Daily harbour routine, Symi
Let’s just clear up a little confusion first. Some people have heard that Taverna Zoi is closed – no! It’s not, it’s still open and has a few new dishes on the menu along with its traditional menu of home cooking Greek style. The confusion may have come about because the Village Café (also run by someone called Zoi) has closed. So the taverna is still open, which is good news all round.
If you’re not sure where it is, and are heading this way soon, then you can find it by walking through the village directly from the top of the Kali Strata, past the bars, and the corner shop, the bakery and other shops, the Jean & Tonic and onwards past the Old Pharmacy until you are just about at the supermarket. There’s the taverna on your left, it’s blue with chairs outside, you can’t miss it. The main seating is upstairs on the roof terrace with a view down to Pedi.
So there we are, confusion sorted, I hope and thank you to the ladies who sent in the news. The photos today are from the other night when we were in Yialos. We headed down the alternative zigzag near the house. This route gives you views down into the harbour and on the way you pass the eccentric tree-chickens of Symi.
The harbour is a very different place in the evening than it is in the daytime. In the morning it’s quiet and waking up and shops start to open, and some boats leave for a day’s sailing. Then it’s business time as locals go to the bank and post office and do shopping. Later, around 10.00, island visitors start coming down to use the taxi boats and the three ‘around the island’ boats we now have, and later still, the day boats come in from Rhodes. This is the busiest time with a few hundred day guests arriving and wandering around in groups, if with a guide.
The harbour then falls into lunch mode until about three or four when the day boats start to leave and it goes through a quiet patch around 4.00 to 5.00 until the beach trippers start to come back in the taxi boats and the around the island boats. It’s then buzzing for a while as people have an after beach drink, get shopping and head off to freshen up for the evening. Then, as it gets dark, folk are out and about doing their passaggiata before settling in for dinner. What happens later in the evening is anyone’s guess as I am very rarely out and about at that time, but the bars get busy in certain places as the night owls come out, and then I dare say there are some rather wobbly walks home during the early hours. At about this time the fishermen start to come out and head out in their boats, I often see them out at sea before the dawn, which comes around 6.15 now. And then, well, then the day begins again.
As, hopefully, it will tomorrow. See you then.
