The colors of Symi

We took a day trip, by ferry, to the nearby tiny island of Symi. The ferry passed close to the coast of Turkey; I'd hoped to go there, but the ferry company isn't running trips there, at least not yet.

Unlike Lindos, which is all white, Symi is brightly colored. The main village stands out dramatically, being set in the one spot along a forbidding coastline where a town could reside.

The Turkish coastline from the ferry. Symi is only six nautical miles from Turkey, and so one of the primary places in Europe that Syrian immigrants come to via Turkey. Apparently a full third of the Syrian population has been displaced by the civil war, and only Sweden and Germany accept their refugees. I learned all this from a British woman I met in Symi, who has lived in Greece for 25 years and works with the refugees, helping them get by. 

This is Turkey; much of the Symi shoreline is similarly forbidding. 

So this avalanche of pretty little houses is a delightful surprise. 

It was quite cold in the morning, so I bought Ria this fuzzy jacket, which she adores. 

Bright blue steps are somehow more fun to walk up than ordinary steps. 

Looks like someone got a little carried away with the paint on this house.