- Taverna Daphne - Tolis
Friday
Weather Report at 09:00 - Anastasia’s Room 5 Balcony
Baro Pressure 1006
Humidity 33%
Wind Speed 0.5 mph
Temp Shade 24 C
Temp Sun 32 C
After two “active” days we decided to have a “lazy” day. D waited until 8am before heading on the bread run and by the time we had done a two day blog with sized photos and had breakfast it was about 11am. There were clouds scudding across Symi from Turkey heading towards Rhodes but Symi was very pleasant and definitely not as hot as recent days.
Now readers might recall that we had a duff kettle last week which was fixed with a smile and a brand new replacement. This morning the shower head started leaking in a big way sending fountains of water this way and that. It might just be us, but getting up the nerve to point this out took a bit of doing but our wonderful hostess, Anastasia, just blamed the “bloody” Chinese manufacturers and said her grandson would be on the case and would fix it.
Somewhat relieved we headed down the lazy steps for our Cafe Aiglios frappe and fresh orange juice and just watched the world go by. It is so lovely to sit somewhere surrounded by different languages and cultures and just feel part of something much bigger and more important.
We then wandered around the back streets and landed in the Corner Cafe for a couple of small beers and fondly, and ashamedly, remember the days when they was no barrier to the slipway and some of the hilarious incidents that we have witnessed over the years. Some cheese, pickled capers, cucumber and olives are the mezes of the day. Then who did we find in the next door Cafe but the ever present J&M
Just as we were about to leave the Corner Cafe, Zoe’s husband Nikos passes and mysteriously two more small beers appear in front of us. That’s Symi.
So we then take a walk around the harbour to the ATM. So handy it is next door to Elpida’s and so we have an ouzo and retsina stop with a lovely mezes of those spicy samosas, sweet tomatoes, cucumber and cheese. Then one of the longest established Symi Visitors and well respected members of this forum arrived and had a chat - great to see Kojak on the island with the other doyens of the SV Forum in Elpida’s.
A second ouzo to keep up with E’s small carafe of retsina comes with spicy salami and salty feta - perfect. A&A are passing and we have a foodie chat - well you do, don't you. They recounted a superb lunch they had just had at The Nireus and a memorable “fruit de’ mer” in To Spitiko the night before - both sounded amazing.
- Zeus Day Boat - stops at St George's Bay on way back
E was looking for some sleeveless tops (whatever that might be) and so she headed to Debbie’s in The Square and D headed to Kakoi. By this time it must have been at least two hours since we had seen J&M and that felt wrong
but thankfully they soon walked past
Approaching 4pm Kakoi likes to close for a couple of hours and as E was still shopping D moved to Cafe Alegrito and a after one more to watch Poseidon and the water taxis arrive back we headed for the 5pm bus.
Writing the blog on the balcony of Room 5 at 6pm the wind got up again but it was time to get ready and head to Yannis on a much cooler evening.
Our four friends made their way up from Nos, where they are staying, to have dinner with us in Zoe’s before two of them head back to Sweden the next day. Yannis does a great job rearranging the chairs to accommodate us. Another regular visitor (and cat lover) arrived in Yannis and called D over to compliment the blog and give his condolences over the loss of Greyam which was very thoughtful indeed - thanks N.
In Zoe’s we start by sharing a mezes of dolmades with tzatziki, very light and flavoursome courgette balls and the unctuous bouyiourdi that everyone dipped the bread into and loved the taste of the oven baked feta with peppers. For mains D had the hare stifado, E the soutzoukakia in that rich tomato sauce whilst our four Swedish friends had the legendary beef stifado which floored at least two of them.
After some complimentary retsina and apples in cinnamon even Zoe could not get our friends a taxi at around 10:45 so we walked them down to the Chorio Kiosk and Lakis was soon there to bus them down the hill.
The uncertainty of taxis must impact as the demographic of the average Symi Visitor does suggest that they may be less inclined to venture far at night if they cannot be sure of a taxi home, especially those less familiar with the island and the brilliant bus service.
So we headed home bumping into J on the way and then passing the Sunshine Bar that was just getting going by the looks of things.
Another most enjoyable day on “the rock” ended but the wind continued to blow during the night as was forecast and there is still a breeze at 10:00 as the blog is being posted.
- Pedi Bay from R5 Balcony this morning