I was wandering aimlessly about the lanes the other morning and found myself passing by the place I stayed at when I first came to Symi in 1996. It’s still there, but, I think, no longer used. A lot of what follows comes with ‘I think’ attached because it was 27 years ago, and I can’t remember all the details but…
My first trip here was on my own, and it was a package for two weeks with a company called (I think) Sensations. The rep was (I think) called Helen. If this is wrong, I am sure someone will leap on me in the comments section on our Facebook page and give me all the details of when, who, what and how I made my trip.
All I remember of the journey over was arriving late at night into Rhodes and being taken to the International Hotel near the Casino, there to have use of a foyer for around four hours before being bussed to Mandraki and the boat to Symi. The boat was (I think) the Symi I or II, and we arrived in Pedi. I remember that because I thought, ‘This doesn’t look like the brochure’ which had shown Yialos. Still, I was pleased to see I had been awarded one of only four taxis on the island, which was one of my reasons for coming: No airport, only accessible by boat, only four taxis… This drove us up to Lavina Studios. Which is what I passed the other morning on my stroll.
Having been awake all night, I crashed out for a couple of hours and woke in the late morning keen to explore, and feeling like I’d had an extra day. Helen (or whoever) had given me a map which looked like an electrical circuit diagram of a nuclear reactor, and armed with this, I set off into the village lanes intent on finding my way down to Yialos.
I did, and without getting lost, so I must be better at electronics than I thought. Anyway, from then on, I indulged in a week of boat trips and beaches, visiting Nanou several times, Nimborio, Nos and other places beginning with N. I also walked to Panormitis one day. The second week was calmer, and apart from a night of suffering an allergic reaction to Symi shrimps (think Elephant Man and dysentery), I spent a lot of time writing ideas for a book. I finished it some months later, used it to secure an agent, and had it accepted by a small publishing house. Then, the agent had a heart attack and moved to Spain, and the publishing house closed up before the book was ready. Anyway, it finally got published and is still lurking in the real world. (I think.)
And talking of books, the full story of that first trip, how we moved here, and other things, can be found in ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’, one of my four books about moving to and living on Symi.
