collection.
And that was Sunday, and here, today, are just some of the few hundred photos Neil and I took during the day. I’m still waiting for Neil’s contribution so stay tuned to Symi Dream for more cool images of a hot day.
