My Vacation on Cyprus

Written by Rolf

I had just quit my job at SGI since I couldn't do my favourite work anymore, web developer. If I were to stay at SGI, I had to become a fulltime consultant as network- and system engineer. Cool to know about the stuff, but not as a fulltime job. I almost got a job at SGI in Mountain View, California, but that would be as a front-end developer, so I was switching to a small local company where I could do the back-end as well. In between the two jobs, I had one week off, so my then-girlfriend and I felt like taking a vacation. We browsed the Internet and booked a trip to Cyprus for a week. Ten days after the booking we had our tickets and off to Cyprus we went.

Sunday

We flew from Schiphol at 13:40 to arrive somewhere in the evening in Larnaca. A cab took us, together with an dutch ex-celebrity and her family, to Henipa Hotel, our hotel for the next week. The first thing we noticed was the traffic driving on the left side of the road. We already knew this, but it was weird to actually be in the middle of it. They take roundabouts the wrong way around as well, clockwise.

The most cars, we noticed, were either Mitsubishi cars, Isuzu or Suzuki pick-up trucks, miscellaneous tuned cars (huge exhaustion pipes, spoilers etc) or rental cars with tourists, conveniently recognizable by the red plates starting with a 'Z'.

In the hotel we could go on into the dining-room at about eight o'clock, but the buffet was already plundered by two german football teams and the other guests. One germ started talking to me. In german for crying out loud, as if everyone anywhere understands german. I talked back at him in dutch, because, hey, why shouldn't he understand me? Well, he didn't and we kinda ended our relationship with me saying "boeien", which could be translated with "you must have me confused with somebody who gives a fcuk".

We still got enough food to survive but the dessert didn't look too promising: a tangerine and a cube of cake which smelled like some sort of cleaning fluid or the stuff you hang in the toilet. It turned out to be a local dish, cake drenched in rose water. I could hardly swallow one bite.

Monday

Stella, our travel agent, came to give us a brief introduction to Cypriotic life and things worth seeing. "You can call me any time". Yeah right. This Monday was coincidentally a national holiday, Clear Monday, the first Monday after Carnaval, a 'bloodless' day on which no one is allowed to eat meat. So we took a stroll down the beach and ordered a burger.

Every family on the island seemed to be picknicking and flying kites. Since everything but a few restaurants was closed and no buses appeared to be riding, we continued to walk and explore Cyprus by foot. Signs indicated that we were about to enter a military firing range, but it was a holiday and nobody seemed to care about signs and so we didn't either.

At dinner we decided that the food wasn't that bad, as long as we were early in the evening. Also dessert was alright. Some sort of pie which we were used to eat at birthday parties only.

Tuesday

We took the bus to Larnaca as we didn't feel like taking a walk for 5 km before reaching the city center. Stella had told us that we could just stop a bus by waving at one, so my ex kindly waved at one but to no avail. The second bus took us to the palmtree boulevard. Enjoying the sun, sea and palm trees (I had never seen a real palm tree in the wild), we walked toward the Turkish fortress at the end of the promenade. It used to be a prison, but now it was a museum with photographs of the surroundings, canons and a nice view from the roof. Directly behind the 'fortress' was a mosque with a decayed graveyard.

Further into town is Ayios Lazaros (Church of Lazarus), a church in which the empty crypt of Lazarus was found. The church was built and decorated in many different styles and I had trouble keeping my breakfast inside when I was confronted with many jesuses and gold and haloes and candles and old widows and .... yuch.

As it was mid-afternoon we began feeling hungry and discovered the Goody's! A brilliant improvement of the MacDonalds, which I had visited almost daily when I was in Greece. The chiliburgers were Fine!

After this gastronomical treat we took a cab to the Hara Sultan Tekke, a mosque at Larnaca's salt lake. Although we can't prove it, because the damn animals wouldn't come near enough to take a picture, we really did see flamingos! The cab-driver rode us further to the mosque and would be waiting for 15 minutes or so. As I expected, there was nothing special about the mosque, even though for moslims it's a place of pilgrimage because it contains the remains of Mohammed's dead aunt. Through a little window we could make out a casket in the dark, but could only guess at what was inside.

The cab driver tried to convince us to take us to Kiti (?) for only 4 pounds extra. When we refused, "wanna buy icecream?"

Back in Larnaca we tried to find Kition's excavations with much effort. We eventually found it, but it was open till 14:30 and since it was about 4 o'clock we decided to find a bus to take us back to the hotel. We found a particular nice bus, more like a mini touringcar with a friendly driver who stopped at a letter-box for my ex to drop off postcards. Later he had to wait at another stop for a few minutes and he offered us his tangerine. He kept insisting when we kindly refused so at last we munched it down. Maybe he was expecting a tip or something.

Back in the hotel we enjoyed a nice bath and thought it might be easier and cheaper if we would rent a car for the next few days. So we gave Stella a call.

Wednesday

With our ass in the car we set off towards the east of the island. In Ayia Napa weren't many tourists yet, but on the other hand it was crowded with road block, deviations and "road works road closed". Anyhow, after several of these deviations we reached a rather attractive looking little beach and got into our walking shoes.

