Month: September 2020

Summer 2020 is Over

Today is 30 September but on Symi it feels a lot like 31 October. The speed with which seasonal activities are shutting down on the island this year is startling, but understandable in the Year of the Virus. With so few tourists around and a cloud of uncertainty it does not make sense for small businesses to struggle on into October, looking for the money to pay staff, insurance and buy perishable stock that will not be sold or eaten.

A solitary fisherman in Pedi bay.
Early morning in Pedi. I took this while waiting to take the 8.30 bus into Yialos.

As we slip into October the ferry schedules are tailing off into winter mode. Dodecanese Seaways has significantly cut back on the service to Symi and, as was the case earlier in the season, some days will be filled in on an ad hoc basis with little advance warning. Blue Star ferries still comes through three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday and Wednesday are incredibly early, entailing being down on the dock before 5 in the morning and arriving in Rhodes shortly after 6, long before anything is open. Friday is considerably more civilised, with the boat leaving Symi just after 8, making this the most popular day for trips to Rhodes for the locals. The SAOS Stavros plods on regardless with only slight changes to times for October.

I never know what I am going to see what I look out of the window. This rather sweet little boat hasn’t seen the sea for a very long time and is, no doubt, unlikely to see it again if it is up the mountain, in the landfill.

There is a lot of speculation and chatter regarding what is likely to happen – or not happen – about the Panormitis Festival this year. Will the usual week-long fair be allowed to take place? Will pilgrims be allowed to come to the monastery from all over the islands and sleep in dormitories and on the verandahs? Is it even worth wondering about it when we still have October to get through and a week is a long time in 2020? Watch this space – if I hear anything, I will let you know!

September Postcards from Symi

The squills are back, fighting their way through the most inhospitable terrain imaginable, to give us the first flowers of the ‘second spring.’

The leaves are falling fast now. These are from my almond trees.

Hay being baled the old fashioned way in a field in Pedi. Masons are busy, rebuilding the old stone perimeter wall. The gate is new.

This cat has chosen the most extraordinarily uncomfortable perch. At first glance I thought I was looking at an owl as the cat was perfectly still.

The Cretan pot man is back, hawking his wares. The means of production and delivery may have changed but the shapes have not changed in a couple of thousand years.

Two more Pedi cats, this time self-appointed custodians of a house under-going restoration on the water front on the way to St Nicholas’ beach.
Water levels have been very high recently and I noticed a school of tiny fish, swirling around the baled nets on the quay in Pedi recently. The shadows are clearer than the fish themselves.

Change for the sake of it?

After a hectic few weeks of a highly compressed tourist season I thought I would post a few ‘September Postcards from Symi’ to share with you. To my horror, WordPress have decided to ‘improve’ their product. I am still coming to grips with the enforced ‘improvements’ to the new Facebook which seems to involve more scrolling to access less information. I did not expect WordPress to also spring such enforced changes upon me without the option of reverting back to the familiar Classic without having to locate and download some sort of plug-in. While the new Block system may be wonderful, I do not have time this morning to indulge in several hours of learning curve to work out how to upload photographs in the new format.

The pictures are formated and ready to upload. Perhaps I will have time this afternoon. My intentions are good. Promise!