Symi Hat Trick

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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Pink » 07 Jul 2017, 13:38

Stunning Pictures even I am sad you are home xx Cant wait for September HOPEFULLY it will be a bit cooler then. I am DEFFO going to the rainbow to see what all the fuss is about .
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby silverfox » 07 Jul 2017, 14:20

Saturday 1st July

Although the heat is so draining we are determined to carry on with some walking so we both set off down the roadway and I decided to have another go with the drone. As i said earlier i've not had the practice needed to fly in a place like Symi so I was very nervous and it's so difficult to see the screen in this bright sunshine. You can buy shades for the screen but i've not got round to sorting out things like that.

We sat on one of the benches near a tree that gave me a little shade and tried a 10 minute flight high above the harbour. With the nerves and lack of practice etc I didn't fly too far and even though there is a "return to home" button I flew back on manual. I did lose sight of the drone and i'm sure I nearly crashed into the side of the hill. :)

After safely packing away we headed the rest of the way down into Yialos and grabbed some more water at the kiosk near the bus stop.

We made our way round the harbour to Elpidas for a sit down and a drink. Elpidas is great to sit and watch the world go by and the boats coming and going. It is getting busy now the Sea Dreams is coming in alongside all the others that have been coming in on a daily basis.

I checked my phone as the drone copies a video across as a back up but none was found so i'm now worried that I may not have captured any video after all. I'll need to double check later on my chromebook!

As we sat at Elpidas they kindly brought out a few mezes so it was a nice free light lunch.

We both took the bus back up all the way to our apartments as we have booked Zoe's up in the village and invited Neil, Toby and Jo to join us for a night out.

After a quick shower and change we headed down the lanes past the Museum and were soon at the Rainbow for a couple of drinks. Neil and Toby had invited us round to their house for a few nibbles and drinks and Jo joined us and had her tour of the house (we've been before) and we had a lovely time sat in the courtyard chattering away.

Liz had taken her pristine copy of the Saddling and got her wish to have it signed by Toby. (You can call James Toby or James)

If you interested in his books here is a link to his blog:

http://www.symidream.com/

The view from their roof terrace is incredible and as I took pictures with my phone I got a warning that my battery was getting too hot so I had to stop as it was still 36 in the shade at nearly 7.30pm!!!

We arrived at Zoe's and were given the nice big table at the front with the nice views down into Pedi. All views do include power lines here as they would have real difficulty laying them all underground.

We, and Jo had the Beef Stifado and I can't remember what the boys had but we all enjoyed. We were too far gone (pissed) for nightcaps so bounced back up the lanes and to bed.

A wonderful day with some of our "Symi family" :)

Fitbit says 5.37 miles.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby silverfox » 07 Jul 2017, 15:31

Sunday 2nd

As it's her birthday, Liz opened the cards she had packed and brought across as people usually know we are holidaying at this time. It's also our 35th wedding anniversary but we won't be able to have our usual meal at the Windmills as it's now closed. :(

We decide that after yesterday where we had a little too much booze we would have a more sensible day so ordered a meal on the balcony for later.

It is slightly cooler but still too hot for a long walk etc.. so we headed down the Kali Strata for a coffee stop at Aigialos as we like their coffee best and their seats are soft unlike some. These blogs would have been so different when we were younger with sun worshipping on beaches, swimming, boat trips and car, mopeds and quad bikes for trips. Now it's all coffee and soft seats! :D

We were planning on heading to Elpidas again as we have enjoyed our times there but with days running out and places we wanted to eat at we headed to Merakles on the back lanes. We ordered the Cheese Balls, Cheese and Ham Omelette, Creamy Mushroom and chips. All very very nice but again far too much in this heat but so be it, we didn't want to miss out. Call us greedy if you want! :D

We were served by a very nice young man who took time to engage and chat with us which was nice.

We walked back around to another bar on the other side which I never got the name of where we had a great fresh lemonade and water to help re-hydrate.

Usual usual usual.....me up the road Liz on the bus nice relaxing time chatting rubbish at the Rainbow! Once again staying later than planned we headed back up for our evening meal on our balcony.

