A Symi Walk (2)
Soldiering on and continuing Sunday’s walk… We passed by many herds of goats (who were wondering about wandering towards the open gate, no doubt), trees and terraces until we came to the smaller chapel of Ag. Raphael. It’s at this point that you can stand and look at the eastern sea and the western sea simply by turning your head, falling into a Narnia story and actually naming the water around your island ‘The Western Sea.’ You can see both sides of Symi, basically.

From here it is only a short walk to the monastery of Michaelis Roukouniotis and it doesn’t take long. You even have, as we did, time to stop and chat to Sotiris as he was tending his non-wandering goats, sheep and chickens. He was doing something with syringes and medicines and offered to give our party a shot, but we declined. We arrived at the famous Roukouniotis tree a short time later and had a photo opportunity.

The monastery was closed, which was a shame though understandable. I’ve been in before though. Once before restoration, once during and once after, and several other times when restoration on the original 15^th century chapel (I think 15^th) was either being planned or going on. My first visit was on a Panormitis weekend (2002) where we arrived too late for main lunch but where we were treated to some soup, bread and wine. On Sunday’s visit, we sat in the sun and had a sandwich and crisps, plus water, before starting on the return trip.

Back up the road, past Sotiris’ goats on one side and the unfortunately (for them) placed abattoir on the other and I couldn’t help wondering if the goats knew what their view actually was. Poor things, they didn’t luck out on views. The slaughterhouse on one side and the army camp with all its weaponry on the other; surely they can read the not-so-subtle message being given here? Who knows? I think one chap might have worked out what the future might hold; we saw him further up the road in a tree. Perhaps he was thinking that he was safer up there, though I suspect he was simply grazing.

Still, onwards and up the slight hill, passing the new wooden chalet that rather resembles a ticket office for a zoo, and which is surrounded by green netting for camouflage (presumably against the archaeological services). At the junction of road, track and path, we decided to head back along the road to Xisos and then take the donkey path, turning into it at the dog. Except he wasn’t there. But we took the path anyway.

From then on it was plain sailing (walking) down the sometimes slippery path towards the village. It’s interesting at this time of year: the humidity can be high and we get lots of dew overnight. I woke up on Sunday with the windows, me and the top blanket dripping and wet with condensation. Out on the paths, you often see wet rocks and the path can be wet on one side and perfectly dry on the other, with a very clear ‘terminator’ between them. This is because some parts of the paths, steps, lanes, etc. don’t get any sun and is permanently in shadow at this time of year. Some people might think that it must have been raining as the paths are often that wet but no, usually it’s just dew. So, now you know.

We reached home ahead of target time – I thought the boys might have slowed us down, nut it was actually the other way around – and fell into a welcome glass of red before a late lunch. A perfect way to spend a Sunday and it also gave me the chance to take a few more shots, as did Neil, so hopefully over the next few days, you will get to see more of them.

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Symi walk (1)
Let me bring you up to date on our Sunday walk. The weather was fine, though there were some clouds about, and I wisely thought not to take a jacket. Or: I thought, wisely, not to take a jacket. Or: I thought not to take a jacket, wisely. Or: Wisely, I thought a jacket not to take. Or: Not a jacket, I thought wisely, to take. Good luck if you are just starting out to learn English.

Pondering how one can wisely think not to do something, we set off at eleven to collect the boys, Jenine and Janie who was visiting. We had packed some of the essentials for a three-hour walk on the hills: plasters, headache tablets, water, cameras, a phone, tissues, a roll of loo paper, a tablet, a portable speaker, two DVDs and a bottle of wine. Admittedly, some of those things were staying behind at Jenine’s house, namely the plasters and water. Only joking, we always go walking with water, we even stopped to pick up a couple of bottles for the boys, and the side pouch on my rucksack is an out-and-out medicine chest on a permanent basis. Having collected the rest of the party we set off on what is, for me (and regular readers) a well-known path.

