I thought for today’s ‘Symi Saturday Photos’ we’d have ‘Symi Wedding Photos’ because I know that readers like to see images of people and I don’t very often take them. I didn’t take these. They are from the collection taken on our CP day last September on Symi, and I realised, when scanning my old folders, that I may not have put these up before, and some people in them might want to see them. (If you don’t want yours here, let me know, and I’ll take it down.) So, as you head into your Saturday, and I head off to start thinking about possibly packing ready for our trip in a week’s time, I’ll leave you with some faces from our Symi wedding party.
Here’s another short walk for you, how to get to the Symi museum. It should say ‘Folklore Museum’ as there is also a Nautical Museum in Yialos, so the one we’re talking about here is in Horio.
Just outside the museum
First of all, get to Horio. Bus or taxi from the harbour, walk up the Kali Start or one of the various others ways to reach Syllogos Square, the main village square, where you also find The Olive Tree, Georgio’s, Rainbow and Lefteris kafeneion, and other bars and shops in the area. You can also walk up from Pedi or take the bus. ‘I don’t care how you get here, just get here if you can,’ as the song says. Once here (or there if you’re not here as you read this like I am as I write it), you can check directions at any of the places I just mentioned. If you’ve noted these directions down, whip out your piece of paper of the back of an envelope, or whatever you’re noting this on, and then stand with your back to the sea.
On your right just past the village square
Okay, so, I’m assuming you are at the top of the Kali Strata, let’s say, outside Georgio’s taverna, sweating lightly and looking forward to a steady climb to a higher altitude. With Yialos, Nimos and the sea behind you, keep walking past the square and what was Syllogos taverna (now slated to be a Chinese clothes shop, the last I heard) and keep walking. Past the Jean & Tonic bar, the butcher, grocers, toy shop, bakers (not necessarily in that order) and you get to Zoi’s taverna, which is where you can start from if you’re coming up from Pedi or bus. Carry on towards the mountain, past Zoi’s and the ‘American’ supermarket, and keep going… Past the junior school until you reach a point where you have to turn left and down, or right and up through an arch. Go up there (right under the arch) and take the first left.
On your right, just past the old pharmacy just beyond the village square
You’ve now on a cobbled lane and heading into the depths of the village. Keep going in a vaguely straight line until you can’t go any further without turning left and downhill again (don’t do that) or right. Turn right and up a slope and then take the next left. Now you’re on the correct path, and as long as you don’t wander from it, though it does meander and do a dogleg or two, you will finally come to another kind of crossroads. A lane on your left (look out for house number 15b down an ally on your left – still never found 15a), and a very narrow lane on the right, only wide enough for one person as long as you’re not wearing American Football shoulder pads. Don’t take either of those but take the steps that are across and slightly to the right of that last junction. Up those steps and you’re walking past the wall of the museum on your left. At the top, you will come to the museum entrance.
From then on, it’s up to you. It’s recently been renovated though I am not sure if it’s all ready and open. When I went, two or there years ago, the main part was open, and the curator took us on a guided tour of the other buildings, still, then, being done up. We also saw the old Sala, the mansion house, which is now part of the museum and, assuming it’s open, well worth seeing. By the way, if you are doing this on a Monday or after 14.00 on other days, the museum will be closed. Last I heard, when it’s open, it’s open from 08.00 to 14.00 each day apart from Monday, as long as there is someone there to open it.
At the top of the steps past the museum; get here and you’ve gone too far
Hope that’s been helpful. If it sounds baffling, it’s actually this: Village square, towards the mountain, straight on, right, left, right left, up, found it. The images today might not exactly go with the walk, but they are all from Horio, the village.
Today, I thought just a few of Neil’s photos from recent walks might do the trick. The last couple of posts have been longer than usual, so here’s a slow-down event. Views of Yialos, Pedi, the village and at church, blessing the bread.
The wind we had on Symi on Monday didn’t start off on Symi. It started off somewhere south and judging from the state of the courtyard and roof, it started off in the Sahara or other desert down that way. We had a fall of what’s known locally as red rain. The rain brings with it the dust from the upper atmosphere (or something), and that dust starts off in North Africa as a desert. So, yesterday, I was able to go to the beach without leaving the courtyard. I’ve put a few shots up today so you can see what I’m talking about, but it looks darker in real life.
