Normal Service Is Resumed

[D and E]

Thursday 17th - First Full Day on Symi

We are staying in the middle apartment on the upper floor of Anastasia’s which has no shade and catches the morning sun from the time it rises over Pedi until well into the afternoon and it is unusually warm for May.

As routine has it when staying up our first breakfast is of golden yolked poached eggs on toast with the best coffee on the island and a freshly squeezed juice from the varied breakfast menu at the Olive Tree. Janine and Tina are their usual effervescent selves and the laughter that emanates from inside is infectious.

We make our shopping list and then head to the supermarket. D has a look at the newly painted Hotel Fiona which is looking splendid before we head back to the apartment to stow the purchases, unpack our bags, move & resize photos and publish the blog.

Around noon we decide to walk down the Pedi Road and notice how well the gardens of the new apartments just before the boatbuilders have been established. Tholos Taverna looks like it is starting to wake from its winter slumbers. George’s taxi boat is moored in its usual place but there is as yet no sign of the blackboard nor of his brother’s boat that was used for the short trips to St.Nicks and Ag. Marina last year.

We head along to the Beach Bar of Katsaras and find Abi, the sun beds guy, and have a leisurely frappe before search for the apartment we have taken for our first six days in September. And there it is above the telephone kiosk. For those with long memories it is above the Taverna that Mike & Maria used to run many, many years ago. It looks idyllic.

We sit under the tree and wait for the bus on the half hour. The bus now costs €1.70 per person per trip. We are over in Yialos and have a beer stop in Cafe Alegrito where before long one of those wonderful mezes appears and encourages to stay a little longer and have an ouzo and retsina.

Mezes Alegrito

We needed swim shoes so purchased those before wandering around the back streets having the occasional chat. All the talk is about the storm that did so much damage. Symi has done an amazing job getting ready for this season.

We decide to have a retsina stop at the newly expanded Elpida’s. With Anna’s shop having closed Elpida’s now covers both areas which allows for the tables and chairs to be spaced out. Our drinks arrive with a mezes of her legendary cheese pie and some chicken in a light curry sauce.

Mezes Elpida

Elpida’s 2018

D goes to the ATM before we head back round to catch the bus on the hour back up to the windmills where we get off and cut through the lanes to Anastasia’s. The digital temperature read out at the chemist in Yialos was showing 36C and many people are commenting on how unusually hot it is for this time of the year. Normally we expect around 25C in May.

Home, showered and changed and then D discovers he must have failed to remove his foreign exchange card from the ATM - old guys rule indeed. So a quick call to put a stop on the card and then it’s off to Yannis for the nightly ouzo and retsina. E pops into the boutique next door and buys a top - first of several D suspects. Evangalia reports that she has found yet more kittens with two of them requiring to have some antibiotics. She then successfully tracked down the mother and the other kittens and has reunited the family. The two “shop” kittens are thriving.

We are a bit late but get to Zoë’s for dinner and are welcomed by the family with Nikos being first as he is on bbq duties as usual. We start with prawns on the bbq and those herby dolmades that are firm favourites. D is tempted by the fish soup but then decides on moussaka. E has the chicken cooked with oranges and those gorgeous waxy potatoes. A complimentary sweet of cherries in syrup with yoghurt ends a beautiful meal but then the quality of this restaurant has never faltered over all the years we have visited.

BBQ Prawns a la Zoë

Dolmades a la Zoë

Mousaka a la Zoë

Orange Chicken a la Zoë

Cherries with Yoghurt a la Zoë

We head home under a starry sky as the church bells strike 11 and it is still warm. The investment of €7 per night for the aircon is the purchase of the holiday so far

[Fina]

Thanks Dand E,
We will post during and on our return. Do keep the reccomendations for tavernas coming. Like the look of Cherries with yogurt.

Fina

[silverfox]

It's worth going to Symi just for the potatoes alone!

As ever the reports are a delight!

[Pollychops]

Welcome back D & E, we have been longing for this week of daily blogs and without fail you have started were you left off. Surprised to hear how hot it is for May. I am sure you will enjoy your time on Symi.

[Lisa B]

Hooray! What an absolute joy, love reading about your day to day activities and getting little tasters of what to do and where to go. Big smiles all round

[D and E]

Friday 18th

The bells strike 8 and that prompts D to get up and set off on his first bread run to the bakers that reside between Lefteris kafeinion and Zoë’s. A small white bread, hot out of the oven, still costs 60 cents but Greece is now taking action against plastic and is charging for carrier bags - it was 4 cents. This doesn’t half make a difference to the change in your pocket with far more smush but on the positive side it is useful for the slightly increased bus fare.

