Your Symi Dream tour rep is happy to help
Coming back from Rhodes was a bit of a blast on Wednesday, for various reasons. After I’d dropped the boys off with their dad at the airport, seen their hotel and been given a lift back to Akandia, I gate crashed a lunch party where some friends were meeting up. They were on their way from airport to Symi via the Blue Star, same as me. There’s a very handy taverna, Neo Mouragio, opposite the commercial harbour entrance, only a five-minute walk to the boat. It’s a traditional Greek place and, if you’ve only got a couple of hours to wait for the boat, it’s handy as you don’t feel like you have to rush. You can see the boat from your table, so there are no worries there.
After a chat and chips with the chaps, it was a short walk to the boat. If you’ve ordered tickets online you can pick them up at the Blue Star kiosk (or Dodecanese Seaways one if you’re on the Panagia Skiedani) and wander onto the boat. Here the staff are really helpful and friendly. There is a line-up of people to meet and greet you, they assist with wheelchairs if needed, and help elderly passengers on and off, and you can store your bags inside on the left ready for taking off when you reach Symi. I sat with a friend up on the sun deck until the wind started to blow spray and smoke our way, and then went and use the basic upper café, the outside one. Inside you’ve got plush seating in two bars, comfy seats and television, and waiter service in the cafes.
It was a sedate trip back. We went down for disembarkation just as the ship was turning around to back in and, by the time got down, the ramp was being lowered, so I could walk calmly off. To be met by Angelina Jolie and a cast of Sherpas ferrying boxes at race speed from the old post office to the boat. It wasn’t Angelina, just someone who looked rather the same, and I joined in with carrying boxes for Solidarity Symi, as did nephew George who had come to meet me, so that they were all loaded in time for the boat to leave. These were donations going to where they are currently needed for refugees (as Symi has been quiet on that front of late) and in this case they were off to Piraeus.
That little mayhem over with, I then guided some visitors to their accommodation as they had booked privately and were not sure where to go, and then assisted another friend to the bus and to her accommodation in Horio. Tour rep duties done (again with George helping) we met up with Neil and others for a relax at the Rainbow. Neil starts work there again on Monday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon slipped into evening and we ended up with a moussaka at Georgio’s before heading home, while George went off to work.
I may well have to return to Rhodes again next week as we’re now arranging for the dreaded but necessary health checks and book for Nephew. This involves going to Euromedica for the tests (you can also do them via the hospital and other places, but we know Euromedica), returning after a couple of days to collect them and then having a pathologos stamp the book. So, two days in Rhodes should do it. Finally. Actually, I was a bit cheeky and asked my private health insurance lady for advice and she called me when I was in Rhodes dealing with one of those chatty, cheery, taxi drivers, and offered to make appointments for us when needed. Extremely kind as it’s not part of her remit, and I feel confident now that the process will go smoothly once we get Nephew to the right place at the right time. Only downer is, it means taking two days off work and racing around in taxis.
Anyway, that’s for next week. It’s Great Week here in Greece and today is Great Friday, Good Friday. A solemn day, no work is allowed (if you are a builder or carpenter, obviously, or do a job where you make a banging noise; something like that – and that’s not a ‘rule’ that’s always kept to) and the churches celebrate the sad say with funereal services, black and purple drapes and the carrying of the biers. And so, off into Easter weekend we go, the sun is out, the wind has dropped, it’s warming up again and soon the season will start proper.