A table cloth laid we were served with homemade hummas, boujiourdi (feta, tomato and peppers in olive oil), chips and a chicken gyros plate. We also had quite a nice white wine. As we were eating we had the usual rural noises of goats, cicadas, chickens and cats and we had the delight of a visiting goat down the path under our balcony.

Bliss and a great end to our anniversary! :)

Fitbit says 4.6 miles.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby silverfox » 07 Jul 2017, 16:44

Monday 3rd

I was actually awake at 5.15am (yes I know it's starting to happen where you do have to wake up for the obvious) and a quick look out of the window at the colours beyond Pedi as the sun starts to threaten us once again. I was tempted to go out and capture the sunrise but being so drained with the heat I needed more sleep!

A little later, ahem, I headed up into the top of old Chorio for more pictures and another walk down the Kataratkis and was so disappointed to miss a picture of perhaps the biggest lizard i'd seen. I almost stepped on the poor thing but by the time my camera was switched on he was gone! Liz took the bus down.

By the time I was in Yialos I was wet and took on the much needed water.

After meeting Liz we had our usual coffee stop and then we did a very touristy thing. Before we set off i'd been boring my work colleagues with the Symi Web Cam:

http://www.symivisitor.com/webcam.shtml

I had agreed to send a text and then we would wave at all the people at my work so this had to be done! Stood waving for over 30 seconds as the cam updates is not easy especially as Neil is in Pacho's next door hurling abuse at us! :D We had a message that we had accomplished the task so headed around to Elpidas watching the world go by. I'll tell the truth as this was the day I wrote up a few notes to finish this blog! :D

I will never tire of the walk back, beers at Rainbow and a late sit on the balcony for the last of the sun. This is the bit I really enjoy and chills me out!

After showering we walked down the Kali Strata and turning right down the school steps and into the bottom we headed to Mythos Fish Taverna and luckily were afforded a table at the edge which has fantastic views of the harbour at night. The very nice waiter served us drinks (wine and water) and asked my permission to offer Liz a hand fan which of course was accepted and a nice touch. Now they do things a little different at Mythos, no menus are offered and Stavros the owner and chef will bring his chalkboard and explain his meze offering or offer others off a menu. We knew this and asked if he would make us a chicken curry as I had one last year which was so nice.

This was no problem and we had a wonderful curry, although more Chinese style than Indian. It had green beans carrots and garlic potatoes too! The creme brulee,which Liz had wanted, was unavailable so we opted for the Panna Cotta which I must say was superb.

I must say I think this place is very professional offering something different if you want and with superb views of the harbour at night with all the changing light.

Taxi back and a nightcap on the balcony.

Letter from rep to say we are on the early boat on Wednesday so no overnight on Rhodes! Great news!

Superb day on the rock! :)

Fitbit says 6.77 miles
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby silverfox » 07 Jul 2017, 18:34

Tuesday 4th

Our last full day on beautiful Symi as i'm awake at 6.15am and look out at the sunrise over Pedi which is a pretty good sight!

I'm still tired so back to bed but on this last day the wind is up and shutters are banging so not much more rest at all. I was up and fancied a walk down the road which at times was really windy but much more comfortable and it's a pity our holiday is coming to an end. If it stayed like this I would have done some much longer walks for sure!

I met Liz down in the bottom as usual and headed for our usual coffee in the "soft seats" but it was full so we wandered around the lanes before heading back and was lucky to find an empty table. Probably not as lucky as we thought as the biggest cruise ship that can actually dock in Symi was here the Salamis Filoxenia from Cyprus with it's very welcome visitors to Symi. Some of us love a quiet island but understand that if we want choice in places like Symi they do need these visitors although many are all Inclusive so don't spend as much as us that stay on the island. We had a particular loud family next to us so left sooner than we would normally and headed around to Elpidas to see if it was calm there. It was but the King Saron, the smaller Sea Dreams catamaran was taking up half the view but we stayed anyway.

We had our drinks and the lovely snacks served as we watched a very busy harbour with the Panagia Skiadeni arriving as well as the Zeus and Nickalaous.

