Blogs from Cyprus, Middle East - page 3

Gestern verließ ich mein Hotel und fuhr mit dem Bus zuerst nach Nikosia und dann weiter nach Pafos. Dabei kann es auch etwas chaotisch werden und nicht jeder Bus kann alle Fahrgäste mitnehmen. Dies ist in anderen Ländern besser geregelt, wo man vor Antritt der Fahrt ein Ticket mit einer Reservierung kauft. Auch das Gepäck muss man selber ins Staufach legen ohne eine Quittung dafür zu bekommen. Nichtsdestotrotz bin ich in Nikosia gut angekommen und habe die Wartezeit für den weiteren Bus zu meinem westzypriotischen Ziel in einem Café verbracht. Morgen werde ich hier wieder ankommen und zwei Nächte in der geteilten Stadt verbringen. Gegen 16:00 erreicht ich Pafos, welches 2017 eine europäische Kulturhauptstadt zusammen mit Aarhus war. Ich lief den guten Kilometer zum Hotel zu Fuß und bekam beim Einchecken schon eine kostenlose Erfrischung. Im ... read more

Monday 20thFebruary 2023 After five days of Chris driving, it was good to have a break and we spent the day walking instead!! Dropped the car off in the back streets of Paphos and wended our way, via old Byzantine churches, mosaics (that we hadn’t seen before!) at Chrysopolitissa Church and St Pauls Pillar back to the Archaeological Park. We had allowed a whole day for it and kit was just as well that we did! It was huge!! The House of Dionysos is shut until Sunday, so we will probably go back and see that then. But we did see House of Aoin (Roman period) Theseus ( 2nd – 6th C AD) and Orpheus (2nd/3rd C AD) – all complete ruins with fantastic mosaic floors. Went to the lighthouse and then onto the City Walls. ... read more

The panorama is part of the view from the house. In the evening the sun looks as though it is rolling down the end of the Akamas Peninsular to set in the sea. I am back in Polis with Barry & Carolyn, having returned from Gazimagusa (Famagusta) back to Nicosia where I spent 3 nights which gave me the chance to walk around Nicosia (Lefkosia) old town ( in the Republic of Cyprus) and North Nicosia (Lefkosa) across the buffer zone in the Turkish part. My hotel was very comfortable and conveniently located just off the side of Ledra Street which is the main pedestrian shopping precinct that leads up to the checkpoint. So in 5 minutes I could cross the border. It was called Royiatiko which I thought was a strange, non-Greek sounding name. I ... read more

Hi, blogs are like buses - again, 2 together, but there is a reason, 10 photos went AWOL! So will try to attach here. Plus, I called the blog Complex Cyprus but I haven’t explained why, that comes next time!... read more

I’ll admit that Cyprus had never been that high on my list of places to visit. I associated the island with package holidays and imagined lots of pink Brits wandering around “tavernas” looking for a full English at 8am with a pint of Carling. Turns out, parts of the island are like that, but a lot of it isn’t. I didn’t go for long, under a week, mostly to complete the nitrox diving course somewhere that would still have good weather in late October, not too far from home (currently the Netherlands), easy to visit covid-restrictions-wise, and would be somewhere new after so long of very restricted travelling. Cyprus ticked all the boxes. It had also become recently more appealing after I read Victoria Hislop’s novel, The Sunrise, set in Famagusta during the Cypriot coup and ... read more