Ayia Napa & Protaras

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Sunday, September, 6th is my birthday and Monday, 7th September, is our fourth wedding anniversary. So sometime in July, we had decided that we would book ourselves a little holiday in Ayia Napa, around this time and get to do some exploring of the other end of the Island.

Pat did some surfing and research on the internet and booked us into a hotel called The So Nice Boutique Hotel, Ayia Napa, for the nights of the 6th & 7th September, 2009.

The plan was to drive up early on the Sunday morning, stay for the two nights and drive back sometime Tuesday afternoon. Exploring and general sightseeing, while we were there.

We were up in good time and I opened my birthday cards and a small present from my sister.

The present turned out to be a build your own snow globe, my sister was worried that I might be missing the British weather, and needed to be reminded!

We set off just after nine morning and headed due East, the roads were fairly quiet and we arrived in the Ayia Napa area not long after eleven. We decided to try and find the Hotel first, if we could. We knew it was too early to check in, but we would at least then have an idea where it was.

We had local maps and managed to find the Hotel fairly easily. So we decided to start exploring the area. We were both hungry, so headed for the centre. We parked up on some waste ground near the harbour and paid our €2 parking fee.

We found a restaurant next to the harbour “Zorba‘s and both had an English Breakfast, while watching the world go by.

After breakfast, and as we were in the harbour area, we tried to find information about a boat trip for Monday. We both wanted to see Famagusta, and knew that we could do this by boat.

After speaking to one or two of the boat reps on the quayside, we couldn’t find the trip we wanted. Pat had mentioned that Protaras, which was slightly further up the coast, might have more of what we might want. So, we headed off in the car up to Protaras, which was on our itinerary, to have a look around anyway, so was time well spent.

After heading North and driving around for a while we found the Fishing shelter, where a few tourist boats left from. There was no-one to actually speak to, but we found some boards and leaflets and a trip that fitted the bill. So, we decided to telephone in the morning and work it from there.

We headed back to Ayia Napa and towards the hotel, to check in.

The So Nice Boutique Hotel has a few years under it’s belt, but has had some money spent on it to try and keep it fresh and updated. I’m not sure it has been highly successful in doing this, but it was certainly OK.

After dumping our stuff in the room, we had a look around the Hotel. We had a short stop at the Hotel pool bar and had some drinks. We also wandered down to the beach.

Then back to the room and a brief break then got ready to go a get something to eat.

As it was my birthday it was my choice of restaurant and I had a Chinese in mind.

We drove back to Ayia Napa centre and had found a car park we had spotted earlier in the day.

Then it was a case of walking back through the town until we came to somewhere we liked the look of.

As it happened we hadn’t gone far when we saw a likely looking place called the Zao Shen, Chinese restaurant. Very smart.

We had a lovely meal with excellent service and not an unreasonable price.

The food consisted of a Quarter of crispy duck, then main courses of chicken and pineapple, crispy beef, and sweet & sour pork, egg fried rice.

Monday, 7th September, 2009, our wedding anniversary - four years.

We opened our cards and then at nine o’clock, I telephoned the boat trip people and got us booked on the Shirley Valentine boat trip with Captain Kyriakos, to see Famagusta and Cape Greco. The boat was leaving at eleven, we needed to be there at 1045.

We decided on a quick cup of coffee at the hotel before leaving, which turned out to be not that easy, service wasn’t good at the pool bar and we waited for quite a while, just for two coffee’s.

Anyway, we made our way back to the fishing shelter and got ourselves onto the boat. The boat was small, which suited us and had about fourteen passengers, when everyone had been picked up.

First was heading North, to get as close as possible to the Green Line and view the ghost town of Famagusta in the distance.

Apparently there are 66 hotels that were abandoned in the invasion. In the town, the car showrooms still have the cars from 1974 and so on.

After spending a little while looking, it was then back South to Cape Greco.

We moored in one of the nearby lagoons and had a chance to go swimming off the boat. This was then followed by lunch of souvlaki’s.

Captain Kyriakos’ dog is called Keo; named after a local beer. The dog isn’t getting about to well and Kyri helped him swim ashore by floating him on a surf board, very comical to watch.

The boat trip lasted about five hours and was good value for money.

We drove back to the hotel, picked up some bits and pieces from a local supermarket, then got ready for dinner.

Pat’s choice for dinner tonight - Italian. She had spotted a place and this was where we were headed.

The Da Medici, was a very modern restaurant, which also turned out to be a very good choice. Good food, excellent service, value for money.

Carpaccio and Funghi Alla Panna (creamy mushrooms) for starters. Then a Piazza Diavalo and a Tagliatelle with salmon. We even had desserts of Tiramisu and an Italian cheese plate. We were both stuffed.

We wandered around for a little while looking at shops and then returned to the hotel.

Tuesday, 8th September, 2009.

Our plan for today was to do some more sightseeing and return home later in the day.

We checked out of the hotel and made our way back to Ayia Napa, firstly for some breakfast.

We found the Queen Vic, just next to the harbour and both had a full English breakfast. We are getting very sad with our English breakfatsts, now that we are ex-pats.

We wandered around the harbour for a while then back up to take some pictures at the monastery.

Next we wanted to visit Cape Greco and see this South Eastern point of the Island.

Then we headed North to see how close we could get to the Green line.

On the coast we found our way to a very sordid place called the Famagusta Mini Zoo, which has a tower on top of the building to see in the direction of Famagusta.

You can see the Cypriot watchtower, then the UN post and also in the distance the Turkish Cypriot watchtower. This was the furthest point we could travel.

We then headed inland and slowly back out to the main road.

Near Larnaca airport is a mosque, called the Hala Sultan Tekke, which we decided to have a look at whilst we were in this part of the world.

Then back home arriving about five o‘clock.

The journey, Pafos to Ayia Napa is about one hundred miles, and in total we drove three hundred miles on this trip.

Ayia Napa, is 100% geared up for tourists, although I found it to be less noisy than Kato Pafos, because of less noisy motorbikes going up and down doing stupid things.

Protaras gives the impression of everything having a little more space and not quite the same age group.

We had a great trip, saw lots of new parts of the Island and did most of the things we wanted to, with some good meals along the way.

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Photos

Boat trip to Famagusta
The Captain's dog - Keo - keeping a watch

Boat trip to Famagusta
Captain Kyri taking the dog for his swim

So Nice Boutique Hotel
The view from our room

Famagusta
The view from the boat of Famagusta ghost town

Cape Greco
Pat snorkelling off the boat at Cape Greco

Ayia Napa
Limnari beach

Cape Greco
The Shirley valentine boat

Cape Greco
A lizard on the path

Famagusta
Viewed from the mini zoo