Make yourself at home

Someone has been making themselves at home in our laundry room. He’s there overnight though yesterday he stayed for the morning even though checkout time is usually 5.30 a.m. He’s not our cat, and we don’t want to encourage him, but when it’s pelting down as it was yesterday, then what can you do? He will have to vacate when I need to get to the washing machine though, and, as you can see, there’s a lot to get through.

Outside, apart from the rain, our road is now reopened. I’m not sure if that’s because they needed to clear the rubbish from the bins or because rain stopped play or if that’s all they’re doing, but the mixer and supplies are still in the square, so maybe they will return at some point. The new section looks great, with the old stones re-laid to be neat and safer. The slippery corner still exists, but hopefully, that will be seen to in time.

The fundraiser on Sunday raised €686 for the island’s football team, so that’s great news! The message from Jean was: “I raised 360 Euro, Eilish, Bev & Mary raised 220 Euro, Irene (Czech) and Marilyn (Philippines) raised a further 106 Euro – making a total amount of 686 Euro for the football team.” Excellent!

Lastly today, just a reminder about giving the gift of a good read for Christmas. I noticed Neil is reading ‘The Eastling’, good for him. You can find all my other books from my author page on any Amazon site. All of them are available in Kindle format, free on Kindle Unlimited and can be bought from any Amazon store as paperbacks. Here’s the link to Amazon UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Collins/e/B005C7HWJI/

Share on Facebook

General village chitchat

The news so far this week is that Lefteris’ Kafeneion in Horio is due to reopen on Wednesday morning at 11.00. They have been working hard on it over long hours, and from what I’ve seen it’s going to look good but still keep its same friendly atmosphere. Meanwhile, we’ve been having rain and cloud though it’s not too cold as yet.

The roadworks continue as Ote upgrade lines, and the electricity company lay new cables. I did hear that all future cables will be put underground where possible, not an easy task with so many houses and lanes, stonework and non-tarmac roads, but it will be an interesting thing to follow. The road outside our house is coming on slowly. The guys told me the other day that they are going all the way up to the tarmac just past our house, so I expect another couple of weeks to go. I think, right now, it’s a case of rain stopped play so it could take longer if the wet weather persists.

I’ve also added a couple of photos of Agios Athanasios, one of the village parish churches which has been under renovations for the past few years. It looks to be finished now and includes a new restoration of the old icon over the south entrance. So, it’s all go in the village with building and repairing and getting on with winter work. I’m just glad that Sam painted our flat roof as we’ve not had water dripping into the bathroom since and the rain has been heavy at times.

Share on Facebook

Monday morning drizzle

It’s Monday morning as I write, we’ve had a glorious sunrise made so because of the cloud rolling in from the south. and around eight o’clock, it started drizzling. According to reports, this is going to continue for a few days and become a little worse. Good news for the plants and the sterna, not such good news for those of us looking forward to walks up the hill. It’s too drizzling and cold (well, 14 degrees) for me, though diehards might make the effort.

An event was organised for Sunday which was a dry day, luckily. The event was an international street party with tables set up offering food and wears from islanders from several different counties. These included Australia, Greece, Colombia, South Africa, England, Scotland and the Czech Republic. Symi is clearly international. I was keen to try one of the Colombian dishes out of interest and because money raised there was for the music school. Other funds were being raised for the Symi football team. What I hadn’t expected was to be given a massive plate for my donation, and it wasn’t until halfway through that Neil reminded me we were having lunch at Yiannis’ house an hour later. I managed (both).

The event was well attended. The Mayor and the Dimos gave wine and souvlaki which the mayor cooked on the barbeque. Lefteris’ kafeneion supplied the beer, and the whole thing went off swimmingly, though not literally, luckily. I’m not sure how much was raised but will let you know when I find out.

Afterwards, we headed up to upper Horio for lunch with Yiannis and feasted again, and then, after an hour off at home, popped out for a glass at Rainbow where we had been on Saturday night. Saturday was to watch a football match, and we wore our new AEK tops. Not the official strip (I’m not that much into the game) but sweatshirts with the team logo and colours which went down well. Sadly, it didn’t help the team who lost 2-1 to someone, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. And so, on with the rest of Monday which, so far, promises to be a ‘staying in and keeping warm’ day with plenty of hours ahead to think about a new book to write.

Share on Facebook

Piraeus to Athens

Before we get to my photos of Symi from the weekend, let’s just finish off in Athens. A few people have said they would like to make this trip from Symi to Piraeus by ferry but aren’t sure what to do at the other end. It’s actually pretty simple. You get off the ferry…

…and a courtesy bus or two is supplied to take passengers around to the main gates of the port. This is because they Blue Star ferries for Symi leave and arrive at gate E1 which is one of furthest from the main entrance. [Map] You simply pile on with your luggage and sit or stand wherever you can. The bus takes about five minutes (it’s a 40-minute walk otherwise) and drops you at the gate. Cross the road ahead (carefully!) and turn left between the shop fronts and the kiosk and you’ll come to a small square where you find the train station. This is the Green Line, and the routes are displayed as they are in any other metro – easy to follow.

You have real people selling tickets, or you can use the machines which come in various languages. I was only going six stops to Thissio, so I bought a 45-minute ticket which lets you travel for 45 minutes from the time you put the ticket on the scanner at the entrance. There are other kinds of tickets you can get depending on where you’re going.

That done, you’re now in the city, and it couldn’t be easier. However, there is another, easier way to do things. We have recently started using a taxi company called Welcome Pickups. You can find them online. You get a quote for a collection and, if you like it, make the arrangements. We used this for when Neil arrived in Athens at 1.10 in the morning the other weekend. You send a photo of yourself, so your driver knows who to look for, and nearer your pickup time they assign you a driver and give you their name and phone number, plus their image, so you know who is meeting you. This makes it safer for everyone concerned and your fare is paid in advance, so there’s none of that being ripped off business. We used them for a trip back from our hotel to the boat to save the long walk from the gates as that courtesy bus only runs from the ferry and not to it.

Also, there is a bus to the airport which leaves from the Blue Star ferry dock every 30 minutes during the day (check times for winter schedule in case it’s not as often). This goes from just behind the Blue Star ticket office, and you can see the bus from the ferry as you dock. It takes about an hour and a half on this bus, depending on the time of day and traffic, and it terminates at the airport, so you can’t get lost. You can also take it back the other way, and it costs €5.00 last time we used it.

So, let that be the end of the Athens trip for now. It’s Sunday as I write and we have the International Street Party to look forward to this morning, raising funds for the football teams, followed by lunch at Yiannis’ house and a visit to the godboys. I’m off for a morning walk soon so there should be some new images for you from tomorrow.

Share on Facebook

Symi Saturday Photos

Which today will be more of our trip to Athens. Actually, today, I will just share the boat photos, some of which you may have seen on our Symi Dream Facebooks page, but whether you have or not, there are others here that might give you an idea of what it is like to take the overnight ferry from Symi to Piraeus and back.

Since returning, our dance card has started to come back into use with a few things to go into the social diary. An international street market day has been organised for Sunday morning 11 onwards in the village square. This is to raise money for the football teams who still have no pitch to play on other than the five-aside following the storm of last year. We are also planning a couple of hours sat Rainbow to watch a football match – I know, but it’s fun, and we have bought sweatshirts with the bar’s favourite team’s logo (AEK). We have a vague invitation to Yiannis’ house for lunch on Sunday and a birthday party next week. So, there might actually be some photos of Symi for you next week!

Share on Facebook