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CYPRUS,
1999 |
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| In August 1999, Cathrine and I spent two weeks in Cyprus. We spent most of the time in Ayia Napa, but also got time to a short visit both to Israel and Egypt. |
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We stayed at the Fedra hotel, located about 25 minutes walk outside the city center. Fortunately to us, because at our age the party life in the center would drive us crazy, should we stay there every night. The staff at the hotel was very nice, so we liked the stay there very much.
2 days after our arrival, we went on a 3-days cruise to Israel and Egypt on board the "Princesa Victoria", spending 1 day in each country. |
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Back in Cyprus, after the cruise, we agreed that both Israel and Egypt had been interresting countries, and that we would like to go back some day. But this way of seeing a country was too exhausting to us, and next time we will spend more time and go by ourselves.
With 45 degrees in the shade, and high humidity, the climate was a bit unpleasant for us, but it was OK to spend the next days at the beach. |
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The afternoons and evenings we either spent in the surroundings of our hotel, or we went strolling around in the city, shopping or visiting restaurants. We soon found our local bar and restaurant, "The Well", which we frequented at least once a day, on our way to or from the beach or city. The restaurant was run by George and his family.
One evening at "The Well" we met Astrid and Frank from Germany. They live in former GDR, and it was very interesting to learn about the changes going on in the former communist country. |
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| The second week we rented a car to drive around Cyprus, to see some more than just Ayia Napa. The first day we went to Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, were we got a glimpse over to the Turkish occupied part of the city. |
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As it was prohibited to take pictures from the border of the other side, we had to be satisfied with pictures taken from a distance. |
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One nice thing in Cyprus; all rental vehicles have red number plates, which tell the locals that the driver may do some unexpected moves, like driving on the right side of the road, which, in fact, is the wrong side. Having red plates on our car definitely gave them the reason why we happened to to so.
From Nicosia we went southwest, through the Troodos mountains down to Limassol, where we turned westbound to Paphos. Coming from the heat in Ayia Napa, the coolness in Troodos was as a relief to us. |
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When we arrived in Paphos, we stopped at hotel Theofano, where Cathrine and her Grandfather stayed 14 years earlier. Staying overnight in Paphos, we got a taste of this city's nightlife as well. Since Paphos was not so dominated by young, crazy Scandinavians as Ayia Napa, this city seemed more comfortable to us.
The next day we started off towards Ayia Napa again. Our first stop was at Aphrodite's Rock, where - the Cypriots claim - Aphrodite rose from the sea. This is a beautiful place approx. 25 kilometres east of Paphos, on the road to Limassol. |
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Our next stop was at the Larnaca Airport Police station, spending a couple of hours with the helicopter deparment of the Cyprus Police. When back in Ayia Napa, we stopped at the hotel to change, before we went to "The Well" to have dinner.
After dinner we drove to see Famagusta, the "ghost city", from where about 95000 Greek Cypriots were sent into exile after the Turkish invasion.
We were not able to enter the Turkish or demilitarized zones, but we could view the city at distance from the Greek side. The weather was not too good that day, hazy, so the pictures are not the very best. But we did get quite a good picture of the sun setting over Famagusta. Symbolic??? |
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On our way back to Ayia Napa we stopped and looked at some sculptures. |
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We enjoyed our visit to Cyprus, but decided that next time we would prefer staying in Paphos rather than in Ayia Napa, due to both price levels and a more grown up kind of tourists in Paphos. |
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| A final thanks to the people at the Fedra hotel, who did their best to give us a pleasant stay. |
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