How To Get To The Symi Museum
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
