My Dreamstime blog on small Greek islands:

For anyone that hasn't realised, as well as writing about and photographing small Greek islands I also sell my images for commercial use through a variety of agents. One of these, Dreamstime, offers photographers a blog feature to promote their work.

Chapel near Emborio, Halki island

So, having just returned from two great weeks on the lovely island of Paxos (a new post on Paxos will follow here soon) what better to blog about on Dreamstime than the beautiful small islands of Greece. It's only a short generic piece  and features a selection of my images from Halki, Symi, Alonissos, Meganissi, Skopelos and Nisyros.
Feel free to take a look via this link: My Dreamstime blog on small Greek islands
You can also check out my full portfolio there for lots more Greek island images. Regards, David.

Lazy Days on Symi (Dodecanese):

Fading beauty of Lazy Days on Symi

When I wrote my full post about Symi last year (Symi island ) I briefly mentioned the lovely old excursion boat Lazy Days which has been crumbling away in the Harani boat yard at Yialos for years. I've just recently edited the images and have been uploading them to my various photo agencies - giving me an excuse to publish them here.
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I found this boat utterly charming and wondered about its history, where it had been and who had been on it. Most importantly, why had it ended up here in Yialos. Some of the answers were on the boat itself with peeling signs advertising Moonlight Cruises and excursions to Lindos (on Rhodes island).

For more information I turned to the excellent and informative symivisitor.com . This is a site I had looked at a lot before my trip to Symi in 2011. There's a host of information about the island on the site and even a webcam looking towards the harbour which you can look at (note: these are updated stills, not a live video feed!). Even better the site has a chat page (just click on the link there)
which is a forum all about Symi -with active contributions from both permanent residents of the island and visitors new and old. Pretty much anything you want to know about Symi is there and if not just ask. Someone on the forum is sure to have an answer for you.

Lazy Days excursion boat on Symi

Before I went most of my questions were about ferry schedules and what was likely to be operating (2011 saw a lot of industrial action in Greece and, indeed, I was delayed by an Air Traffic Controllers strike on my return journey). In the end, my flight arrived too late for the last ferry anyway and I had to stay on Rhodes until the next morning. As I said in my previous post, this was the only time ever I had failed to reach my destination island on the same day.



Where to find Lazy Days in Yialos (click to enlarge)

Obviously, on my return, who better to ask about Lazy Days. The forum came up trumps with all sorts of memories of actually travelling on it, old photographs, and an approximate date of circa 1995 for when it had arrived at the boat yard. The concensus seemed to be that there was some kind of dispute between various owners of the boat and that as a result Lazy Days had just been effectivly abandoned there for all those years.
Interestingly, views about Lazy Days ranged from how charming it was through to it was getting to be an eyesore. We do all, indeed, see things in a different way.
The big question that had to be answered before writing this post was Is Lazy Days Still There? Needless to say, the forum provided the answer when two regular visitors posted this month about walking past Lazy Days. It seems it has substained more damage from storms last Winter but, yes, it is still there.
So, if you are heading for Symi, take a walk past the clocktower on the left of the harbour and a few minutes later there she is. I hope you appreciate her as much as I did. Do you have any memories of Lazy Days? Feel free to comment below. Regards, David.

Edited to Add (October 2014): Sadly, the Symi Visitor Facebook page recently posted that Lazy Days is no more. Not clear if it is being broken up -or just collapsed through natural causes. We'll always have the photographs though.....

Symi (Dodecanese):

Looking down on Yialos harbour on Symi

Symi, 41km from Rhodes, is often described as having the prettiest harbour in Greece. That's certainly some claim but there is no denying how charming the pastel coloured neo-classical buildings around the Yialos harbour look.
I spent two weeks on Symi in June 2011 (well it would have been two weeks but flight/ferry timings meant an overnight stay in Rhodes both ways). Dissapointing because this is the only Greek island trip ever where I did not reach my destination on the same day.

I was lucky enough to have an apartment directly looking over the busy harbour which certainly provided plenty of entertainment watching the boats come and go - not least the Blue Star Ferries ship Diagoras (a vessel so large it manages to block most of the harbour off when in dock).

Yialos/Gialos (take your pick) has plenty of tavernas and shops and even an excellent Italian pizzeria and is certainly at the bigger end of what I define as a small island. It is, of course, all relative. Somebody used to the bigger islands such as Rhodes, Kos, Crete etc would regard Yialos as tiny. Things certainly got busy during early afternoons as numerous excursion boats pitch up with day trippers from other islands. There was even a burst of nostalgia when the Tilos Sea Star arrived - I had last been on that in 2006 (it broke down)*. However, after lunch and a look at the umpteen souvenir stalls that take up one side of the harbour they were all gone again.

