Symi
A BEAUTIFUL AND SACRED ISLAND
The year was 2012, year of the Olympic games in London, so I thought it particularly cool to visit the lands of the Olympic gods for the first time. I actually went to Rhodes (Rodos), but there was a day trip to the island of Symi that caught my eye.
I remember sitting at the small travel agency near my resort looking the the photos and quickly reading up on Symi on my iPhone 4 - which was what I took the photos in this post with. There was a threat of war that week. Rhodes isn't very far from Syria, which was experiencing turmoil at the time. Things were also kicking off in Israel and Egypt, serious enough to give people on the Greek island concern.
"If we get nuked, how special would it be if it happens while I'm on this beautiful island?", I joked referring to Symi.
"There have been angels spotted there, including Michael himself, at some point in history", she said, "maybe he'll show up again to help out".
Michael clearly has a thing for the Mediterranean. He has also been spotted in Rome and Alexandria (Egypt) apparently.
The boat trip was beyond stunning. The blue water of the Med, and the many small rocky islands, make for some awesome photography. I did have a proper camera, but I took most of the photos with my iPhone.
The island of Symi itself was just stunning. Like many of the smaller islands, it's served a religious function historically. There is a very old monastery on Symi that is very important to worshipers who flock there on pilgrimage from different parts of the world. There are parts of monastery that are open to the public, including a museum displaying some interesting artefacts.
There are different types of people that visit Symi. There's the tourist who's just there to take photos and take a look around. On the other hand, there's the religious pilgrim who's there to light a candle, pray, contemplate and even cry.
It was an interesting experience on the island. There was a sense of peace and it really did feel like sacred land. I still have the holy oil and the emblem of Angel Michael that I was given by a priest in a chapel there.
I enjoyed the museum. There was an informal "storage room" vibe to it. It wasn't your typical organised museum. A lot of the items were left in situ. There was an odd set of artefacts that I noticed that seemed completely out of place however. They was a collection of African art in the form of carvings on ivory tusks. I wasn't quite sure why they were there. Perhaps they were a gift to the monastery or from someone's private collection.
That's me being my positive self. The sad reality is that like most African art found outside Africa, it was probably as a result of looting. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they belonged to a chief or nobleman prior to his town being sacked by an invading force. That was pretty common.
I had a little time to have lunch on the island, walk along the shores and take some photographs. There was this very interesting, if not out of place, boat with a Turkish flag on it. It wasn't allowed to dock on Symi so it just anchored at a distance. I'm not sure what that was all about. Perhaps some kind of political thing. I know Greece and Turkey are political foes. Ironically, Symi, and Rodos for that matter, are geographically closer to Turkey than they are to Greece. I even noticed some trips to Turkish territory in the travel agency, so it was possible to visit, but I think the tourists had to have non-Greek passports.
That part of the world is very old and has seen hundreds, if not thousands, of civilisations, empires, kingdoms and settlements over time. The ancient Egyptians were there. The Sumerians and later the Mesopotamians were there. The Greeks, of course, Macedonians, Romans, Phoenicians, Moors, Medes, Persians, Ottomans, French, British, and on and on. The history of the Eastern Mediterranean is utterly fascinating.
Video/
A slideshow format video of the boat trip to Symi. I believe there was some kind of boat race in the waters that day.
Photos/
In accordance to the #iPhoneTimeTravel series, all photos were taken with my then iPhone4. I do have some other photos taken on my Canon camera, but they do not qualify for this post :)
Talking of the African artefacts, I couldn't quite place exactly where in Africa they originated from. The fact that they're ivory points to either West Africa or Southern Africa. However, because the carvings depict people, it is most likely Western. Another clue is the fact that the people are depicted with West African facial scarifications. The Ivory Coast or Ghana would be my guess. I could be wrong though.
Check out other posts in the iPhone Time Travel series via this hastag: #iphonetimetravel
Peace & Love,
Adé