Through the village and up to the donkey track that leads out. Here I pondered a while again, or, here I again pondered a while as, when we arrived at the gate, we found it open. Now then, do you do as the countryside code says and always close the gate? Or do you leave it open? If you close an open gate are you running the risk of annoying a farmer who returns from herding his goats only to find that the gate is now shut and there is a herd of wandering goats between him and it? Or, do you leave it open and risk Mrs Papakaloyiannou coming out from her house with a basket of washing in her arms to discover that between her and her washing line is a herd of wandering goats, and they have started to eat her smalls? I just made sure I wasn’t the last one through the gate and thus was able to lay any arising blame on someone else. And so, dilemma averted, it was onwards across the lower donkey path to Ag. Pareskevi.

Ag Paraskevi, as you will know, is the saint of eyesight. “St. Paraskevi is considered to be a healer of the blind, because of the miracle she performed in restoring the sight of Antonius Pius.” http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/Paraskevi.htm We stopped at her small chapel on the mountainside to wait for the ladies to catch up, had some water and adjusted clothing layers. I had thought not to bring a jacket, but I had also thought not-to-not wear several layers (I think) and so scaled down the three-layer system of shirt wearing to a mere one; a t-shirt in January. That sounds like it should be a John Mortimer novel, but I don’t think it is. Once the ladies had caught up we plodded on and turned off the path about 100 good, old-fashioned yards along on the right. Don’t turn left here as you will end up climbing the boulder field to the road, not pleasant.

This path, as you probably now, skirts around beneath the Roukouniotis road and above the west end of the harbour. There are many terraces along here, the trees were starting to come into bud, there were ravens and kestrels above us and plenty of wrecked rock beneath our feet. The path here is sometimes mossy and soft and, in other places, simply a pile of small rocks which can dig through your soles and aggravate your soul with their persistence, and my poor attempt at poetry.

We’ll pause here and carry on the walk tomorrow where the next instalment includes an appearance by a tree-goat.

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I didn’t get a Sunday morning blog done ready for Monday yesterday because I spent a couple of hours getting the blog posts for when I am away ready instead, and then went for a walk around the hills. So, if you’re an early-birder and have been waiting for this to appear, sorry about that, but it’s nearly eight on a Monday morning and I am only just sitting down to put something up.

A few brief words, then on with my day. Saturday we were out and about in the morning to see if there was anything needing doing at the refugee centre, and then back home for a ready meal; ready meals Symi style mean having something prepared and in the slow cooker ready for when you get back, a sausage casserole in this case. We were invited to a baptism on Saturday afternoon up at Xissos; (Taverna) Zoi’s grandson.

The family church looked superb, the arrangements and borbonieros, the baptism gifts for guests, were supplied by Symi Flower and had a Smurf theme, everyone was dressed in their best and the service was conducted by Papas Stephanos. There were drinks and pies for everyone afterwards. Later we were also invited to the family meal at Georgio’s.

On Sunday, after doing some work on the blog posts, I went off walking with L&J; down the kataractis to the back of Yialos, around and up to the cemetery on the Nimborio road, turning left opposite the chickens and up and around above Nimborio. Here we stopped to watch a family of ravens wheeling about. They were calling and having some kind of fun and even, in one case, flying on its back, something I’d heard about but never seen before.

After that we carried on around the back of the hills that look down on Yialos, past ‘Aslan’s table’, and if anyone knows what this might have been used for I’d be interested to know. There are signs of a building or manmade wall running along to one side of this huge lump of dressed stone, but they are hard to see so I reckon whatever was here was here a very long time ago.

Coming out on the road near Roukouniotis, we then headed back to the village via the path along ‘the Wall’, stopping to watch black redstarts and listen to robins. (The derivation of the word ‘Start’: Old English styrtan ‘to caper, leap’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch storten ‘push’ and German stürzen ‘fall headlong, fling’. From the sense ‘sudden movement’ arose the sense ‘initiation of movement, setting out on a journey’ and hence ‘beginning of a process, etc.’.)

And that was the weekend that was. I’m heading off into my Monday now so will leave to you get on with yours and wish you a kalo evthoumada.

