Here on Symi, we are back to having weather. Cloudy today, sunny/cloudy yesterday, wet and wild on Saturday morning but the rain was/is much needed. There is a short article in Ekathimerini talking about how Europe is suffering its biggest drought in 500 years, and how Greece is facing a ‘high risk’ drought, or will be soon. I’ve heard that Rhodes is having trouble meeting its own demands, and can no longer send water out to us and the other smaller islands that have no natural water. (We have a few underground springs, but they’ve all got church complexes built on them).

It’s important to remember, when coming to Symi, that you need to do all you can to save water. Shower on, get wet, shower off, get soaped, shower on, wash off, shower off. Shouldn’t take you more than two minutes, only during one of which should you have the water running.

However, a little rain on Saturday morning didn’t deter our two intrepid god boys from coming up to dinner. Neil and the eldest cooked, while H and I watched an hour of Victor Borge and fell about the sitting room laughing. Dinner was a hoot as was the card game afterwards – the boys were in a ‘mother-free environment’ as it was a boys’ night, and suffice to say, there were manly discussions, rude jokes, and a certain degree of air pollution. Sunday was a quieter day, though the weather was slightly better.

Neil’s working back at the bar now, and the summer chairs are out. Apparently, according to those in the know (in other words, everyone who tells you anything), things are going to get very busy from next week. We’re coming up to Easter, so that’s one reason, and there’s a regular birthday party not long after, and it’s a special one this year, and then, before you know it, it’s June which is always very popular with northern Europeans and the British. Let’s hope the weather cheers up a little before then.

I don’t really have anything to tell you today, so I’ll show you a photo of an inscription you may or may not have seen on Symi. It’s up where the road coming up from Yialos joins the lane into the village, on the crest of the hill, by the windmills. I sent this image to a friend of mine who has spent his life working in theatre, mime, dance, clowning, and such larks, and he said, LOVE this! But alas not a true story, no. Perdolino is from Lower Bergamo, he then became ‘Pierrot’ years later in France.

Perhaps it’s one of those urban myths or something that can’t ever be proved either way, or maybe it is genuine, and Symi did see the birth of Pierrot. Who knows? It makes for fun reading, though. Click the photo to expand it, the English section is at the bottom. I know it’s not the best translation in places, but still…

We popped over to Rhodes yesterday, and it was a bit odd. We were sailing on the Blue Star, and were overtaken by the Sebeco. I have to say, it was a slow crossing for us. The journey is usually about 70 minutes, but yesterday, it was two hours, and it wasn’t particularly windy or rough. We slowed almost to a standstill when just off Rhodes, and I think that was because we had to wait for the SAOS ferry to give up its parking space. I’ve learnt recently that as the ship backs into the harbour in Rhodes, it takes a good ten minutes before you can get off. The reverse approach is slow by necessity, and they take the cars off first, while the passengers have to wait upstairs.

Anyway, we had plenty of time to get to where we needed to go. I took my time getting to my appointment because I never like to arrive sweaty, but I can’t help it. Walking from my typowriter here to the sitting room and I’m damp. Walking through Rhodes in a warm breeze under a cloudless sky, I turned up to see my chap as wet as a glassblower’s armpit. Still, all is well and good. Neil’s also fully checked up and ready for work which he starts on Friday with a marathon 10.00 to 20.00 session as Yiannis is away for the day. We had lunch at Nimmos Taverna, the place our Symi friends have that’s just inside Akandia gate and on the way to the Blue Star Ferry.

After that, we called at our favourite jewellers to start looking at rings (for younger godson’s 18th birthday next year, but signet rings must be saved for), said hello to Mike and Mike’s café as we do, even though no-one there is called Mike, it seems, and we were back on the boat before you could say, what are these for?

They look like vents and probably are, but Harry pointed out to me once that they don’t go anywhere. It (the yellow tube) seems to be sucking in air, but which way? If it’s the front – to soak up exhaust fumes maybe – then the air simply passes back into the seating area. If it’s to push the air forwards, then it gets dumped over a table for four. There’s an electronic box attached to each of these things, but the things themselves are bolted to the ceiling as an isolated unit. If anyone knows exactly what they do, leave me a comment on Facebook, and you could make a 16-year-old very happy.

I’ve added a service to the blog. It’s got nothing to do with me other than I’ve used it to find ferry tickets in the past, and if you book a ferry through it, I get two drachmae or something, which may help towards the cost of running the blog. There’s a box over there on the right >> and if you click on that, it’ll open the search site in a new window. Here it is if you want to give it a go and see what ferries are available right now, or when you’re intending to visit Symi.

I’ve added this because hosting a blog isn’t free. It doesn’t cost me that much, but it costs something, roughly €300 a year. I know, I know, before you start, you can get websites hosted for free, but I’m not going down that route, not even if you send me a private message imploring me to do so. I’ve tried them, and believe me, they are, as my godson would say, poopooskata. I’ll stick with my hosts because they give me an excellent service, their support system is brilliant and quick (and ever so polite), and they will even do my WordPress and other updates for me. Anyway… I fund Symi Dream from my book sales and/or pension, so if you want to contribute to the site upkeep, simply buy a book, or force a loved one to. I’ve looked into other ways to monetise the site, and tried other people’s suggestions, but without success for one reason or another. Usually, it’s because I’m a person not a business.

So… Hopefully the Ferry Scanner link will work, and you will be able to use it to find your next ferry trip to or from Symi. Or, from anywhere in Greece actually, plus some other countries and destinations. Try finding a ferry from Symi to Helsinki and you might be unlucky, but you can use it to get from Helsinki to Tallinn or Riga, among other places. I just used it to check out boats from Symi to Rhodes this Friday and found six options and their prices, and I note, you can still use your discount cards if you have one with Blue Star or Dodekanisos.

Have a look, and have fun.

Yesterday was a day of boats. Mind you, from now until October will hopefully see a day of boats every day, but yesterday, I noticed and counted for the first time this season. Soon, I intend to put a widget up on the blog, over there >> in the right-hand column. It will be a link to FerryScanner.com, a place where you can book ferries in Greece; Athens to Symi, Rhodes to Symi, Kos to Symi, anywhere to anywhere… That kind of thing. I just need to sort out a bit of code and I’ll set it up. But that’s not the reason I’m mentioning the boats…

I can’t remember when the day boats started coming in last year, but this year, we’ve had a few calling in since early April, if not late March. Yesterday, as far as I saw, we had:

The Blue Star

Dodecanese Seaways (catamaran)

Dodecanese Seaways (Panagia Skiadeni)

The Sebeco (twice)

The King Saron (Sea Dreams)

The SP Cruises (Zeus)

All of those, apart from SP, you can book to travel to/from Rhodes as a standard foot passenger as well as a day tripper. The Blue Star and Panagia can take cars/bikes/goats, and there is limited room for bikes and maybe two cars on the catamaran.

The point is, there were lots of people on these boats, which is good news for the harbour – as long as we don’t run out of water because we haven’t had any rain, and apparently, we’re in for a long, dry summer with the potential for fires, droughts and other biblical events. And the other point is, hopefully, from tomorrow, you will be able to book your ferry from a link on this site, so if you’re a regular reader of my vaguely island-life-related nonsense, you can arrange part of your Symi travel directly from here. Actually, you can take a look now and see if/how it works as I’ve already included the link (above) and I’ll do it again now:

https://fas.st/t/NfoCEN4E