Symi, Boats
As you can see from the photos taken yesterday, the strong wind and grey skies have left. The wind died down on Monday afternoon, and by Tuesday morning, this was the view as the Blue Star Naxos came in. (I assume the Patmos was having a day off.) The last I heard, the ferry strikes are going to be next week. If you are travelling this way, check out the shipping news, or ask a travel agent.
Yiannis was on the boat on Wednesday morning, off to see his newest granddaughter over in Rhodes for the day. He left Neil in charge of the bar all day, so he had a pretty long haul, but still not as many hours as Yiannis, and many others put in during one day at work, especially in the summer. In the height of the season, the bars are often open from eight in the morning (earlier in some cases) and stay open until the last customer leaves. This can be like two or three in the morning on some occasions. Yes, I know things slow down in the winter when you need them to be busy, but still, seven days a week, at up to 18 hours per day, for seven months, it’s a hard slog.
We have more visitors coming these days, though we’ve still not quite hit the start of the summer rush. More regular and long-stayers are coming back, or have come back to open up their houses and be ready for the hot months ahead. The live music nights at various places have started up again, restaurants are open, in fact, I expect they are all open by now, and so are the bars and most of the tourist shops. There’s plenty to do, the island now has three travel agents that I know of, and they organise tours and bus trips, boat trips and other things to do while you are on Symi. There’s no sign of an Olympic rep yet, though there have been Olympic guests here. Everyone else seems to be already welcoming guests and cleaning houses, changing beds and getting back into that summer mode.
The Symi – Sea Dreams – is just arriving as I write, the Nikolaos X is making trips, the Panagia Skiadeni is running for day trips, and there are then the ‘Spanos’ catamarans coming across regularly too. That’s all from Rhodes. So, the season is showing signs of a good and early start, and the transport is all up and running. Which reminds me, I wonder if the Symi bus still has masking tape holding its windscreen together?
