A week in Cyprus

Time for travelling , time for blogging!

Here we go again, on our way to Larnaca airport, our flight is at 4:15 pm, we'll be in London at about 7pm, half term is definitely over and we'll back in school soon. Tomorrow at this very time, the sandy beaches and the clearblue skies which merge into a crystal-clear waters will be only a distant memory..

But hey.. at least we have seen part of this beautiful and experienced a bit of summer in November.

Down here is a short but fairly detailed account of our 7 days here. Hopefully you will find some useful information in case you want to do a a similar holiday. I will try to insert some pictures so that these articles don't get too wordy!

Day 1. This morning a gentle wind coming from the balcony woke us up. Sunny and warm. This is the weather we'd been expecting for months, since the day we booked our holiday in Cyprus but feared we couldn't find when we checked the forecasts over the past two weeks. But hey, we are lucky  this time. We can have beakfast on the balcony after a very restful night in our Airbnb flat in Ayia Napa, get our backpacks ready (sun cream and swimming costumes in them), we make our way to the car rental and set free on the highway all the way to the capital city Nicosia (also called Lefkosia) the only divided capital in the world.

 Hardly anybody on the street, despite the half term break for the British. We don't mind that, as we've realised we're getting plenty of discounts thanks to the fact that it's not peak season (we spent only 150 euros-VAT and insurance included to rent our car for five days and we spent 18 euros each for a really tasty and copious meal along the beach, including wine). As soon as we arrived in Nicosia and we parked our car, we realised there were so many sights to visit and we headed straight to the tourist centre to get a map of the city and to prepare a tour who have would allow us to make the most of the day there. Unfortunately Monday is not a good day to visit Nicosia as quite a lot of the museums are shut.

These are the things we managed to see in a day:

 - the Venetian walls which border the old city and are very recognisable thanks to their odd shape

 - the Famagusta and Pavos gates

 -the Liberty Monument

- the Omeriye Hammam (only a quick visit as it is closed on Mondays)

- the Omeriye Mosque -the Faneromeni Church

-the Observatory, from which it is possible to have a clear view of the whole city.

-the Byzantine Museum and the arts galleries.

  Overall, we found the town definitely worth a visit and quite pretty in many respects. I only gutted to discover that I was not allowed into the Turkish side as I had forgotten my ID card, and to cross that section of the city it is necessary to have one, as it is the equivalent of crossing a country. It is basically what would have happened in Berlin before the Wall came down. Luckily Claudia and Stephanie managed to go and told me that the difference was particularly visible as far as the levels of poverty and cleanininess are concerned. One can really perceive the feeling of antagonism between the two sides of the Island only by seeing the way the Greek tourism industry portrays the Turkish part. Their maps only show the southern Greek part and label the northern part as:Zone under Turkish occupation. When we asked at the Tourist centre if it was possible to cross the boarder, the woman responded that they don't recommend to go see the Turkish side, and (I am quoting her), we would be entering a Muslim State,as if that were a problem for us.

 Day 2: The Turkish part. We decided to explore the northern part of the country and we left from Ayia Napa relatively early in the morning after breakfast. Crossing the border is easy and stress free, the only thing you have to consider that there are only certain areas with checkpoints and we had to take a slight detour to get there (only 20 kms extra or so to get to Vrysoulles). You also need to extend the insurance for the car rental and pay 20 euros to be covered in the Turkish side. We crossed the checkpoints and headed towards the northernmost edge of the Island,  called the Karpasia peninsula. The Lonely Planet guide mentioned it would feel like reaching the world's end and we have to agree with this! The landscape throughout the region was very rural and remote, donkey, shepards and very few cars insight.

 It took forever to reach the Golden beach but it was definitely worth it! Not very busy but very clear water and sandy beaches. Hardly any tourists there and the Golden Beach stretches out for several kilometres, wild and preserved. We went to Agios Filon to catch a glimpse of the sunset there. Such a spectacular view, with the ruins of an old church in the background and we tasted a strong Cypriot coffee at the café over there.

 Also worth of mention the dinner in front of the University in the Turkish city of Famagusta. Really upbeat and friendly atmosphere in that city, full of young people and very western-looking. It's unbelievable to think that this quite big area of the Island was part of the Republic of Cyprus until 1974 and it now belongs to the area occupied by the Turkish, although we read on our guide that this Republic is officially recognised only by the Republic itself and Turkey. We are still puzzled a day unsure about the implications of this.

 Day 3: Very odd day with all sorts of misfortunes, from a tragic one (unfortunately Stephane received a phone call from his mum saying that his grandma passed away and this obviously brought down the morale of the whole group), to minor ones which luckily got solved eventually: a flat tyre as soon as we had our first stop just outside Limassol, problems with out last minute booking accommodation (the lady at the reception of the hotel was reluctant to accept our reservation as she had received no confirmation nor payment and we feared we would not be allowed to sleep there) and because of a miscalculation on our part we arrived at the hotel with basically no petrol left (the hotel was located in a very remote area up on a mountain and the nearest town was 10 kms away!). Needless to say we were happy when they day was over,  but the highlight of it was the visit of the city of Limassol with its mosque, castle and very picturesque old town.

 Day 4: The accommodation at the Akamas was really good, unfortunately we could  it make the most of it in terms of swimming pools, massages and sauna because we preferred to try out the local beach called Lakki, about 10 kms from the little pretty town of Polis. We had breakfast there and we all agreed that the atmosphere was much less touristy and definitely more authentic.

Only downside was the strong winds that was blowing on the beach throughout the morning. After a couple of chapters of our books, Stephane and I drove to the nearby Baths of Aphrodite (according to the myth, the Greek Goddess used to bathe here). The pool was nothing special but the view from there was truly mesmerising, nothing to envy to the Amalfi coast. More relax by the sea awaits us: we head to the beautiful  Coral beach, with a couple of cafés and good facilities and the a quick stop at to see a late sunset and take some pictures.

 Day 5 and 6: We've decided to dedicate these to total relax and a little exploration of the area around Ajia Napa. The first day we still had the car rented and, despite an hour of quite a heavy shower from the sky after breakfast, we were lucky, the sky cleared up and we drove to the beautiful peninsula of Cape Greco and to the beach in the bearby town of Protaras (only about ten minutes drive from Ayia Napa. Today we had no car and we walked to the Nissi beach. I won't write anything to describe it... I will just post some pictures here, hopefully they will render the idea of beauty of this place.