cyprus: larnaca

The bus from Nicosia to Larnaca, Cyprus left a few minutes late, around 1330. I think it was around 1445 when I hopped off, not too far from my hotel.

My original plan had been to check in at the hotel, change into a bikini, and head to the beach for a couple hours. Unfortunately, that plan changed completely with the sunburn I had from exploring Pafos. Even though it was later in the day, I could tell it was still going to hurt a fair amount if the sun touched my shoulders. As it was, the collar of my dress didn't feel so good, but I had no other options.

I stayed in the room for about an hour, absolutely loving the view I had. My hotel room had a tiny little balcony, and there was a slightly bigger balcony off the main hallway which had a table and chairs. From this table I had a great view of a pretty church, called St Lazarus. (To be honest, the photo on the hotel profile of this view is one of the reasons I chose this particular place to stay.)

When I finally left my room, St Lazarus was the first place I went. Like nearly every other church on the south side of the island, it was a Greek Catholic church. I'm pretty sure one of the other nearby buildings was also a church museum, but I didn't really have an interest at that point.

The interior of the church had a lot of wood, which I really liked. The ceiling wasn't anything exciting (in fact I don't remember it at all,) but the iconostasis up front was pretty impressive. I think it was made of wood, with a lot of gold paint. There was also a lot of red paint, and the whole thing definitely left an impression.

Amazingly, I was able to get really close to the iconostasis, which I've never done before. In Orthodox churches I've visited, (and in other Greek Catholic churches,) I've only been able to get to the bottom of the stairs that are usually under the iconostases. This time I could see that visitors were allowed to go up those stairs and get really close. Awesome. The doors in the wood were closed though, so I wasn't able to see into the area behind, which is something I've always wanted to do. I think you have to be a priest or a cleaning lady to go behind those doors; neither option is likely to happen for me.

I was also able to go down into the crypt under the church. It wasn't very far down, and was quite small. When going down the small flight of stairs I had to watch my head, which means darn near everyone who visits has to watch their head so it doesn't bump the ceiling above the steps.

As soon as I got down there I could smell and feel the humidity, yuck. I don't know how many people (or who,) are buried down there. I could see a few specific tomb looking coffins, and what seemed like large stones to me, but maybe there is a lot more I couldn't see? There wasn't much room to move around, and the ceiling was low, so I didn't stay down there for long. 

After leaving the church I walked toward the beach. From one to the other was probably no more than 300 meters or so, not far at all. In between the two are souvenir shops and restaurants and cafes. I wasn't hungry yet, and hadn't been in town long enough to buy anything.

Even though I couldn't lay out in the sun I wanted to walk on a beach a little, and put my feet in the water.

The beach in this area was not terribly pretty, not at all. That being said, it was a beach, and I'm usually happy to be on a beach. I walked in the sand for a while, then went back to the boardwalk between the street and the beach.

I walked a few hundred meters more, and the sidewalk brought me to the old fortress. The walls still stand, but the rooms inside the walls don't have much left. Each room has a small display, but it is something that has been created instead of what was originally there. I was able to see where they hanged prisoners, as well as old tombstones. I saw an old cannon, as well as the view over the water from the top of the walls. My entire visit was less than 30 minutes.

At that point I was tired but I felt like it would be cheating if I already went back to my hotel room. Instead I just kept walking along the boardwalk/sidewalk. I walked past ice cream shops, I finally broke down and bought ice cream from one of them. I walked past an immigration office. I walked past random souvenir shops. I walked past a few derelict buildings. Eventually I turned around and came back toward my hotel.

I ended up eating dinner at one of the bigger restaurants near the beach. I definitely didn't need to eat the whole meal, and I shouldn't have eaten dessert, but it was good, and I'm not good at using willpower when I'm traveling.

The next morning I was awake and ready to go early. I didn't have the whole day, so I wanted to make use of what little time I had.

I started walking down one of the smaller streets near my hotel, heading parallel but away from the beach. I'd used my travel apps to figure out my next sight, and this was the easiest way to walk there.

Even though it was only around 0915 when I walked by a small convenience shop, I stopped in to buy an ice cream bar for breakfast. Yum.

A little while later I got to my destination, a salt lake. I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be, but such things happen. Since the lake is so close to the ocean, it has some of the same water as the ocean.

You can see dried salt along the edges, which were slightly muddy. It was also somewhat smelly, with that stale water smell we all know and don't love. I think the other side of the lake would've been better looking, but I didn't have time to walk all the way around.

