...Cyprus! keeping up this fun little trend of outdated updates

I have just returned from organizing the last of a presentation I have to give tomorrow about the influence between globalization and the logistics and transportation industries. Fun stuff happening tomorrow morning.
The sky is still gray today! Day 6/6 so far. Lazy dayz in the Netherlands this week.

Back to Spring Break:

DAY 4 (Apr 14, 2013) continued...

The flight went smoothly. There was clear skies for the entirety of the flight, and I was next to the window, so I got to see leaving Crete and arriving in Cyprus with pretty spectacular island views. Cyprus looked a little more dry than Crete, but had some rather extensive and intricate housing developments (pools and all) compared to the previous island.

 Arriving in the airport was nice and warm. The airport had about the same amount of security as Chania (not much at all), but this time the few personnel carried around automated weapons on shoulder-straps. After some general confusion, we grabbed a bus into Paphos and coasted along the relatively more sun-bleached landscape of the island including fields, livestock, housing developments and ocean-side views.

We found our way to the hotel and made friends with the old funny English man working behind the counter. He gave us our keys with a happy-sounding heavy-smoker's laugh and we were off to drop our things.
The views out of our hotel room were jaw-droppingly awesome for the price. It was almost at the top floor, looking out over Paphos with a view of the ocean. Again, with our own private room, balcony, beds, television, and cheap, cheap luxury.

Once settled, we walked all the way down to the harbor, grabbing some delicious 'Cyprus-style' gyros along the way. (they had fries in them). I also discovered that I enjoyed eating what I think was jalepenos(?) with the food to add some kick. If not jalepenos, some other sort of spicy green pepper.

We walked along the ocean shoreline on the boardwalk, checking out tourist shops and prices for dinner. We decided to go towards the historic castle and walk along the coastline path, just in time for sunset.

Here we just sat, talked, enjoyed the views, and took in an incredibly pink sunset.

When it got a little chilly we found ourselves in a cafe along the shore. Every one of these places was selling between 3-4 euro cocktails, and boy did we (she) underestimate their power. With a side order of calamari and toast for dinner, Alexis got more than she asked for from her Blue Hawaiian, which made for an especially hilarious evening for me.

The cocktails and food were delicious, but soon Alexis was more than ready to crash (about 8:30pm), so we headed back to the hotel. I was still awake, so I hit the streets and wandered towards the distant-sounding music. It was a concert! And singing in Greek!

After watching and roaming for a while, I decided to head back to the hotel. I read some of my schoolwork philosophy book with Lord of the Rings on in the background down in the hotel bar. After going to sleep, Alexis woke up around midnight and watched Shaun of the Dead. I was woken up again at 4am, groggily telling her to go to bed. Funny(?) enough, that was the time that BREAKING NEWS: BOSTON BOMBING came on the telly. I told Alexis to go to bed one last time and rolled over to sleep the rest of the night, with sugarbombs dancing in my head...

DAY 5

Woke up the next day and ate the complementary breakfast at the hotel. We determined two primary locations we wanted to see on this side of Cyprus was Aphrodite's Bath and the Kato archaeological site in Pafos. We needed wifi to check the bus times, so we headed up the street to a place called "Tea for Two"- a British-looking restaurant chain with some incredible looking desserts. So, shortly after completing our first breakfast, we jaunted in and ordered some cheap cocktails/smoothies and ice cream sundaes for second breakfast. The Zombie was strong and the citrus Malibu sundae delectable. Good morning, Cyprus.

We missed the first bus, so we decided to do a little bit of shopping around the station. We don't know if it was due to the 'crisis' or just a sale-season, but stores had some incredible deals. I got a 65 euro collared shirt for 10 euro. It hit lunch time, so we decided to sit down for food. Food took 'too long' and we missed the second bus out to the Aphrodite Baths, so we ate lunch at a cliff overlooking Paphos and the ocean and gave our droppings to the 6 or so cats hanging out around us. One was missing an eye, poor guy.

Since our plans to go to the Baths fell through, we decided on the archaeological ruins for our late-afternoon excursion. We took the bus down to the ruins by the harbor and wandered around the grounds. The place was amazing. Pafos is the site to one of the oldest civiilzations in the Mediterranean, and is home to extensive and well-preserved ancient mosaics, an ampitheatre, archway, and all sorts of columns, ancient house groundworks, and basically just an expansive exploration of Greek ruins. Alexis and I really enjoyed wandering through the exhibit.

