Tue 4 Oct 2005
We had a fun 3 days in Cyprus with Ethan’s parents. Cyprus itself (we spent the whole time in the South/Greek part) was a lot more touristy than I had anticipated, or maybe I have grown used to living in a place with a virtual lack of tourists. I am not sure how many British ex-pats are in Cyprus, but they and their visiting countrymen seemed to outnumber Cypriots in some towns. Driving is on the left, and poor Ethan had to do all of the driving (standard shift, too). It was disorienting enough to just be in the passenger seat.
We quickly realized that we are spoiled when it comes to ancient ruins living in Lebanon. However, we did see a lot of amazing mosaics in Pafos, as well as some very interesting old tombs. We had a nice swim (the beaches seem cleaner, and all of the nice spots haven’t been turned into private beaches, as is nearly the case in Lebanon), though the water is much colder. We stayed in Pafos, which consists entirely of archaeological sites and tourist hotels/pubs/restaurants. There were so many pubs that there were staff out in the streets offering free drinks to come inside.
We drove through the Troodos mountains, which was lovely, and looked inside one of many painted churches. We tried to go to one mountain village that we thought might be nice, but it was overrun with tourists, amusement parks, and restaurants. It reminded me a little bit of Gatlinburg in Tennessee, though much smaller.
The most intriguing town by far is Lefkosia. The old town is interesting, and is surrounded by Venetian walls from the 16th century. It is a divided city (since 1974), the northern part controlled by Turkey, the southern part by Greek Cyprus. There are soldiers standing guard, but there are some places where they let you walk up to the wall and peer through, into the no man’ s land between either side. The UN polices the situation. If Ethan and I go back, we will cross over to see how it is on the other side.