Blogs from Cyprus, Middle East - page 20

Just spent the most glorious 3 days in a little seaside town called paphos. This is where Paul visited on one of his missionary journeys, and today we stopped by the church, with the supposed pillar that he was chained to and whipped! Acts 13:6-12 Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel to mainly to Jews while they crossed the island from east to west. Finally they arrived to Paphos. Paphos was the capital city of Roman rule in Cyprus and the center of the worship for Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. The city had evil reputation for laxity of morals. In Paphos Paul and Barnabas met Roman Proconsul, Sergius Paulos who wanted to hear the word of God. A sorcerer called Elymas wanted to turn him away from his faith. But Paul blinded him temporally. ... read more

Arrived in Cyprus 2 days ago after a fabulous 5 week holiday in Scotland, Egypt and Turkey. I'm currently staying with my mum's cousin and husband, Lindsay and FLynn - a truely wonderful couple who are so much fun and have some really neat stories. Havent seen them for 15 years, so have some serious catching up to do. They have already been so good to me - taking me to visit their friends and welcomed me with a small dinner party and champagne last night! Am really excited for what the next 2 weeks hold. FOund out today that I finally have a job back at Arrowe Park for the last 7 weeks before heading back to SA for christmas. Such good news. ... read more

We are back on the road and the first stop is Cyprus. Our last visit to this busy island was an unplanned stop, 7 years ago, by the airline we were flying. This time Ron did the research and we planned a visit to the west end of the island to see the town of Pafos. Luckily we arrived and left before all the flights and boats started arriving from Lebanon. Pafos has a collection of Greek and Roman mosaics which were first discovered by a farmer in 1962. They are beautifully preserved and cover Greek and Roman myths and lifstyles. There are several houses in the complex with about 20 major mosaic floors. The entire site overlooks the sea and is located right in the heart of town. The town of Pafos was a typical ... read more

Apparently the nightlife of Ayia Napa is becoming increasing typical of Ibiza, only not quite as expensive. Not surprisingly I still found the time to spend a fair bit of coin. Every single building surrounding the Town Hall is a club or bar of some sort, including the Town Hall itself. There are literally hundreds to choose from, every one of them desperately vying for your presence. And despite the masses of drunken twenty-something’s from all over Europe, security is obsolete and bouncers are unsighted. You can wear what you like, act as you like, and party, as you like. What you wore to the beach that day was quite often the dress code for the evening. Crafty promoters line the streets outside their respective clubs tempting you with some form of carrot, be it offering ... read more

A divided city, a Greek city, another Greek city and a ghost town We travelled also before we joined TravelBlog. We have started to digitalise photos from those pre-TravelBlog trips and we are planning to write about some of them. Now the turn has come to a trip Ake made to North Cyprus in 2006. North Cyprus was invaded by Turkey in 1974 and has since then been occupied by Turkey. This situation has left North Cyprus somewhat isolated from the rest of Europe. From what I understand, North Cyprus has for three decades or so had very little contact with any other country than Turkey. Back when I visited North Cyprus the tensions between Cyprus and Northern Cyprus had started to relax a bit and I heard rumours that it was even possible to cross ... read more