A tour guide wandered onto the ancient mosaics (very, very surprising to us). The old guy next to us on the platform remarked on our surprise, and asked where we were from. After informing him we were from California, he stated, very calmly, slowly, and with deliberate intellectual purpose, "You are American? What an interesting idea."
It still bothers me today. What did he mean?!

 Alexis in the old palatial grounds

 Inside the preserved mosaic floor house

 In the ampitheatre

After wandering through the Kato Paphos Archaeological Park, we made it back to the harbor boardwalk. Alexis desired gelato, so we headed towards where we had seen a gelato place before. However, we found a Garro Rufa fish spa! These fish eat all the dead skin off your feet, and you end up with incredibly smooth skin, at least for a time. Those little buggers really get in there, too. Tickled like hell for the first thirty seconds or so, and was just a bizarre tingly sensation for the remaining 9 or so minutes. Very cool.

And then of course, got the gelato.

We spent the rest of our evening hopping between the restaurants along the harbor, avoiding the random Mediterranean rain storm, snacking on Cyprus cheese (pictured below with the grill marks on it), and sipping cocktails. Truly relaxing in Cyprus.

DAY 6

We woke up 'early' on Day 6. It might've been Monday? Who knows. Either way, by the end of the day we would be ending up in Nicosia/Lefkosia on the other half of the island country.

After breakfast at the hotel, we packed up and took the bus over to Polis and the Aphrodite Baths. A short trail led to the baths. We thought it would be a half-day affair, but instead was a total of about 5 minutes.

Because of this, we didn't really know what to do. The best idea we came up with was to go on a hike up the mountain before us, ending up to be about 7 or 8 km long. Little did we know what we were in for. It was so incredibly gorgeous.

From the trail

Alexis coming up behind

Greek mountain goats. I think we saw maybe 10 or 15 during our hike, coming within about two meters from a couple of them. Many just stared at us.

Made it to the top!

Heading back down the mountain to the bus, looking down onto Polis in the distance.

Making it back to the bus, we passed the small groups of old British couples on holiday going to see the falls near the bottom. Utilizing a couple small transfer buses, we made it back to Paphos and had a couple hours to kill before our bus to Nicosia. After showing Alexis where the concert was taking place two nights before, we grabbed one last Cyprus gyro and stopped into a Thrift Shop to get Alexis a shirt.

Grabbing our stuff from the hotel, we headed back to the original "Tea for Two" place from the previous morning. The waitress recognized us and laughingly asked if I'd want another Zombie, to which I said, "Sure, why not?" and we proceeded to reenact the previous morning- eating desserts and drinking ice-blended beverages. We made it up to the bus station for the fourth and final time, and headed off to Nicosia.

Nicosia was an incredibly busy, metropolitan city. It was dusk when we arrived, and I hadn't heard much from our couchsurfing guy, Ismail. A random guy off the street asked us if we needed a ride anywhere, or a place to stay for the evening. At the time, both Alexis and I were extremely wary of the situation, but looking back he was probably just a really nice Cyproit. Oh well, it worked out in the end.

Hauling our stuff, we went to an Internet cafe to finalize our flight reservations for the following day. We then decided to get lost in downtown Nicosia looking for meze and waiting for Ismail's call. He called! and told us to meet him at the border gate.

Ismail was happy to tell us everything he could about the history of Cyprus and how things were going in the current situation. He told us the border check doesn't really really do much, however the island is still very much divided. Nicosia (Greek side)/ Lefkosia (Turkish side) is the last divided capital in Europe, and the differences are highly apparent. From our short glances, the Greek side had many lights and activity going on (a little more touristy), while the Turkish side seemed much more quiet and peaceful. I felt safer on the Turkish side (maybe because we were then with Ismail). He took us out to dinner for some authentic Cyproit cuisine, making sure we could try things that we wouldn't be able to find in Istanbul later on. The meat rolls had meat inside made by using the intestine linings as sausage wrappings, and the Turkish coffee we drank was the first time I have legitimately enjoyed the taste of coffee. He 'read' our fortunes in the inside of the cooled coffee cup, channeling his grandmother's talents.