Fascinated by the shore and the adjacent rocks and the seawater smashing into the rocks, we installed ourselves on some beach chairs which just happened to stand there. Just staring mindlessly to the sea and enjoying the rays of the february sun.

After almost dozing off, we continued our car trip to Cape Greco, a high (30, 40, 50 meters?) cliff where the wind was not just a wind anymore. We could stand at an angle of 60 degrees and not fall down. The cape lost its novelty after twenty minutes and we were wondering what it was like down there, so we climbed down to sea level.

Down here, the sea was wilder than it looked from up there. We had never seen anything like it before and we wandered around or just sat there for hours until the sun set, it got dark and we had to get back to the hotel.

Thursday

We went the other way, westward, the next day. We didn't have, what people might call a Plan, but when we saw the Stavrovouni convent on a distant mountain top we spontaneously planned to go there. According to the travel guide it was a slightly dangerous winding road going up so we were not very surprised that the road wasn't paved. Many dents, curves and puddles later we decided that we had taken one exit too early. The biggest hint was the paved, less curved road we spotted just next to the one we were on. If we had taken that one, instead of trusting Liset's ability to read maps, we might not have lost our hub cap. Nevertheless, the view from the top was worth the ride, although the convent was closed at that time. Goddammit.

We took the right road down and headed toward Choirokoitia, which supposed had the oldest excavations of Cyprus. The travelguide book thing said it was open all day, but the caretakers, when they came sauntering towards us after about ten minutes, claimed that they had changed the opening times since today. My ex's presence kept me from kicking their faces in, so extremely pissed off we got into the car again and had our lunch in Limassol (Lemesos).

We decided to go look for the salt lake and if these capes were equally impressive. We took an exit to Lady's Mile Beach, but this so so-called beach made such little sense that we left immediately again. After a while, the road was rather bumpy, but we were used to that by now. The road was getting wider and wider until we noticed the road having dissolved and we realized we were on a large plain with a couple of tyre tracks and several white powder-like spots. We had found the salt lake! While we were there in a rented car, we might as well rally around a bit. Or maybe this was where we lost the hub cap.

After the rallying we left for Kolossi, where there would be a castle, but having arrived there, a bus had unloaded its (probably German) tourists so we only made a few pictures and since it was over 16:00, we went back to our car and headed for the ride home back to the hotel.

Along the way, we noticed a goat herder with long eared goats. Not really interesting, but I thought I'd mentioned it here anyway... In Larnaca we saw an old Roman aquaduct, which had been used until 1939 (according to my ex's research). I couldn't care less.

Friday

Racing over the dried-up salt lake had quite an influence on the car's hygienic status, so we started the day at the car wash. Driving eastward today. At Xylouphagou we headed for Cape Pyla, where there would be the remains of a Venetian lighthouse and a cave with fossilized hippopotamus bones. But all around were signs, indicating this were military grounds, so we decided not to risk our lives and skip these sights. Really cute though, was the little harbour of Potamos with its many coloured little boats. Hmmm, Potamos... hippo potamus... Could this place be the origin of the hippo?

In Ayia Napa we ignored the 'road works' signs (it works, so why avoid it?) and for the best, because a little east of the town itself was a beautiful beach with cool caves, eroded by the sea. At one place a bridge had even been formed.

After spending a while staring at this coastline, we climbed back in the car and drove via Cape Greco to Protaras with a gorgeous little bay. Further into town was a nice church on a high hill, but unfortunately it lacked a graveyard.

We had to return to the hotel in the twilight and discovered that Cypriots use their head-lights in various ways. We have seen all possible permutations of the various configurations. One light, two lights, full and bright, dimmed, city lights, even no lights at all. The only cars with correct use of the head-lights had red licence plates that started with Z. Coincidence?

Saturday

The last full day at Cyprus already. Early in the day we left for Paphos. Over the highway, so we were quite early at Petra tou Rominou. This spot is the supposed birthplace of Aphrodite. True or not (well, let me guess), it's a beautiful spot anyhow. The pebbles on the beach together make a peculiar noise any time the waves roll back and the colours make them nice to behold, too.

Also near that beach was a tree with strips of cloth, plastic and plastic and all kinds of garbage. People who want to ask Aphrodite for a favour or thank her for something they believe she's done, help 'decorate' the tree with this junk.

After a bit of climbing we went on. Next stop was the Aphrodite sanctuary, with a museum and excavations. I noticed a kid tourist climbing on one of the pillars and shouted 'hey!', because I didn't think he should be there, but then his tourist grandma started yelling at me to leave the kid alone. That pissed me off and I was this close to teaching her a lesson in upbringing but her fragile posture and my ex kept me from walking up to her and kick her in the nuts.

Enough culture for one day and after a lunch and a souvenir stop in Paphos we went further north, toward a turtle beach. We never reached the beach, because I noticed a sign "sea caves", so we had to check this out. The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed ourselves with climbing over rocks and sunbathing.

Sunday

Just before 6 in the morning the alarm clock went off. At 6:30 the taxi picked us up to drop us off at the airport. After a breakfast in the bar together with the ex-celebrity and her family we still had two hours to spend. At nine the plane took off and we quickly took a few pictures of the salt lake, the harbour of Larnaca and the Troodos mountains from the plane.

At 13:30 the plane landed at Schiphol. Welcome to a rainy Holland...