Cyprus

Jan 10

It was a long way to Cyprus from Bangor, Maine. Our journey started with our first flight in Portland > JFK > Athens, with a very long 7 hour layover in Athens before our final flight to Cyprus. While we probably had enough time to go into Athens and do a little sight seeing, we knew we would be too exhausted to enjoy it. We really just wanted to find a quiet corner in the airport to rest and relax. Athens airport isn’t the largest and best airport to do this. We purchased a pass to the Sky Express Lounge, which was quiet, but not the most comfortable lounge to hang out in.

It’s normal for us to have a few unusual things happen to us. A first for me is being accused on smoking in the lavatory on our flight to Athens. When I went in I thought I smelled smoke and in hindsight I should have immediately left and gone to find a flight attendant.

On our return through JFK, we were introduced to their new facial recognition immigration system, which definitely seemed to speed the process (although I do have privacy concerns), except for the fact the Brendan got flagged and was brought into a separate room for secondary screening.

Larnaca

The Cyprus International Airport is located in Larnaca, so when we flew in we decided to spend our first night here instead of driving to Nicosia, which is about an hour away. We arrived in the early evening and knew we would be exhausted. Unfortunately driving is also on the left hand side of the road so we decided to take a taxi to the hotel (Hotel Indigo) and go back the next morning to pick up the rental car. Our hotel was only 10-15 minutes from the airport so it wasn’t a huge inconvenience. After picking up the rental car we decided to explore Larnaca. It was just a short walk to to the waterfront and we came across a beautiful church and fort. Right next to the airport is a huge salt lake and every winter flamingos migrate there. Unfortunately we only saw them from the car and taxi. When we returned to Larnaca at the end of the trip we walked to a viewing point, but sadly there were no flamingos there at the time.

Nicosia

We made Nicosia our base for the trip and stayed at the Hilton. Since it’s in a central location it made it easy to take several day trips from here. Nicosia has several sights worth seeing:

The Cyprus Museum - The museum has many artifacts on display, unfortunately there was not a lot of descriptions (although there were audio tours, which we did not take advantage of).
Shakolas Tower - This eleven story building (there aren’t skyscrapers in Nicosia) has nice views of the city and you can see the occupied side of Cyprus with the Turkish flag from here. The building and elevator were kind of sketchy and run down, but it was worth it for the view.

If you spend any time in Nicosia it’s worth it to cross the border into the occupied side (Turkey) of Cyprus. While there wasn’t any apparent difference in the architecture, there was definitely a cultural difference between the two sides.

Lefkara

Lefkara is a wonderful day trip from Nicosia, only about an hour’s drive and is known for it’s silver and lace. We had so much fun walking around the narrow, winding streets. They have a nice little main street with lots of shops, although I was surprised that most of the stores just contained junky souvenirs. I even think the silver and lace in the stores was most likely not locally made, it seemed way too underpriced.

As we were wandering the streets we noticed that it was starting to get more crowded. It was late morning so we decided to head back and we were shocked at the traffic jam of cars coming into town, there were even busses! It was the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) so lots of people had the day off and were out enjoying the beautiful weather and town.

Platres

I chose Platres as a day trip because it looked like there were a few nice hikes to waterfalls. The first hike we went to was Kalidonia Waterfall which is about a mile outside of town. Once again we got there early and when we returned to the parking lot the place was packed. It was really nice 2 mile round trip hike, although the waterfall was more like a trickle. I’m sure after a big rain it’s spectacular!
We weren’t sure what parking would be like in Platres, so we decided to just walk into town. The town is located in the mountains, a very windy drive to get there, so it can be quite popular. There are only 300 residents but during the tourist season they can get 10,000 visitors! Not much was open but we did purchase some olive oil and honey at a small Christmas market where they had a little train taking kids around town.
There was another nice hike right in town to Millomeris Waterfall, although we never found a spot where we could see the waterfall.

Paphos

Paphos is definitely worth a visit just for the Archaeological Park. It’s a great park to walk around and the mosaics were amazing! There is also a great boardwalk along the coast, although we were there on a super windy day so it wasn’t as much fun to walk around.

Just up the coast from Paphos is Aphrodite’s Rock and is well worth a stop as it’s right off the highway and is spectacular scenery. Legend says that Aphrodite was born on the rock and that if you swim around the rock you will be blessed with eternal beauty.

Cape Greco

This was by far my favorite day trip. Cape Greco is small but beautiful national park that has a lovely trail along the coast. We had spectacular weather and the views were amazing! Well worth a visit.

Cats of Cyprus

As a cat lover, one of the hardest things about visiting Cyprus was seeing all the stray cats. We have been to several countries with stray cat problems, but Cyprus is by far the most severe. They estimate they have one stray cat for every person, that’s over one million cats! Our first experience at how bad the problem was happened in Nicosia in Linear Park, everywhere we walked in the park there were colonies of cats. And as we explored Cyprus, no matter where we went, from the hiking trail in Platres to the coast of Cape Greco we came across colony after colony of cats. Most of them seemed somewhat cared for; there were always lots of water and food bowls around, and we observed many locals feeding the cats, as well as shelters set up, but it still broke my heart. Many of the cats were super friendly and I just wanted to take each one of them home. These are pictures of just a few of the hundreds of cats we came across.