We have breakfast on our balcony under the pure blue Symi sky and D’s portable weather station shows us that it is 38 C at 09:30. Breakfast is the usual; yoghurt and honey, the Symi honey being from the small shop in Yialos that specialises in Greek produce - not far from Meraklis Restaurant. Followed by the fresh bread with cheese and ham.

E pops up to the supermarket for a couple of items that we had forgotten the day before whilst D set about the blog. Before we know it, it is 11:15. We have decided to have a Pedi day. The beach is relatively quiet at this time of year and we needed to take the plunge, literally, and test the new €9 swim shoes from Nikos’ shop in Yialos. But before that we have a drink in the bar area of Katsaras. Then we find a suitable sun bed which are being charged at €4 per bed. Abi is an excellent sun beds guy and is very good with the bar service to the bed.

Gradually the beach gets busier and busier. We often find the sea at this time of year rather uninviting but this warm spell made it very tolerable - in fact pleasant. E had a frankfurter in filo with sesame seeds from the shop at the jetty as a lunchtime snack.

We spent the afternoon just lazing on the sun beds whilst the blazing sun of the morning was tempered by cloud during the afternoon. This encouraged us to walk back up (with a shared ice cream) rather than catch the 16:30 bus. D is writing the first part of this post on the balcony under quite a cloudy sky with a bit of a warm breeze picking up. The latter being welcome as it dries the swimwear perfectly.

Now will this change in weather alter our plans to head down to Trata this evening ?

Our neighbouring balcony is empty this evening as the guests are experiencing the “Saturday Problem” that we experienced in July of last year. Due to Saturday flight times and the timing of ferries there is every chance that a 7 night Symi visit can be a 5 night Symi and 2 night Rhodes visit. If in doubt check Andy’s Travel Blog and his excellent composite Ferry Timetable - this is an invaluable source of information and we thank Andy for this and all the other travel information that he provides.

We are in Yannis Rainbow Bar and by 8pm the cloud has broken up and it is a very pleasant evening. The constraining factor is now the bus timetable as at this time of year the last bus from Yialos coming up is 10pm and whilst we never shirk the walk up the Kali Strata doing it on a full stomach is not ideal and rushing dinner is a complete no no.

E Needed an iPhone Cover

Also our friend J arrives and is soon joined by N and we have a drink with them both and catch up with their news and this happily forces us to skip going down and so we return to a very quiet Giorgios. No Friday night music - that is happening in the Secret Garden just below our apartment. We order a mezes of the mushrooms cooked in red wine, the imam which has been slow cooked to enhance the sweetness of the onion that cover the aubergine, the must have green beans and a perfectly barbecued chicken souvlaki.

Imam a la Giorgios

We are getting very good at timing our return to the apartment with the 11pm bells of the church and another wonderful day ends with plans for the must-do walk to Nimborio the following day.

Now That’s What We Call A Boat - Rhodes

But That’s Style - Outide Elpida’s

[D and E]

Thanks Dand E,
We will post during and on our return. Do keep the reccomendations for tavernas coming. Like the look of Cherries with yogurt.

Fina

Excellent.
If you go to the Archive Section and look at Trip Reports you will see an array of where we & others have been eating over the years.
Symi is a foodies paradise.

[Gemma1]

Really enjoying your reports - and all that delicious food I've always had the beef stifado at Zoe's but the chicken looks very good. After only managing a one week Symi holiday for the past few visits (which has meant one night on Rhodes and 6 nights on Symi) I'm looking forward to spending 11 nights on Symi this year which gives me chance to try a few new dishes as well as my old favourites It's useful to know the charge for air conditioning at Anastasia's in case I need it in September.

[silverfox]

Haha.....love the idea of these plans! Plans never seem to work on Symi.

Will it happen or will D&E change the plan?

All I can confirm is that food, drink, rest and enjoyment will take place!

Enjoy your day!

[D and E]

Saturday 19th

There is still some residual cloud from Friday and the temperature has dropped but only slightly to 34 C at 09:00 as we have breakfast on the balcony, so we set off with confidence that it is a good kind of day to walk to Nimborio.

We notice from the balcony that the bus is stuck half way up towards Sevastis. It is broken down.

We head down the Kali Strata and hear a shout from our right and this is Maria the dried herb seller but no “hard sell” today, only a warm welcome. Our first refreshment stop is in Cafe Aiglios, or the Comfy Chairs as it is known to so many, and we have frappe and fresh orange juice and watch the taxi boats go out. Poseidon is not going out until Sunday.

We walk through the back streets and notice yet again that the jeweller George - Alexandros is closed and rumour has it he has opened a shop in the Scottish Borders so with an overdue visit to D’s homeland later in the year we may try and track him down. We see the new bakery, just off the square, and a peep in the door tells us this is a must visit when we stay down in September. Just over the bridge we bump into a couple who came over with us and are staying at the Pedi Beach Hotel. They are very pleased they have visited Symi.