High above Yialos lies the older village of Chorio.  You have three choices for reaching Chorio: the Kataraktis -a steep and rather slippery cobbled path/donkey track up the hillside (I had to sit down in the shade after tackling that one). Better to take the Kali Strata a series of some 350 steps which start in the town centre and twist and turn up the hillside with old houses (shade!) on either side. There are even a couple of handy tavernas on the way up if you fancy a rest.
The third route is to simply follow the main road up. Not, on the surface, very appealing but as you get higher there are great views (and photos) to be had looking down onto the harbour. There is also a bus available (timings varying).
Chorio, is a mass of little alleys and paths amongst the old houses and great fun to explore. You'll probaly get lost at some point but you are never far away from civilisation. There are also a number of tavernas up there as well.

From Chorio you can walk the road down to Pedi Bay, a pretty little harbour with a few boats and several tavernas. The bus calls there as well.

Yialos at night on Symi

Back in Yialos, I walked round the left hand side of the harbour where there is a boat building/repair area with a number of old boats piled up. I was fascinated by a fairly large sized former excursion boat called Lazy Days. It seems it has been beached there for years due to some kind of ownership dispute and is slowly falling apart. The signs on the boat advertise Moonlight Cruises and trips to Lindos (Rhodes). If it hasn't totally collapsed by now its probaly still there.

Continuing on from Lazy Days you can take the coast road passing Nos Beach (the small "town" beach) with a taverna and sunbeds. The road gives good views of the rocky coastline and after around 30 minutes you reach the beach and harbour of Nimborios. Again, there is a taverna here.

Looking down to Yialos village on Symi

For a change of scene you can take a day trip to Turkey (offered by various boats in the harbour). Symi is only just off the coast of Turkey so it's a short journey. Sadly, I missed this opportunity as I only had a few weeks left on my passport. You are required to have at least six months validity to enter Turkey. I'm not sure why this matters for a day trip -but never mind.

There are lots of boats/water taxis which will take you to beaches further along the Symi coast and to the monastery at Panormitis. Now, this is where I missed out and didn't take any of these. I'm not really a beach person and didn't want to be stuck on one all day waiting for the return pick up. Poor research was my mistake here as I failed to realise that these beaches would have been a good launch for interesting walks and worse still, this is where all the goats are. Lots of them. On the beach. My Goatiness rating for Symi would have been extremely low based on just one goat (in a paddock at that) in Yialos. But I would have been wrong. Not wrong on the Cockerel Count though - Symi ranks as high with a truly spectacular dawn chorus of crowing echoing around Yialos. Possibly the best I have ever heard anywhere (we'll overlook the one that couldn't crow properly and just issued something akin to a scream). Regards, David.

Tilos Sea Star at Yialos harbour

* The Tilos Sea Star is actually a superb fast catamaran of which the island of Tilos are rightly proud. It didn't break down for long and actually we were just relieved we hadn't ploughed into a dolphin or something.

Nisyros (Dodecanese):

Table for one at Mandraki

Nisyros isn't an island I have ever stayed on but have made two day trips to in 2005 and 2010 - both while staying on Halki island. Nisyros is readily reachable from Kos, Tilos, Halki and to a lesser extent from Symi and Rhodes (you can get there and back but my 2010 timetables for Dodekanisos Seaways fast catamaran service wouldn't allow for much time on the island - that could, of course, have changed).

Mandraki, the port town, has a number of tavernas (mainly on the seafront) and there are lots of little lanes and alley ways to explore. Standing high on the cliffs above the town is the Monastery of Our Lady Spiliani together with the ruins of a Crusader Knights castle.

However, the main thing of interest on Nisyros is the still active volcano. The last significant eruption was in 1888 but the volcano is far from extinct.

On arrival at Mandraki you should find one or more stands offering trips to the volcano. This wasn't expensive (circa 12 euro last time) for the 30-40 minute coach ride and an expert guide throughout

Attempting to fry eggs in a volcano

offering a wealth of information on the volcano (and Nisyros in general). Outside of peak season you could, I suppose, hire a taxi there and back (but do research this beforehand).

When you get there you can walk down into the moonscape like Stefanos crater and explore at will. Yellow sulphur deposits cover a lot of the base of the crater and the smell is pretty strong. Large fumaroles (fissures) are dotted about and have bubbling hot mud in them. The whole base of the crater is warm and from time to time jets of steam suddenly emerge from the ground catching the unwary visitor by surprise. The first time I went there somebody brought along some eggs and cracked them open on the ground. Well, it's not so hot that they fried - but did provide a good photo opportunity for everyone there!

Tourists walk in the Stefanos volcano on Nisyros

Near the crater is a small cafe where you can get drinks and a snack before heading back to Mandraki.

It was certainly a fantastic experience and well worth the effort to visit, especially knowing that the volcano could/will erupt again in the future - an organisation called Geowarn keep it under constant monitoring both on the ground and from space. Regards,
David.