Blogs from Paphos, Cyprus, Middle East - page 2

WEDNESDAY A day of sunshine, shipwrecks, and swimming. We were collected from the hotel and taken to Paphos harbour where we boarded the yacht Ocean Flyer for a day out on the Mediterranean Sea. There were 3 decks and by the time we boarded a lot of the sun loungers had been taken but we managed to find a couple of comfy chairs, which we hoped might give some shade later in the day. We set off around 10am, the staff were very friendly and explained the safety procedures, most of the passengers were English but there were a couple of other nationalities although I couldn't detect the language when their safety reports were announced so just as well we had it in English too ! As we pulled out of the harbour the ancient castle, ... read more

TRAVELBLOG SITE HAD A PROBLEM IMAGES NOT SHOWING - PROBLEM NOW RESOLVED. Updates now a little behind. Returning to Paphos after 30 years One thing that hasn't changed is the hospitality and friendliness of the people. This is one of our Fly 'n' Flop holidays so will be mostly relaxing but I'm sure I'll find enough to photograph & tell you about over the coming days. We had a good flight and landed about 20 minutes early which made up for the slight delay we had on takeoff. There are many hotels here owned by the Constantinuous Brothers - Ours is Athena Royal Beach approx. 4km from Paphos town. We received an ice cold drink with a very warm welcome, first impression so far so good. We were escorted to our room on the 3rd floor ... read more

We spent the day at Paphos, the place where Aphrodite drifted ashore on her half shell. Her birth was the consequence of a particularly nasty father-son conflict, when Cronos emasculated his father Ouranos and the severed member fell into the sea off Cyprus. The "foam" (as they politely call it) from this organ caused the sea to give birth to Aphrodite. She was almost born on Cythera, near the Peloponnese, but the winds blew her to Paphos. (I wonder what the Cytherians have to say about that!) Anyway, her landing spot is a beach of beautiful polished stones with several impressive white rocks rising from the waves. Paphos was, not surprisingly, a major location for worship of Aphrodite and there's a large complex of religious buildings there that date from around 1400 BC through to 400 ... read more

July 16, 2015 - Today is my nephew's 15th birthday. Seriously, when did that happen? He was just 6. This morning I woke up before my alarm, as always. Had my breakfast, packed up, and headed out at 7:25am for the 8am bus. I made it with no trouble, and even had some waiting time before the bus left. But it was already there when I arrived, and not many people were waiting, so I put my backpack under the bus and was the first one on, in the first seat with nothing obstructing my view. I read a little about Pafos, my destination, and then slept for a bit. It was a two hour ride, which was kind of nice. I like longer rides – I find them relaxing. When I arrived, I wandered around ... read more

I had an opportunity to visit Cyprus, the pearl of Mediterranean, in May 2002. That was for presenting a paper in an international conference, hosted jointly by the Commonwealth Science & Technology Secretariat and WAITRO. After a change of flights in Dubai I landed in Larnaca, the international port of entry for Cyprus. I headed for Paphos, a resort town in the western part of Cyprus and host city for the conference. The drive along the southern coast of the island was breathtaking with the azure blue Mediterranean Sea keeping company all along! We crossed the port city of Limassol on the way. Limassol also thrives on software development activities thus attracting a sizeable population of expatriate Indians. Smoothly weaving through the hillocks of limestone and plains growing oranges and grapes, the four-lane highway brought us ... read more