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.