I walked back toward my hotel, but stopped at the beach instead. My sunburn definitely wasn't healed, but it wasn't painful anymore, so I decided to spend a bit over an hour on the beach. I chose a chair, leaned back, and relaxed. The wind was going strong the entire time I was there, so I didn't feel the sun much at all. I was there from 1030ish to 1130ish, a very quiet time of the day.

From there I went back to my hotel and packed up, which didn't take long. Then it was time for a quick lunch (again, way too much food) and a taxi to the airport.

When I got to the airport I got to wait in a long queue which seemed to move really slowly. Ukrainian Airlines doesn't have online checkin, much to my frustration. Other people flying back to Ukraine had huge suitcases, I'm sure they'd all visited for the long weekend as well. Why do people bring so much stuff for a 4 day beach trip? Cyprus doesn't seem like a shopping destination to me, but maybe there is something I don't know?

Not long after, I was back in Kyiv. I definitely want to go back to Cyprus. Next time I want to rent a car so I can see more of the ruins around the island, as well as be on my own schedule to visit smaller towns and beaches.

cyprus: girne/kyrenia

After seeing postcards of Girne at a shop in Lefkosa (the northern side of the city of Nicosia,) I knew I wanted to visit. The postcards all showed a picturesque harbour, I wanted to see it for myself.

I had to get up early to make this day trip happen, which I wasn't keen to do, but oh well. My sunburn from the day before had fully set in, so wearing clothes to cover my skin didn't feel very good. On the other hand, I knew I couldn't wear anything with straps again, or the sun would've felt even worse.

Since I'd already figured out where the bus stop would be in Lefkosa, it was easy to get back to the bus stop. I saw just one person in the streets of either side of the city, thankfully it was someone with food. Pretzels are just as good a breakfast as any other, right?

The bus was right where I expected it to be, and after boarding it didn't take long to depart. This kind of bus doesn't usually have a departure time, I was worried I'd have to wait for it to fill up, which could've taken the entire morning. It wasn't full when it departed, but I didn't care.

A bit over an hour later, we arrived in Girne.

(Since Turkish is the language spoken on this side of the island, that's the name I'm using. The name in Greek is Kyrenia.) I used the maps to figure out where to go, which didn't take long.

I walked through a parkplatz and what I thought was a small park to go toward the city center. When I stopped to read a small sign I realized it wasn't a park, it was an old Ottoman cemetery. Pretty flowers around the area.

I followed the city streets as they sloped down, passing what used to be a couple of towers in the old city walls. The walls don't really exist anymore, but some of the towers still stand.

The government seems to be renovating a lot of the historical bits and pieces, probably in an effort to attract more tourists. I also passed a church that was missing a roof. I love old buildings!

Eventually I made it all the way down to the harbour. It wasn't quite as pretty as in the postcard photos, but that didn't surprise me. Or maybe I was there at the wrong time of day, who knows. Restaurants had crammed themselves into the land side of the harbour, you actually have to walk through a few seating areas to get to the boardwalk along the water.

All the restaurants were really cute, but I wasn't hungry and didn't want to pay those prices.

The harbour itself was also really crowded with boats. There were some bigger boats, which seemed aimed at tourist group tours. There were smaller speedboats, and fishing boats as well. The fishing boats were not all in great condition, I could smell stale water from time to time.

The harbour is protected by a wall, which was nice to walk along. It's a man made wall, with a concrete sidewalk for most of the way. This 'arm' reaches out mostly parallel to the harbour, so boats don't have a lot of area to play with when they're entering or leaving the harbour.

I walked to the end of the arm, just because I could.

I left the harbour through another one of the many small streets that come down the area behind the harbour. The streets are all small, and the homes don't have much space. By this point I'd realized that many doors are beautiful, whether they're painted or made with carved wood, or a combination of the two.

At one point I came to what I thought was a church. As I climbed the steps I saw the sign that told me it was actually a museum, and was closed for renovation. Based on the level of dust and rubbish, I don't know if any actual work was being done at the time. I really wish I'd been able to take a quick peek inside, but it was most definitely closed and locked.

At this point it was around 1115, and I still wasn't seeing many people. I don't know if it was typical for a Monday morning, or what, but the whole town seemed really quiet.

I wandered through more small streets, though nothing more caught my eye. It's a small town that seems to depend mostly on the tourism monies that come from having a gorgeous little harbour.

I did skip one sight, that of a castle. I did want to see it, but when I looked at my watch I realized I didn't have time. The maps and apps told me there was a shipwreck museum inside the castle, which must be at least a little interesting. Maybe next time?

I made my way back to the bus stop, and found a bus that left just 15 minutes after I boarded. An hour later I was back in Nicosia.

cyprus: paphos

As soon as I booked my flights to/from Cyprus, I knew I wanted to visit the city of Pafos because it has Unesco designated ruins. I'm a sucker for history/ruins, as well as anything with Unesco designation.