It was so busy today and as we sat the people started rushing past to get back to the Salamis...and as it left we had the deafening blast of it's horn which can surely be heard in Rhodes and Turkey...it rattled our seats! After the Salamis was gone the Panagia did a great turning manoeuvre to switch from the other side to it's usual berth by the clock tower.

Liz went to do a little shopping as I started a power walk back up to the Rainbow...as I passed To Spitiko I asked Jordana if I needed to book our last nights meal and she fitted us in despite once again quite full with many bookings. It's good to see but as the place is pretty small they are missing out on some good business.

Liz went back up to our apartments to have a quick rest before coming back down with some food that we had not eaten that we passed onto Neil and Toby. Symi needs a food bank where we can all leave surplus to make sure it's not wasted!

We had a great last session before saying our reluctant goodbyes to our "Symi family". It's always a sad moment but as someone said it's easier if you know you will return even if it's not next year. Very wise words!

After all the hugs and kisses we had a quick change and back down the Kali Strata and School Steps and were the first in at To Spitiko. With so many yachts in the Taverna was soon full as we enjoyed our final meal on Symi this year.

We had starters of tzatziki and cheese balls, I opted for lamb chops and Liz had stuffed tomato and peppers and a lovely orange cake on the house to finish. We had the house white and Jordana brought ice cubes.

A bus ride back with a nightcap on the balcony of the last of the Metaxa and a final picture of the moon.

A great day to end another wonderful stay on this magical island of Symi. :)

Fitbit says 6.97 miles.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Gemma1 » 08 Jul 2017, 08:44

I've really enjoyed reading your blog though I'm not sure I could cope in those temperatures as I love walking on Symi and doubt I'd be able to get very far in that heat. Thank you for sharing your holiday with us and your superb pictures :D
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby silverfox » 08 Jul 2017, 16:21

Wednesday 5th

Up at 6am showered packed and on the corner for our pick up after saying our farewell to Manilos who helped us down with the cases.

Minibus on time and soon down by the clock tower and tickets in hand from the rep.

Blue Star Paros was soon here and were on board and in a nice bar area for the trip across to Rhodes. This is a great ferry and may make us think again about a multi island trip! We arrived in Rhodes in just over an hour which was so good, on the coach and dropped off at the Kassandra.

This is where things went a little wrong. The rep had left us with great information about what would happen as noted above and once at the Kassandra a 45 minute wait until we would be picked up by another coach to take us to the airport. We waited at the entrance with our cases but no coach arrived but many taxis came and went. After 20/25 minutes we asked at the reception to be told one of the taxis that came was to pick us up and seemed to blame us for not knowing. No one asked or called our name and it was obvious we were waiting for our coach! This is Olympics fault and not the hotel and we have already emailed a complaint. Surely if it may be a taxi this information, given a few days before, should be included and we may have asked earlier.

We had to order our own taxi which cost us a further e19 to get to the airport! As a result we were the last to check in and ended up not sitting together for the flight home!

The flight was 15 mins late taking off but we landed in good time and was home after approx 13.5 hours travelling.

It will not put us off after another wonderful time on Symi.

I will try and put up a conclusion with some more nice pics soon.

I now pass on my baton to my mentors D&E who will no doubt make a better job than I have and entice us to return with sharing their time on Symi.

:)
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Gemma1 » 09 Jul 2017, 09:17

Sorry to hear about the disappointing end to your holiday, you would have thought the taxi driver who came to pick you up would have noticed you and asked if you were with Olympic! I agree that Olympic should have told you it would be a taxi transfer and hope they refund your money. Bad communication all round.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Pollychops » 09 Jul 2017, 21:21

Great blog Silverfox, we have loved every minute of it and sounds like it was too hot to trot, so glad you managed to get in many miles. we are visiting this year for the first time in September so will try and post some of our adventure.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Pollychops » 09 Jul 2017, 21:23

When I say first time in September we mean the month, normally we visit June/July, this will be our 7th visit.
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby Robert » 10 Jul 2017, 16:00

Great blog and such interesting and lovely pictures - thank you
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Re: Symi Hat Trick

Postby JeffHaynes » 25 Jul 2017, 08:44

Superb write up and even superber photos!
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