Night of celebrations on Symi

Yesterday, was a day of friendship. Sitting in my office, being distracted from my studies, playing with social media, twittering with my friends, and generally catching up with my electronic mail, a friend hammered on the door, a welcome break especially as I had just turned the kettle on for a cuppa and we sat on the terrace putting the world to rights.

The sunshine was too enjoyable to go back inside, so after my friend had left, I took a walk around to the beach, watched the fish swimming between the boats and marvelled at the fact there was so little traffic. Symi is quiet, and I hopefully returning to tranquillity and peace that I once knew. Locally there is general concern about the economic situation and a serious worry that the tourists might not come. On my way home some new faces in harbour, see there are people here! A couple from Australia, returning to restore an old ruin of a house, part of their family heritage.

Invited to their small home for bean soup. They were living in Salachori, part of town that I know well but infrequent visit. Back in the early 90’s I rented a small place about four houses up the hill from them, and was instantly reminded of days when I was living in that part of town. They were happy days indeed.

Around an old kitchen table with a plastic cloth, on rickety wooden chairs, in wonderful old stone house totally unspoilt by restoration, I observe the basic gas bottle cooking ring, few material possessions and a simple wonderful style. I enjoyed good company, simple food and Greek, or was it Turkish coffee. ;-) recall of all the reasons I came to this wonderful place.

Walking home, I’m called to join a group of long standing international friends, who were on the Ouzo! The fact that they were drinking Ouzo, makes me smile, as most of the Greeks I mix with wouldn’t be seen dead drinking the stuff, just too un cool, these days they have moved on to Whiskey! Why the hell not! This was a day of nostalgic memories, sit and drink Ouzo with my friends, and eat big round olives. We celebrate

What were we celebrating I here you ask?

The arrival of IKEA on Symi, laugh
The mention on Matt Barrtts Greek travel page. Congratulations
The options available when looking for a new house, yes there are plenty about.


Who needs a reason to be happy, the surroundings are beautiful and we have friends .What else do we need. If you had asked me a few days ago, I would have said that such things as simple hospitality is extinct, people here have turned into Greedy bu**ers. I’m proved wrong and swallow my words.


Now to my coffee, yep I like it strong and drink a lot of it. People often comment, because I drink so much of the stuff, well here is a useless bit of knowledge. What kind of coffee has the most caffeine? The darkest, strongest tasting ones right? Actually, no. Mild coffee actually contains more caffeine, than the dark roasts. This is because they are “cooked” a shorter amount of time and leave more off the caffeine “intact .