I got up early Sunday morning and caught a bus from a station not so far from my hotel. A couple hours later I arrived in Pafos, though nowhere near the area I wanted to visit. I wasn't the only tourist caught in this situation, but I was the only one who didn't need a taxi.

During my walk I passed a few churches, an open field, and a few shops. In some places it looked as if construction had started, but been abandoned.

It took me a while, but eventually I was able to find my way to my first sight of the day. It is called the Tomb of the Kings, but has never had any royalty buring there. It has the name because some of the tombs are quite extravagant, and the people who originally found it didn't know any better.

The entry fee was cheap, only 2.50 euros. That's great for a unesco sight! I took a photo of my hand in front of the sign, just because I was there.

This area is a wide open area, the tombs are all down in the ground. Before they were excavated it would've been easy to walk around without knowing they were there.

Some of them are more ornate than others, those have signs describing specific aspects you can see, and what different items mean. I didn't pay much attention to those signs, as I find them overwhelming and I'm not that into architecture.

Several of the tombs were fantastic, and I reeeeeeally wished I had my new camera. When I say fantastic, I mean tunnels and columns carved into the stone. Absolutely beautiful. I climbed through a few holes to get to some of the tombs. I went down stairs whereva I saw them, just to see where I could go. As far as I could tell, there were no restrictions (other than common sense,) about where visitors could and could not go. (This is both good and bad.)

After more than two hours wandering around, I was hot and tired and dehydrated, I knew it was time to go. I ended up eating breakfast for lunch at a cafe not too far from these tombs. Yummy, quickly served, and reasonably priced.

I walked toward my second sight, which was another set of ruins. Both my travel apps took me to a gate that was closed, argh. The actual entrance area was a bit further on. I was the only person on the streets as far as I could tell, am I the only one who walks?

The entrance to Pafos Archeological Park (another Unesco sight) was more expensive, 4.50 euros.

As big as the area was, that is still a great price. I grabbed a map at the ticket counter, but it didn't really help me much. What it did do was tell me the names of some of the bigger spots to check out within the 'park.'

Pafos Archeological Park is full of ancient ruins. I was able to see the foundations of old homes, some of which still had the mosaics that had covered the floors. Beautiful.

The mosaics that were in the best condition were all in a house of sorts, a modern covering built over the mosaics to keep them in the best possible condition for the future.

There were ruins you can climb around, and there were ruins that were blocked off. There were paths throughout the entire area, it was much easier to walk on them than through the fields of wildflowers. There was little to no shade in the entire area, which added to the sunburn I knew I was getting as well as being dehydrated. Why have I not yet learned the lesson about the effects of sun on skin?

At one end of the area was a lighthouse, though it had nothing to do with the archaeological ruins, and was completely surrounded by a brick wall with a locked gate. Slightly down the hill from the lighthouse was an outdoor amphitheater, I'm not sure this whether was one of the original ruins or not. It blended in, but seemed newer somehow. As I was at the amphitheater I watched an older Russian gentleman take 'glamour' photos of his younger girlfriend on the seats/steps of the amphitheater. It was funny to watch, though I was impatient to take my own photos. 

The last mini area I visited in the park was ................ I liked this area best because I was able to climb up stairs a bit, though they were stairs to nowhere. At this point I'd put a scarf over my shoulders, though I knew it wasn't going to help the bright red sunburn I could already feel.

After leaving the park I walked to the seaside, which was right next door. The entire promenade area was filled with people, most of them moseying around to check out restaurants and cafes. I looked for a cafe that seemed reasonably priced, but didn't find anything that appealed to me.

Fortunately I was able to find a place selling water and ice cream bars, both of which sounded like good ideas to me at that point. The sunburn on my arms and shoulders really needed ice and aloe and cold water, but those weren't options at that point.

Listed on the travel apps was a castle/tower on the edge of the water, but when I got there (after dealing with all the people,) I discovered that it was being used as part of an exhibition of some kind. Something about a city of culture? I was disappointed, as I'd wanted to take a photo of the castle with the sea in the background. That definitely did not happen, and was not possible during this visit.

I took a look at the map on my phone and realized I had a good walk to get back to the bus station. In the morning I'd made a note of what times the buses were scheduled to depart, and I didn't want to miss the last bus.

As I was walking up the street I found another set of ruins, this one seemed totally open. It was near a set of catacombs, I skipped those. I wandered into this ruin and found a modern art installation. The artist had strung red string throughout the entire area. I don't have the words to describe it accurately, but it was pretty nifty. I wonder how long the installation was going to stay there?