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Political thoughts and then some nice photos
Now I can share some of Neil’s wonderful photos of last weekend with you, and they will be a distraction as I am feeling a little strange today, a little political, and that’s not like me at all.

I was just browsing around for news and discovered a report on the Greek Reporter website alleging that the Greek PM is calling for everyone to strike today – to protest at the austerity measures being imposed by the country’s creditors. We’re used to strikes in Greece, they are about as common and as useful as early closing days. But hang on a minute… He’s calling for everyone to strike against austerity measures? Well, I can’t put it any better than the report put it so here is the quote: “How fitting that the people who are the backbone of the government that has imposed the harshest austerity measures so far, call on Greeks to protest against the government!” – While I stop laughing, you can see more at Greek Reporter.

And then I saw another report about Britain leaving the EU and that’s another subject where I can’t help thinking that anyone who thinks the country would be better off out of the EU is a little bit ‘Current Greek PM’, if you see what I mean. Mind you, from what I have seen of my homeland recently, there are too many people who voted for the Government now pretending that they didn’t, and everyone seems to be turning against it and yet someone is responsible for putting it there. But like I said, I’m not really political though I will vote in the referendum about leaving the EU if I can – and the last I heard I could, so I can put my vote where my mouth occasionally is. Anyway… enough of this boring stuff…

As you can see, I am not on strike today though I am writing this yesterday, though I will be writing tomorrow’s today… And so on. So, with no other great news to impart, I shall let you enjoy some more photos from the Panormitis Festival, this time courtesy of Neil. Remember that you can click a photo here and it should then open up a slideshow where you can browse through and if you want you can download the images and save them, though they are only at 1,000 px at the most and watermarked.

More photos tomorrow.

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Still walking to Panormitis (4)
Yes, we’re still on the long and winding road – photographically speaking. And I’ve not even got to Neil’s photos yet. I hope you’re not getting too bored. It’s interesting, but many of the emails I’ve had in with guest blog posts for when we are away, are about Panormitis. It, along with the Poseidon and boat trips, seems to be the most popular subject on the island. Obviously not everyone has seen Neil doing a shift at the Rainbow Bar yet.

So, along with these images, what other news and details from our day to day lives on Symi can I tell you? Well, Tuesday was an exciting day as I headed off down to Yialos to collect the parcel from the bookshop; they had rung the night before to let us know there was something in. I headed down the KS (Kali Strata) and the sun was shining. We’re at that time of year when the house feels colder inside than the air outside; the courtyard is positively hot and I could sunbathe if I were into that kind of thing. But I am not, so I don’t. I reached town and said hello to our landlord who was sitting on one of the benches watching the sea, the town felt busy with locals going about their odd jobs. There were waves from restaurant owners now on holiday and many others, and there was definitely a calm-down, end of term feel to the place.

For a change I was not visiting the dentist and only had to collect said parcel and buy some printer ink. I remembered! I bought two, and just as well as one cartridge of HP black only does around 130 pages of A4 as it turns out. Luckily it’s not too expensive, but last time I wanted a draft of a story printed I went through Lulu.com and got a proper draft book, rather than print it myself, and it was cheaper (though took longer to arrive). But there you go. And, for more cheery news, the parcel turned out to be the new duvet. Yippee! (The following morning I received an email to tell me a delivery attempt had been made. Yeah, you think? Well, it was a successful one at least.) So, I carried that back up, chatted to Zoi about the baptism on Saturday (her grandson) and then walked back up to home.

The duvet is very warm and will be fine when things really cool down. We’re still in the 20s at the moment but it’s on the bed. After lunch I tidied the courtyard and we did some of that pottering around housework that needs doing almost daily and then watched some TV in the evening. Wednesday was a work day, as are most weekdays and that’s dull, so, back to last weekend and ‘what I did at the festival.’ Here are a few more pics.

The sea view just past the turning to Marathounda:

We arrived just at the end of the service, the bells were ringing, the boat horns were blaring, it was all very kind of them to welcome us in such a way.

But there are things than need to be done before going to see the procession, light candles, buy quality goods from the market (!) and eat souvlakies…

More photos tomorrow.

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