Alexis and I got a room entirely to ourselves at his very 'single-bachelor' looking flat, and we took this picture the next morning before he left for work:

Breakfast consisted of some dry cornflakes, and then we were on our way! Ismail stated there was a taxi stand down the road from him which we could take to Ercan (pronounced something like "Erjan") airport. There was no taxi stand, but we managed to run over to one taxi going to pick up some other random people on the street. Just so happens, they were going to the university just out of town, on the way to the airport, and were very happy to have us join them!

After going through what looked like some pre-9/11 security and playing some nostalgia-infused MASH, we strolled onto our Onur-Air flight to Istanbul!

Today is Mother's Day, and also the day I will start going through my Spring Break trip (this part'll be Crete).

Today is Mother's Day, and as I sit in my flat looking out onto the green fields, sheep, and a darkening gray sky I figured I should do a little bit of updating.

This afternoon I Skyped with the parents and Aunt Kay, who are currently finishing up their 'camping' trip in Dogwood, California. 'Camping' in an RV of course, haha.

A few weeks ago I returned from a trip to Crete, Cyprus, and Istanbul. It was amazing. It was beautiful. I have over 1,200 pictures of awe-inspiring sights, beauty, and culture to remember.

DAY 1
Thursday 11 April, 2013

I went with a close acquaintance I met here in Utrecht. Her name is Alexis, and she is from California.

Crete is the largest of the Grecian islands in the Mediterranean, and our only hopes for the place was sunshine and beaches (it delivered). The picture above is of Alexis in our own little private room, including a television, bathroom, stove, refrigerator, and table. I mention these things because this is the first time I've stayed in a private room when traveling, and it felt like luxury- all for 10 euro/night! It was located in Agii Apostoli, about 5 minutes outside Chania, and so much more pretty.

This first night was simply finding the hotel and enjoying what I think was the best Greek meal of our trip. It was just a hole-in-the-wall, run-of-the-mill fast food Greek place. I'm not sure if its deliciousness was due to the hunger we had in our stomachs, or that we were trying real 'Greek' food for the 'first' time, or that it was actually the best of the trip, but:

The tatziki was light, the sausages were delectable, the fries were lightly crunchy, and the pita was fresh. A nice thing about every place we went to in the Grecian islands was that nearly all the beers were served with a frosted beer mug. The ultimate level of class, if you ask me ;)

DAY 2

Anyways, the next morning our main goal was to go to the beach. First. We went to a nearby market and got some fresh bread and Greek yogurt and happily slid that down with some fresh orange juice. I found out that I really really enjoy Greek yogurt now.
We soon found that the hotel was about 50 meters from the ocean. And by ocean, I mean the hotel was placed between three distinct gorgeous beaches facing the east, north, and west. Our hotel owner, George, had tried to convince us to take some buses or taxis to some amazing looking beaches, but we were more wondering about why we wouldn't just take advantage of the three beautiful beaches laid out before us?
We stopped by a liquor store to pick up some cheap tourist stuff and headed to the beach:

And then spent the next four hours working on our tans. It was glorious to feel the sun, blue skies, mountains, green foliage, and crystal-blue water.
After roaming beaches #1 and #2, we decided that we would head into downtown Chania (pronounced like "Hah-Nya" with a hard beginning "H").
We wandered the old-town district (Presenting, Chania harbor from the old church tower ruin):

 Discovered some ruins (There was a gate which we kinda broke through to wander through here, but definitely worth it):

And meandered down the typical-Greek looking passageways between buildings (we were offered three shots of differently flavored Raki from an incredibly friendly shop-keeper. He got our business, to say the least. Parents, you have a gift from there!):

Then we walked through the 'New' part of Chania. There are an incredible number of tourist restaurants along the Chania harbor seaside, and that is where we encountered the most active restaurant-waiters trying to get our business.
They would walk up to us with one hand out saying, "Hello, would you be intereste-" After the five previous restaurants saying this,
"No, thank you." I would interject.
"I would just like to have a conversation with you, Sir, I am trying to be friendly. Sir, ca-"
"No. Thank you." Really? Don't even try to guilt trip me.
And the key would be to just keep walking.
Actually, by the end of this week-and-a-half adventure, we discovered the best way to 'fend off' the more insistent restaurant waiters was just to say, "Thanks, but we just ate." Thank you for that initiative, Alexis. To which they would more often than not respond, "Well maybe tomorrow, sir?"
We discovered easy ways to take advantage of the restaurant people, but I'll get to that later.

Anyways, we made it to the end of the jetty surrounding the harbor just in time for sunset, and it was beautiful.