After the art installation I headed straight to the bus stop. It took me a while to get there, and I was sweating and not feeling so good when I did arrive. Just before arriving I thought I'd just missed the second to last bus to depart, and would have to wait around for an hour, but it was running late, so I was able to board. Yay!

Two hours later I was back in Nicosia.

cyprus: nicosia/lefkosa

I took advantage of a four day weekend to move a little closer to my goal of visiting every country in Europe. During this weekend I was able to take a quick look at various parts of Cyprus. It's a tiny island country, and I thought 4 days would be enough to see a good portion of it, but I was totally wrong. It is small, but it has a mighty history, and has a good amount of natural beauty.

I had a direct flight from Kyiv to a city called Larnaca, which is not the capital of the country. (I don't think there is an airport in the capital.) It's not hard to get to Nicosia, but it isn't the cheapest either. My flight landed in Larnaca, on the southern coast of the island nation.

It turned out I had just barely missed the shuttle bus to Nicosia. I had to wait around another 45 minutes or so. The airport had free wifi though...

The shuttle bus to the capital city of Nicosia doesn't actually take you anywhere close to where anyone would want to go. It stops on the outskirts of the city, requiring just about everyone to hop in one of the many taxis waiting at the bus station.

Since my hotel turned out to be in the middle of a pedestrian area, the cab dropped me off nearby. As I was walking through these streets I started to get a bit worried that I was lost, so I asked a few people at a cafe.

They gave me directions (I was still going the right way,) and also asked me to sit and relax for a few minutes. They were nice enough, so I took a seat. It turned out one of the men (all three were older,) owned the restaurant, and the other two were his lawyer friends. It was fun to chat with them for a while, and ask the random questions I always have. They taught me a little about the history of the island, which I definitely appreciated.

From there it was easy to find and check into my hotel. As it was almost midnight by that point, I was exhausted, and fell asleep immediately.

Nicosia is a split city. As far as I know, it is one of just a few in the world where two governments control the city. In this case it is peaceful, and the split has been in place for years. I've heard somewhere that the people of the island want to unite, but who knows what will happen. The two sides are referred to as Greek Cyprus and Turkish Cyprus, or Cyprus and Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus. The southern side is a sovereign country, and is not controlled by Greece at all, though they share a language. The southern side uses the euro as currency, the northern side uses the Turkish lira.

Both currencies can be used in the north, but only euros are used in the south. Take a look online if you want more details about the split, as I would rather describe what I did and saw, rather than attempt to make simple something that is actually really complicated.

Since I'd read online a number of different descriptions about the 'border' between the two sides, I didn't know how long it would take to 'cross,' so I headed there first to make sure I had plenty of time. To get to the 'border post' I walked along Ledra street, which could've been a street anywhere in Europe. Cafes and shops and everything else that might be needed by tourists line the street.

When I got to the border I handed my passport to the first window, which was manned by the Cypriot (Greek side,) police. They looked me up in the computer to make sure I'd entered legally, then handed back my passport. I walked through no mans land, to another set of windows. This set was manned by Turkish customs officials. They looked at my passport and handed it back. I was really hoping that one or the other side would stamp my passport, but that didn't happen. The reason for this is that neither side considers it an official border crossing. (Though from what I understand, if an American were to enter the country by coming from mainland Turkey, they would not be able to cross into the southern side of Cyprus, as this is not an official entry point to the country, and therefore they wouldn't be legal.)

As soon as I was out of the border area I got a bit lost. As with any city center that has been around for a long time, nothing goes in a straight line. There were signs pointing in various directions, but I just wandered until I found something interesting to see.

The first 'sight' for me was an old church. When I walked up to the door I discovered there was a whirling dervish performance going on inside, and I wasn't in the mood to pay an entrance fee for something that had already started. I don't know if this is ever used as a church anymore. I loved the carving over the door, it was quite intricate.

Right next to the church was a big mosque. Selimiye Mosque actually began it's life as a cathedral, but sometime after Turkey started to govern the north side of the island it was turned into a mosque. Or maybe the change happened even earlier, I don't know. Either way, it still looks like a church from the outside.

Since it is a mosque, that means everyone has to take off their shoes; thankfully there were shelves for all the shoes. Even though I was wearing a skirt that went almost to my knees and a tshirt, I was told that I needed to cover up. Fortunately I was able to borrow a wraparound skirt to cover my knees. I already had a headscarf to use.

I don't have a problem with being respectful in any country or building, but it annoyed me when the standard is not equal. When I was inside, I noticed quite a few men wearing shorts that did not cover their knees, even a few in tank tops. NOT FAIR.

