Blogs from Larnaca, Cyprus, Middle East

Larnaka today. We took the motorway to get there, very easy and all the major roads are really good. Our only 'road' problem is the tiny scale of our tourist maps which don't necessarily show when a road is unpaved. We try to avoid those. Satnav handily took us to a free big parking area behind the Marina. The one we meant to go to was charged so well done to the Satnav. Larnaka beach is beautifully sandy and about a mile long with a promenade with eating places liningall along the back. We chose the sea route and paddled all the way to the centre. The sea is really shallow. People were metres and metres out and still only up to their knees. A major seaside resort with row upon row of occupied sunbed... read more

Gestern war erst einmal mein letzter Tag auf Zypern. Ich frühstückte mit Waffeln und danach Käse. Dann checkte ich bald aus und startete zu meinem Spaziergang durch Larnaca. Ich lief die Uferpromenade entlang zur byzantinischen Lazaruskirche. Zum Glück war dort an diesem Sonntag gerade kein Gottesdienst. Das Gebäude ist sehr alt und sehenswert. Von dort ging ich weiter zum Fort und zur Moschee. Auch diese beiden Gebäude sehen sehr ansprechend aus. Anschließend verbrachte ich noch etwas Zeit auf einer Bank und beobachtete die Geschehnisse am Strand und ließ die vergangenen Tage Revue passieren. Ich hatte ich den neun Tagen eigentlich einen guten Eindruck von der Insel bekommen mit Nord- und Südteil. Dabei habe ich die Spuren vieler Epochen von der Antike bis zu den Osmanen kennen gelernt. Ich schloss den Nachmittag mit einem Kalamari aus dem ... read more

We had now come to the last couple of days of the trip, a trip that had seen us so far sample three very different environments; the strange atmosphere of the divided city of Nicosia; a slice of Turkey in Northern Cyprus; and then the unique, energetic and intriguing liberal Arabic vibe of Beirut. Now we were back in Cyprus and we were going to explore what the Greeks and British have left behind in the Republic Of Cyprus. It had been a long day being carted across the Lebanese countryside and at the end of it, we now we were on our flight back over to Larnaca where we arrived around midnight. We had still to arrange a rental car however so we still had to keep going a bit longer before we could ge ... read more

July 13, 2015 – Apparently Paul did not get the memo. He came at 2am, a full hour early. I was asleep and pretty freaked out when the bell rang, and then I was a bit out of it while I got ready. He helped me get a taxi outside and I got to the airport a full 90 minutes before I could check-in. I sat on some artificial grass under the escalators that I heard all the backpackers sleep on when they get to the airport early or arrive too early in the morning to get into town. I didn’t sleep, but it was a good place to wait half dazed. I checked in at 4:30 and then went to the gate and laid down on a bench for an hour. They started to board ... read more

SEE TEXT IN ENGLISH BELOW 3 diciembre 2011 En Chipre hacía sol, y el sol era templado. Así que no me importó esperar un rato fuera del aeropuerto a que llegara el autobús para llegar el centro ciudad, unos 7 kilómetros. Mi llegada fue un poco desconcertante, ya que me fue difícil orientarme y encontrar lo que buscaba. En primer lugar, quería ir al centro, y estuve andando en sentido opuesto durante al menos un kilómetro. Después quise encontrar el albergue juvenil que me aparecía en la guía, según la cual se encontraba en un antiguo edificio que antaño era baños turcos. Cuando lo encontré, después de dar varias vueltas, resulta que no estaba. Es decir, me esparaba encontrar un albergue juvenil dentro de los baños turcos y de hecho había una señal que así lo ... read more