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Published: November 25th 2007
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yep
PARAGLIDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hello, hello,
To our luck, Cyprus was as warm and pleasant as we hoped. Interestingly, the locals informed us that the temperatures were unusually warm, a consistent trend we have been encountering country to country... to our pleasure!
So, the best way to get to Cyprus was a ferry... an of course, never learning from our mistakes, we decided to take the overnight ferry so that we, yet again, could save on accommodation. Well, we were also unaware that there was a storm on the horizon that would really test our patience and our bodies.
We set off at midnight, watching the lightning in the distance light up the sky as the bolts frenziedly danced over the choppy waters with echoing thunder in to engage all of our senses. From the start we bunkered down on the seats and floor and tried to doze off while we were tossed around and perpetually woken up in the most unnatural angels, hearts racing. Now this in itself wouldn't have been so bad... but as with all feisty sea's, there were casualties. More than half the boat was sick and the sinks and garbage's were overflowing, the toilets occupied with no
sign of avail, and those who simply couldn't make it anywhere.... they were the ones that really challenged the rest of us, as we had to be very careful where we stepped, especially in the middle of the night.
In the morning, there were the remnants of the night before, and most puddles had long slide marks through them from unfortunate souls the previous evening. So, we arrived in Cyprus in the morning, not so well rested, and managed to find a cheap hotel. Now, to be fair, we were only paying $20 a night, but the shower and toilet didn't really work, there was no heat, and I am not so convinced the sheets were clean. Not to mention, while we sat for a few minutes in reception, I watched the manager tinkering away at a sink obviously removed from one of the rooms, and noticed that the ceiling was slowly, but surely flaking off on my lap.
I am happy to report, that the overall trip did make up for the arrival fun in leaps and bounds. The first day we wandered around town and found a few donars for $3 and I even broke down
Vıew from our room...
mind you it was at quite a contorted angle... but nonetheless and bought an overdue new pair of runners. We watched the sun set with a bottle of wine overlooking the ocean and tried for night shots of the local castle while star gazing.
The next day, we set off to the famous beach (though truth be told, the beach was not so nice... but being there, we faced ourselves to the ocean and ate up a day of being at the beach... sandcastles, swimming, lying in the sun, and even wandering the little coast we could.
Then we were back to spruce ourselves up and find a place to splurge on dinner. And splurge we did, but not in monetary terms. We found a wonderful little restaurant on the harbour and were enticed in by the warm fireplace (yes, it was a high of 20 degrees, but the nights cool off quite quickly!) And fresh fish (not to mention we were offered a glass of wine on the house to test a bottle if we were interested in buying one... )
So, we filled ourselves with a 3 course meal, some wine and were topped off with some brandy on the house. Mind you, this was before
John slipped off to the men's room and I started a wee conversation with the couple at the table next to us, who had just sat down and were being offered the same wine. We had a few words and before we knew it, John had returned and we were placed at their table with more wine on the way and some delightful conversation. They were a wonderful retired British couple who lived in Britain for half the year and in a tiny village in Southern Cyprus the other half of the year. Well, it also turned out that the fellow had a degree in English literature and we got along famously. So, a few hours later and a few bottles of wine too many, we parted ways and were very sad have to decline their offer to accompany them to southern Cyprus for a short stay in their little village.
However, we did manage to find our own fun the next day when our request for a paragliding trip was accepted at the last minute, so we jumped off a cliff instead!!! Then, having failed to learn our lesson, yet again, we jumped on the overnight ferry heading
Yep...
resort world! back to Turkey...
More to come...
Trish xxx
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