Marco - taking Time Out in Cyprus!
With Steph heading off to live it up in upstate New York (is that an oxymoron?), I had a bit of a quandry on my hands as to what to do with myself for the week or so she would be over there.
Marc and I exchanged a few emails, considered various locations within Jordan, possibly Syria (where we anticipating Steph would have problems getting a visa) and also Cyprus. After a bit of discussion, and some last minute flight shopping, we decided on the audacious plan of heading over to Cyprus for a few days.
Cyprus has long held a fascination for me, being continually treated to (tortured by?) my father's stories of his Cypriot adventures during the 60's, when he served in the UN's first peacekeeping mission to this much fought-over island - my parents are actually heading here this October as part of a 40th anniversary celebration of his time here.
Cyprus today is still a country divided, seperated into Greek and Turkish parts with the capital, Nicosia, having the unfortunate distinction of being the world's last divided capital.
Considering that I had about 6 months of independent travelling under my belt, I am still amazed at how unprepared Marc and I were for our weekend on this lovely island - we had no guide book and no plans, we stayed up fairly late the night before, giving us almost no sleep before we had to be up at 4:00am to make our 6:45am flight. I think we were just looking forward to getting out of the Middle East for a couple of days.
Cyprus out the window of our RJ flight.
The beachside walk in Larnaca
What we found was well beyond our paltry expectations of a couple of rashers of bacon, as we discovered the pork-lover's paradise of a Cypriot "mixed sandwich". This is basically some jumbo pita bread filled with every type of pork the particular restaurant sells, halloumi (a delicious hard cheese that is fried - found everywhere in Cyprus) with some small amount of salad to appease the country's doctor's associations and heart disease specialists. We took a raincheck on the English breakfast and eagerly ordered two of these gastronomical delights!
The actual picture of our Mixed Sandwich
We were particularly fortunate to randomly land in a restaurant that had 7 different types of pork (detailed in the menu picture below). We helped celebrate this amazing find with special occasion beers, truly special at 9:30 in the morning.
Pork, pork and more pork.
Like a thirsty man, walking out of the desert into the oasis
Unfortunately, this had the effect of catching up our combined lack of sleep, putting us to bed by noon for a marathon 4 hour siesta!
Like a thirsty man, walking out of the desert into the oasis
That night, we went back to the beach to see the opening night of Kataklysmos - a water festival that takes place in all seaside Cypriot towns 40 days after Easter. There were parades, an outdoor concert and lots of stalls, selling all manner of things. It was great to be out in the festive atmosphere - watching Cyprus' answer to the Backstreet Boys and Greek hip-hop and generally celebrating the laid-back lifestyle.
Kataklysmos, in full swing
We got up on Saturday and dug into a hearty English breakfast - Cyprus was previously a British colony and good things just stick. This breakfast had a Cypriot twist, being served with halloumi, as well as the baked beans, fried eggs and bacon which constitute one of the few culinary joys that England has given to the world.
Marc left Saturday afternoon, and I spent the rest of the weekend just reading books on the beach, wandering about town and taking in the sites of the festival that ran all week-end long. I tried to get out on a dive boat to see the "Zenovia", a wrecked transport ship just outside of Larnaca harbour, however poor timing and missed calls, combined with the public holiday, meant that I literally "missed the boat".
The beach in Larnaca - what I did for three days!
All in all, it was great to get out of the conservative Middle East, even for a few days, and take in the lovely laid back atmosphere of Cyprus. Even though it was a festival, celebrations were pretty calm with more of a family feel than anything particular hyped up.
Another special treat - a Haagen-Dazs Banoffee Toffee sundae with a Greek coffee. Glad that the Egyptian heat melted some pounds off me, because I was making up for it here!
The weather and water were warm, as were the people in town who were all cheerful and happy to help - who wouldn't be when they live on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean? It left me with the overwhelming desire of wanting to explore this island more and disappointed that I didn't have the time to do it. Maybe Steph and I can include it on the itinerary when we take another year off to travel in the future!