 This was the view walking back from the Lighthouse we watched the sunset from. We met two people from the US Military while out there, and spent the rest of the evening with them: Kiki and Jiggy.

The view from the restaurant we ended up eating at, where I had Greek pork fried in wine. Tasted pretty great.

This is us inside the second bar of our four-person, unofficial pub crawl. The city was packed with US Military people. And I'm pretty sure we heard the song "Thrift Shop" at every place along the night. Probably twice. It's a little over-played these days.
Thrift Shop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

 After five (and an attempted six) bars, we finished our journey at Senso, courtesy of Jiggy. It was a good night out, for it being the only big night out of our trip :) A taxi ride home at 4am and some good night chats, we were ready for bed.

DAY 3!

We woke up entirely refreshed the next morning, going back to the market for some tasty bread and yogurt (this time with meat), and ate breakfast out on our private patio in the sunshine.
We asked George about local places to see and he recommended going to Lake Agias with some bikes. We rented ourselves some bikes and headed off in the direction of the Lake. It was over a small mountain hill (I say 'mountain', because even on the paved roads of Crete, those hills were very, very steep in some areas. We got off our bikes a couple times heading up through the steep little Greek towns.) Once on the other side though, it was a blissful downhill coast through orange trees, blue skies, and fertile foliage.
Downhill selfies, as Alexis was ahead of me videotaping the bike ride.

 Directional signs (thank God, because we were on some rather rural roads along the way). Pronounced something like, "Lake Ah-jya".

 This is where we spent our early-afternoon; at Lake Agias, drinking Banana milkshakes and eating feta tomato bagels. Alexis was hunted by two geese while we were here, and has a video of them slowly stalking her down like Veloceraptors haha.

 This was the road we took down from the little mountain back towards Agii Apostoli. It was much easier to find our way home this way. No brakes! Go hard or go home!

And, of course, after returning our bikes and grabbing a little snack, we headed back to the beaches again.
Another hour or so of sleeping on beach #3 led to us wandering the peninsulas between the beaches. It was slowly getting to the time of sunset again, so we then planned to explore around the peninsulas until the sun was positioned right in front of beach #1 again. I should draw diagrams of this, haha.
Wandering around the peninsulas:

 Leading to:

 One of the most spectacular sunsets of my life:

This moment will stick out to me for a long time, I think. Everything was just... good. It was beautiful weather, I wasn't worried about school, relationships, clothes on my back, friends to talk to, food to eat, where I would sleep for the night, or anything really. I loved everyone who had impacted my life leading up to this point. Alexis, sitting next to me, was a great amount of fun to talk to and banter back and forth. My parents, I love them so much, I can't even fathom... Wow. Somewhat emotional writing this, actually. Yay Matt. The opportunities I have been presented, the times we live in (I was able to fly to another part of the world essentially just to talk with people from everywhere and lay on an incredible beach and eat another culture's food. Wow.), along with my incredible fortune just to be here in Europe at all. I loved every moment of this trip and am so grateful.
But enough of that.
We got hungry and a bit chilly, so we went back to the hotel for some clothes and some money, and wandered over to the Artemis Hotel for dinner. We were the only ones there! Such a pity, it was a beautiful hotel with fountains into the pool and lined with hammocks, palm trees, and a pool bar. I ate some delicious Musaka after raving reviews from the waiter. He said that he ate it almost every day, and after consuming the Musaka, I don't doubt that statement in the slightest.
Alexis and I had just finished commenting on how hospitable and gracious the Greek people seemed to be throughout our trip so far when the waiter walks over with a 'complementary' dessert of Greek yogurt, honey, and some sort of fruit that maybe resembled a date? I'm not entirely sure, but it balanced bitter and sweet tones throughout and made me and Alexis more than happy with the experience.
We then returned to our hotel room with the expectation to go out once more for one last Greek gyro, but after finishing American Wedding near 2am in the room, we passed out with little resistance.

DAY 4

The next (early, early) morning, we finished off the last of our bread, meat, and yogurt in downtown Chania at the harbor.

 We took our last bus on Crete to the airport, which we then finished up another hour or so of sleep.  Before long, we got on our 16 Euro RyanAir flight and were blasting off to Cyprus! You can barely see the beaches we went to in this picture off in the distance. I'll find a better picture somewhere. Either way, it was a beautiful day to leave.