We are tempted into the Stellar Bar by the look of the chilled lager and so take a seat and watch the second day boat arrive. The cloud is disappearing fast and we head round by the Hinari boatyard seeing Tza Tze starting to get ready for the season and then find a new cafe just beyond. We decide to walk up the hill behind Odyssia Restaurant and through the church. Looking down, Nos Beach is doing well with the day visitors.

From The Church Above Nos Beach

The clouds have cleared, the temperature has gone back up to the high thirties and the walk to Nimborio is hot. As the shack below the Niredes Hotel is not yet open we just soldiered on till we reached our destination.

Panagiota and her fiancé are looking after a small number of diners and the area for the sun beds appears to have been extended outwards and there are far more beds that we recall. They do seem to be a bit cheek by jowl but hey, this family need to earn a living. The Taverna is now called Metapontis.

Sunbeds at Nimborio

We always like the small portion size here as it is perfect for a light lunch and we share a well made Greek salad, tuna salad that is light on the mayo which we like and the perfect sized piece of a very fine moussaka.

Light Lunch a la Taverna Metapontis

The walk back is even hotter so we avoid going over the top where there is no shade and stick to the coast road. A beer stop under the fans of the Nireus Hotel watching the day visitors return to the Panagia Skiadeni felt wonderful. From there we could see that the bus was still out of service so we hoped that the taxis were making hay and thankfully the taxi driven by the bus driver previous to Lakis nipped us up the hill.

As we walked up to Yannis we met Janine and chatted over how the celebration of the Royal Wedding to raise funds for the school had gone. Her and Tina has done an amazing job decorating the Olive Tree.

The Olive Tree Royal Wedding Style

Hotel Fiona - Quite A Difference

Whilst having our usual ouzo & retsina J and then H joined us and we exchanged stories of our day. Then L&S stopped for a chat before L went onto enjoy her birthday and S entertained her and a good crowd in Lefteris with his electric guitar. His opening rendition of the theme from Game of Thrones set the scene and as we headed for Zoë’s, there being no bus to our knowledge thus preventing us from going down (phew), he was knocking out the Rolling Stones - quite a guy.

Our friends D&G were the only other diners in Zoë’s. Having had lunch we had a light starter of plain beetroot and a portion of imam. D followed this with one of his top dishes - Symi lamb which is cooked slowly on the bones which gives it that really deep lamb flavour with carrot and the waxy potatoes he was one happy boy. E had the soutzoukakia in the tomato sauce perfectly accompanied by plain rice. With a complimentary piece of cakes and a glass of wine to end it was beyond the witching hour when we left.

Soutzoukakia a la Zoë

Symi Lamb a la Zoë

We could still hear the sounds of music drifting down on our short walk home and so quite exhausted we headed to the land of nod

[D and E]

What a wonderful start Who is the Olympic Symi rep this year? Glad to hear that Anastasia is doing well and looking forward to seeing her again in 4 months time Really looking forward to your next instalment.

Hi Gemma,

This is the Olympic Symi Rep this year - Nancy.

Nancy

[Andy W]

The taverna at Nimborio has always been called Metapontis, as far back as I can remember (over 20 years). There was and probably still is a painted sign on the wall. Looks like this year they are actually promoting the name. It may be a changing generations thing, or that nowadays there are far more self-catering apartments in Nimborio than ever before, or both I suppose.

[D and E]

Haha.....love the idea of these plans! Plans never seem to work on Symi.

Will it happen or will D&E change the plan?

All I can confirm is that food, drink, rest and enjoyment will take place!

Enjoy your day!

You know us too well Silverfox.
Whilst yesterday, as you will read, we stuck to our plan at least until the evening, today is totally the opposite !
Hot & humid and the bus is waiting for parts from Athens we hear, so one has to be adaptable
Pedi through the valley walk - maybe.

[D and E]

The taverna at Nimborio has always been called Metapontis, as far back as I can remember (over 20 years). There was and probably still is a painted sign on the wall. Looks like this year they are actually promoting the name. It may be a changing generations thing, or that nowadays there are far more self-catering apartments in Nimborio than ever before, or both I suppose.

We need to take more notice and stop “christening” places with names of our choice
We always referred to it as Maria’s.
But you are right Andy - we see more and more people staying out that way.

[D and E]

Welcome back D & E, we have been longing for this week of daily blogs and without fail you have started were you left off. Surprised to hear how hot it is for May. I am sure you will enjoy your time on Symi.

Hi Pollychops,

The weather could be described as changeable. Woke to 32 C and blue skies at around 08:30 and now that cloudiness has returned but it remains hot & very humid.

