Escape

---

Geo: 34.9556, 32.3106

Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing, and though our itinerary has been dominated by beach destinations, mixing things up for a few nights and checking out the Troodos Massif ended up being a great choice, as our two nights there were one of the highlights of the trip. Beyond the hospitable people, hiking, neat little villages, and wine, the fact that it offered a cool respite from the heat elsewhere in the country, if you consider 29 C cool, was also a nice bonus.

Cyprus is infamous for being a package holiday destination for people from the UK, and for good reason - beautiful beaches, tropical weather, good food, reasonable prices ... why wouldn't it be? Of course, seeing firsthand what holidaymakers from the UK have done to places like Spain's Costa del Sol gave me some hesitation about coming to Cyprus ... but like any backpacker, such reservations didn't matter in the end - if there is a country in the World, it must eventually be visited!

Our hope was that Cyprus would be somewhat like Malta, another country famous as being a holiday destination for the UK crowd, but one we thoroughly enjoyed last year. Similar to Malta, Cyprus was once a British colony, a distinction which I believed differentiated Malta from Spain's overdeveloped coastal areas, giving it more of a hybrid culture instead of Spain's the-Brits-have-Invaded-Spain-and-built-pubs-and-fish-and-chip-shops-everywhere feel.

Unfortunately, yesterday we found that Paphos is no Malta, as we descended from the mountains of Cyprus to its most popular coastal resort area. While I wouldn't put Paphos on the same low level as Larnaca, it's still pretty soulless, even though the waterfront area does have a nice buzz and is actually a pretty nice spot for a stroll. It's just the annoying touts at all the touristy restaurants and cafes that get on your nerves after a while ...

So today, we attempted to escape from all of that to the Akamas Heights, home to Lara Beach, where a turtle hatchery keeps the developers at bay, meaning that this beach is the complete opposite of Paphos - wonderfully uncrowded and devoid of the masses of tourists! Truth be told, that's the best part of Lara Beach - while it's definitely a nice beach, it really wasn't special enough to be worth the effort of getting here, driving over terribly rocky and rough dirt roads for nearly 45 minutes, simply for the views. But it was worth the effort to come here and get away from it all ...

---

Photos

Lara Restaurant ...
... overlooking Lara Bay, the cove just behind the one where Lara Beach sits. You can see a handful of stray cats hanging around by the tables - always surprises me how people will throw a few scraps of food at them thinking that will appease and send away the cats. Once the people at this table did that, a total of 12-14 cats immediately converged on them!

Relatively Deserted ...
... compared to the overrun beaches of Cyprus.

Turtle Conservation ...
... keeps Lara Bay wonderfully undeveloped. Pretty basic facilities for the volunteers to work out of, you can see a few little cages that denote where turtle eggs have been laid - you can see dozens of these all over the beach.

Tweedie's ...
... for all my bitching about over development in the Paphos area, one of the benefits is the creation of some kick-ass restaurants like Tweedie's. This crisp vegetarian samosa was a good little start to the meal, though we were shocked at how anything stays crispy in the Paphos area - the humidity was off the charts tonight, with a piece of paper I had left on the table getting soaked with moisture within minutes of sitting down.

Lemon Thyme Bread ...
... the texture of the bread wasn't anything special, but it was the fact that it was freshly made, warm, and crisp, with a chunk of lemon embedded in the top, imparting a great citrus flavour throughout. Served with eggplant "caviar", tzatziki, and butter.

Tiger Prawns ...
... panko-breaded for maximum crispiness, I didn't dig the wasabi dressing and seaweed salad, but the prawns were pretty tasty.

Poor Choice ...
... this soup of red lentils, onion, and pancetta was a bit simple though actually pretty good, but a bowl of hot and hearty soup wasn't the right choice on a hot, humid summer evening.

Duck Breast ...
... with caramelized fig. Though good, the side dishes upstaged the duck - the fig was great, and the Mediterranean ratatouille simply sublime. Bell peppers, eggplant, and zucchini stuffed inside of a roasted and hollowed-out half eggplant, with melted parmesan on top.

Roasted Lamb Shoulder ...
... fork tender, with a rosemary and red currant gravy. The mashed potatoes were great, but we barely touched it because there were better potatoes available ...

Voodoo Potatoes ...
... so simple, but so incredibly crispy and yet somehow still moist inside - these were so good that there must have been some form of black magic or voodoo involved, tasting like the best potato skins ever concocted in the kitchen of the Gods! The chef actually came around to all the tables at the end of the night (a nice touch), and he shared his secret - he cooks a jacket potato like you normally would, then cuts it up into wedges and fries them in olive oil, and sprinkles with sea salt. I suspect that these potatoes were harvested by Demeter, massaged and molested by Aphrodite, and finally, fried to a crisp by one of Zeus's lightning bolts. That's the only way you could get potatoes this damn good ...

Plum, Limoncello, Almond Tart ...
... with plum Coulis. A bit hard to eat, as the plums were halved and cutting through the tough skin was difficult using just a fork - a knife would have proved useful.