The steps were clean before
Along with the wind came a ‘Dyatlov Pass Incident’ kind of sound effect. What on earth is he talking about? You may well ask. Well, fifty-nine years ago last month, a group of experienced (and mainly qualified) Russian mountaineers set off to train in the area of the Dyatlov Pass (named after the group leader) in the northern Ural Mountains. On the night of February 1st / 2nd, something strange took place, and all the hikers were later found dead under very mysterious circumstances. They’d fled their tent half-dressed and were later found dead in all kinds of strange places and positions. There was specialisation that this was due to aliens, the military, group hysteria, drugs, a yeti, you name it. But…
After the red rain
One of the theories put forward in a book I read, ‘Dead Mountain’, suggests that it was a natural meteorological phenomenon that caused group panic and led to the students running barefoot and half-dressed into the snow and freezing wind. I can’t remember all the details, and they are very technical, but as I remember it, when the wind blows in a certain way it causes a very low vibration in the atmosphere that not only sounds creepy (although the main effects of it comes from sub-audible waves, if that’s the right expression) but that also causes nausea and severe brain function disruption. Just to add to my list of rarely used words, this phenomenon is called Infrasonic Intrusion, and that’s what it sounded like we had going on at our house on Monday night. Every time a strong gust came past, something upstairs and outside rattled with a low vibration that had us glancing across the room at each other. I had an idea what it was…
Tuesday
So, on Tuesday morning, I popped up to the roof to take a look, and a couple of photos as you will see, and I found the cause of this strange noise, which we had noticed before. On the roof of the ‘tower’ above the kitchen, our landlord has stored two totally unusable, rusty 1960s sun-bed frames that are, like many other things around here, tied down with electrical cable. What he intends to do with them is anyone’s guess, but he does like to collect useful things like un-useful old sunbeds. They had come away from their moorings and instead of being neatly shoved into the cover, were halfway across the roof. I reckon that each time a gust came, they vibrated across the flat roof producing the eerie sound that vibrated through the house below. I’ve not retied them with handy pieces of wire and flex and will wait and see if that has solved the problem next time we have such a Symi wind blowing this way again.
I thought we’d go for another walk today and it’s one that is possible to do if you are only coming for a day trip – through you may have to miss out on lunch. All you have to do is remember to turn left. We’re going from Yialos (where the day-trip boats drop you off after or before your visit to Panormitis) to Pedi.
View from the road
Start at the clock tower where you get off the day-trip boat and, as soon as you leave it, turn left. You follow the harbour front all the way around, over the bridge, along the ‘flat end’ as I call it, and around to the left to where the other day-trip boats come in. If you’re on one of those that arrive opposite the clock tower (The Sea Dreams, for example), get off it and turn left – see? It’s easy. Follow the main road out of the harbour heading east and up the hill. This is a slow and steady climb, with a pavement. It does a couple of bends, past ‘council corner’ and then up gradually to the windmill hill. The path is on the seaward side of the road, so you have excellent views of Yialos and the village as you make the final push to the windmills.
Here, where the road forks, you can turn right and drop down into the village and come out at the top of the Kali Strata. But we’re into going left today so, bear left and stay on the main road as you crest the hill and it’s downhill from here on. You will zigzag a bit until you come to a T-junction. Again, turn left, and you’re on the way down to Pedi. You will have the valley and hills on your right, and an avenue of trees as you pass the supermarket storerooms, the stone mason’s yard, the power station and water desalination plant, and some small farms and homesteads, plus the sports pitch. (There is an off-piste path behind what used to be Blooms, not far from the T-junction and you can follow that if you want. You will end up at the football pitch where you will need to take a right (right, note) at the new church and follow the unmarked path to Pedi that way. Not advisable if you are limited for time in case you get lost.)
Down the hill towards Pedi and you will come to a fork in the road. It’s probably been dropped there by a caterer on the way home from a taverna party, so leave it for later and, as we are having a left day, take the left fork in the road to reach the north side of Pedi bay. This way you will pass some amazing rock formations on the left and go through the boatyard – still in use – before arriving by the sea at Apastolis Taverna. Here, you can continue left if you want to get to the end of the bay, or walk to the right, through the taverna (it’s quite acceptable to do so) and follow the ‘flat’ end of the bay to the supermarkets and the taverna with the jetty. This one caters to the ‘classy’ yachts that come in, and both tavernas are good places to eat; check menus and prices to suit you.
On the road to Pedi
Now then, I reckon that from Yialos clocktower to Pedi on this route would take me, roughly, 45 minutes to reach the top of the road and the windmills, and another 20 down to Pedi. So if you landed at, say 11.30, you could be there by 12.45 without sweating too much. You can then catch the bus back on the half hour, every hour and that will get you into Yialos (by the Sea Dreams day-boat, south side) at around ten-to the hour; so the 13.30 bus will get you there in plenty of time for a 14.30 departure. You can, of course, catch the bus as soon as you land, on the hour from Yialos (say 12.00), and be in Pedi by 12.30, giving yourself an hour there before you have to catch the 13.30 back to Yialos to leave at 14.30.
Pedi
It’s just an idea of something else to do with a day on Symi, and if you’re staying here for longer, well, there’s no rush, and you can stop for lunch in Pedi, or the afternoon, or your whole holiday.