[Lisa B]

What a great start to the day! You've really made us laugh We imagined you bagatelling your way around the cafes/ bars of Symi and all before lunch!! Sounds like exactly the type of holiday we enjoy. Looking forward to the next installment

[Gemma1]

What a wonderful start Who is the Olympic Symi rep this year? Glad to hear that Anastasia is doing well and looking forward to seeing her again in 4 months time Really looking forward to your next instalment.

Hi Gemma,

This is the Olympic Symi Rep this year - Nancy.

C3AB2EA4-D8C2-4885-8586-BD2C2A3AF866.jpeg

Thank you, I'll look forward to meeting Nancy in September

[Gemma1]

The taverna at Nimborio has always been called Metapontis, as far back as I can remember (over 20 years). There was and probably still is a painted sign on the wall. Looks like this year they are actually promoting the name. It may be a changing generations thing, or that nowadays there are far more self-catering apartments in Nimborio than ever before, or both I suppose.

We need to take more notice and stop “christening” places with names of our choice
We always referred to it as Maria’s.
But you are right Andy - we see more and more people staying out that way.

I always thought it was called Maria's too.

[D and E]

Sunday 20th

Outside the Appartment

Sun and blue skies at 08:30 and 32 C on the balcony. As the baker in Chorio doesn’t open on a Sunday it gives us good reason to visit the Olive Tree for our usual breakfast which Tina knows off by heart now. The only thing that changes is D’s choice of juice and this time it is the blush - and very refreshing it is too.

We had planned to head down early and have breakfast in Cafe Aiglios and then catch a taxi boat to St. Nicks but as we were a bit late rising, and as is often the way on Symi as Silverfox pointed out, the thought is “avrio”.

So we pick up a pack of water from the supermarket and return to Anastasia’s and pack the beach bag. As we head out, that cloudiness has returned but it remains warm and humid. We take the path through the valley to Pedi and pass all the small holdings which are full of livestock including one that has a cow. On this route you pass the football pitch which was devastated by the floods.

We reach Katsaras and have a small beer which is gone in seconds so we have another and are surprised and delighted to see the Symi Bus come along. Clearly the rumours about parts from Athens, etc. are unfounded and the repairs have been completed. This throws us into complete disarray and we need to reconsider our plans for the evening. We find a suitable sun bed for a few hours and E has a dip whilst D snoozes.

From Katsaras Beach Bar

Our Swedish Friends ? Alas No

As there is not a 15:30 bus we walk up and find our leaving instructions under the door. This new Rep is ultra efficient and we have to be at the bins at 04:30 on Wednesday morning for the 05:50 Blue Star sailing.

We are ready to head to Yannis at 6pm - an hour earlier than usual as we plan to head down to Trata.

Cheesy Popcorn a la Yannis - big hit with D

We wander down the Kali Strata and notice a darkening of the skies. With the very humid weather and cloudiness we could be done with something to clear the air. We decide to have an ouzo & retsina in Cafe Aiglios which is quite busy. D being bald has an early warning system and feels a drop of rain first. It is followed by what we counted to be around at least another 20 to 25 drops yet as a precaution the cafe owner had the canopy up in seconds. As expected these few drops of moisture came to nothing but this did not prevent another ouzo & retsina appear as if by magic. Symi generosity.

We walk the short distance to Trata where they have extended into what was the cafe next door and there is a whole new look and feel due to the colour coordinated tables and chairs and even the new menus have the same tones. Our waiter, who have we see heading off for work from his house just below our apartments for many years, takes our order and we catch up on his winter. This very traditional and well established restaurant never fails to deliver on taste and so it was when we started with imam and the stuffed mushrooms. Imam is one of those dishes that varies from cook to cook and so even though we order it quite often the different herbs and spices can make the dish quite unique to the restaurant. The stuffed mushrooms are a firm favourite and are always on the “must have” list. We followed this with liver for D and moussaka for E and shared portion of horta which we always describe as a vegetable that is somewhere between spinach and a spring green. With a complimentary plate of water melon to end on we are in plenty of time for the last bus up.

Imam a la Trata

Stuffed Mushrooms a la Trata

We get off at the windmills and pick our way carefully through the back lanes which can be steep in places so having the torch on the iPhone is always handy. For once we don’t hear the eleven bells.

[Pollychops]

Reading this made me laugh so much this morning. You have a temp,wind and humidity gauge now you have your own personal rain early warning system. Fantastic, it doesn't get any better than this.
Can you please point out were the path is to walk through the Pedi valley, we normally just walk down the road. We would be leaving Taxiarchis if this helps.

I cant believe its Monday already and looking forward to checking in for the next installment tomorrow.

Great blog