The mosque itself was lovely. The ceilings were high, there was carpet all the way through, and the stained glass let in beautiful light. There was a women's prayer area behind a door, but it was dark and I didn't want to bother the lady in there who was clearly praying. I'm glad I was able to go through the entire mosque, as some won't let a women into the main area no matter what.

After the mosque I wandered through the twisty streets and eventually made it to my second major sight, known as Buyuk Han. It was originally built as an inn, but has long since been turned into an area with shops and cafes for tourists. It is pretty though, and I would've liked it better if not for the displays of souvenirs everywhere I looked.

That being said, I bought a few postcards, and when photos on other postcards caught my eye I was able to ask the shop owner about another town on the island. He told me where it was, and how to get there using local transport, yay!

Since I like to know locations of bus stops and such, I decided to walk to the place I could find the public transport, which took me through more of the north side of the city. In Turkish, the north side of the city is called Lefkosa.

The first part of this walk took me to a memorial column, called the Venetian column. Not terribly interesting, but it was fun to watch a kid chase the birds around the base of the column.

From there I walked straight up the street to one of the former gates of the old city. (The old city – which used to be a single city – was walled all the way around. Much of the walls still stand, though some are in ruins.)

The town I wanted to go to was called Girne, (the Turkish name is Girne, the Greek name is Kyrenia,) and this was the Girne gate, how convenient. It didn't take me long to find where I would catch the local transport, which relieved me.

Since I was already there, I decided to keep walking. I didn't see anything of interest after walking for a while, and it was hot. Hot and sunny with very little shade. I stopped into numerous mini markets until I found something to drink, thank goodness someone finally had water, not a sugary liquid. 

I turned around and walked all the way back toward the crossing area. On the way I ended up stopping for what I thought was a snack at a cafe. It turned out to be a full meal, which I didn't really need or want, but it was good. Another bottle of water later and I felt human again.

On the way back I also passed a super cute bookstore. I wish I'd had room in my pack to buy a book, just because it was so pretty inside the store.

After crossing the 'border' again I found a cafe with fruit smoothie type options, and I couldn't resist. I ended up ordering something with colorful layers, yum. Then I went back to my hotel for 90 minutes to cool down.

After a while I went out again, because it was still light outside and there is always something more to see. I followed one of the old city walls until I came to a monument, called Liberty monument. No one else was around, which surprised me; I guess I expect anything to do with liberty/freedom/independence to have people hanging around. I took my photos and moved on.

Across the street was what remains of an old aqueduct, so I took photos of that too. At that point I had just one more sight in mind, another of the old city gates. I almost missed this one, as it is mostly covered up (by another building,) from the outside and top, and wasn't open when I walked by. Nothing exciting.

Since I wanted to keep walking, I kept going in whateva direction looked interesting. At one point I bumped up on the border between the two sides of the city, this area was fenced off and closed. It was not a solid fence, so I was able to see the other side, and noticed a couple unesco observation shacks.

I imagine when relations between Cyprus and Greece aren't so good, there are people in these shacks, manking sure the no mans land area stays quiet. It didn't look as if that situation has happened anytime recently.

I wound through more of the old city streets, quite a few of which had abandoned homes. I peeked into everything I could, because I find this sort of building fascinating. One of the buildings reminded me a lot of what I'd seen on my visits to the town of Pripyat in Ukraine, which is where Chornobyl is located.

I found more churches, only one of which was open. Everything I saw was Greek Catholic, which makes me think of a combination of Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic.

At one point I stumbled into a small street food fest. Even though I didn't need it, I ended up buying a vegan burrito. Not bad.

I went back to the hotel for another hour or so, then went out for dinner. Since the food I'd tasted the night before at the old man's restaurant had been good, I decided to go back again for a full meal. It was good, and I was remembered. Yay.

The next day I spent in the city of Pafos, returning to Nicosia for dinner.

The following morning I was up in time to catch a bus/mini van to Girne. When I returned to Nicosia I sped through the border crossing, and back to my hotel. I'd already packed up my stuff in the morning, but no one had been at the front desk so I hadn't checked out. This worked out for me, as I was able to grab my bag and go right back out of the hotel.

I dropped my key at the (now manned) front desk, then walked over to the bus station. I hadn't bought tickets ahead of time, and I noticed a growing crowd of people who clearly wanted the same bus I did. Thankfully I've lived and spent time in plenty of places where people don't always respect a queue. I looked for a queue, but didn't see one, so I slowly wound my way close to the door of the bus, which made sure I'd have a seat.

The bus left a few minutes late, and over an hour later I was in Larnaca.