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.
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!
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.
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.
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?!
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!
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