Saturday - Day 11
This is turning out to be the most changeable weather we have experienced in all our visits. Yesterday blue skies and today a wind that blows the plastic chairs along our communal balcony. There are clouds over the Vigla and the promise of rain. After breakfast we head down to meet Margarita for coffee, get all her news, and take a note of the dates she can accommodate us in October. As we are having our coffee the rain starts and clearly someone is being entrepreneurial selling rain-proof ponchos to the day visitors coming off the Sea Dream.
It is not a day to venture far. Normally one day of our visit turns out like this. D heads to the Stella Bar for a Mythos that becomes two as E takes a look around the shops. We meet up to share the small Mezes plate again at Elpida's - this is a real find and clearly you get whatever Elpida has cooked that day. Today it was some roast chicken, some potatoes, tomatoes, a ewe's cheese and some coronation chicken - tasty doesn't start to do this justice. And of course it tastes all the better with retsina. This is starting to turn into a bit of a boozey day as the sun comes out.
With the wind whipping up a high sea and spray being blown off the tops of the waves we decide to have another carafe of retsina in Elpida's whilst watching some very expensive boats tackle the tricky mooring manoeuvres that the weather presents.
E's earlier shopping escapade did identify some nice clothes that she wanted to take a look at again so D was "sent" to Cafe Alegrito to have an ouzo which turned into three. E returns with some very nice Greek made shirts for D to choose from. Symiot shopkeepers remind us of how things were when we were younger - very trusting and putting the customer first. E also made one or two purchases and sat down for a well deserved retsina and all of a sudden a freshly made omelette was put in front of us and the locals who were playing backgammon. The kindness of the Symi people has only increased even with the financial difficulties that they have faced - quite amazing.
In the circumstances a taxi up seems appealing but there isn't one to be found in the rank but as luck would have it the time is 16:58 so a bit of a sprint (poetic licence) and we catch the 17:00 bus and get off at the windmills.
D tries on and likes all three shirts so that will means a visit to the ATM for "debt settlement" the following day and a pair of trousers that E has bought will need adjusted and Debbie on the square is the girl for that as we found during our first week.
We then headed for Yiannis to watch the FA Cup Final which runs into extra time and so extra ouzo / retsina. After a thoroughly deserved victory for Manchester United which makes D very happy (or was that the abundance of ouzo he has consumed) we headed next door to Giorgio's where the liver was now on the menu. Simply grilled with a squeeze of lemon - perfect and we were in good company as the proprietor was having the same. We had the braised mixed vegetables, the bourataki and the Mousaka to accompany this and some more retsina.
So as we headed back in a less than straight path another lovely day on Symi ended with the threat of rain the next day.