Early Santa in Pafos

A trip to Pafos reminded us that even in Cyprus Christmas preparations seem to come earlier each year. Street decorations and Christmas trees were popping up all over the town. 

As we wandered through Ktima Pafos (town centre) we came upon “Tea for Two” a small café-bar with a wonderful views 3km down to Kato Pafo. The Café does superb Ploughman’s sandwiches.

Lunch in Dora

We drove with Dom & Liza up to the mountain village of Dora, we met Andreas who runs The Paradise Tavern, he prepared a excellent meze lunch for us.

We all noticed the drop in temperature up in the mountains and coats and fleeces were the order of the day. The garden of the tavern has superb views down the valley and Mount Olympus in the background.

We then went over to Andreas’s second tavern in the center of the village where he had a log fire crackling away in the corner, we sat around drinking the local firewater, zivania, while Andreas told us some history of the village.

Aphrodite's Rock

This weekend we ventured onto the tourist trail and headed over to Petra tou Romiou (Aphrodite’s rock), which is only a 10 minute drive from Pissouri. There were quite of few German tourists in the area who braved entering the sea, the weather was clear, warm and the views spectacular.

The old coast road from Pissouri to Pafos is a truly spectacular drive, the road cuts through the surrounding hills with dramatic effect and around every bend you get wonderful views of the Mediterranean sea.

A Day in Larnaca

We went for the day to the town of Larnaka, we were both impressed with thre town Larnaka, it has a clean and tidy sandy beach and a pleasant palm tree lined promenade.

The shopping area and backstreets are worth exploring and we were impressed with the area around the church of Agios Lazaros.

On the way home we stopped of at the village of Zygi, the whole seafront is crammed full of fish restaurants overlooking the sea. Our final stop was at Governors Beach, a small, black sanded coved that sadly needed a good clean up of discarded rubbish.

Rugby and a new source of heat

Saturday we went over to the “Pissouriana” to watch Wales V Pacific Isles rugby game, a decent crowd turned up to Cheer on the winning Welsh team.

Returning home we used the new gas fire for the first time, what a difference it has made on these chilly Winter nights. Sunday we went for a long walk along the Melanda coastline, which has some fine views over the crumbling cliffs. We then had lunch at the Melanda beach restaurant.

A night on the Town

The problems with the log fire we decided to use modern technology and go for a gas fire, it does get colder here at night that we thought, no so much the outside temperature but the house retains little heat, hopefully the new fire will help sort out the problem.

Friday night found us having a night out in Pissouri, Rob was introduced to Justin Marshall the ex All black rugby player and then we were invited to a birthday party of one of the locals, Sally.

Sports, Pelicans and a Smokey fire

Today we decided to go for a swim, so we headed over to the Ypsonas sports center, we had the 25 meter pool to ourselves, we followed this by using the Jacuzzi and steam room.

Feeling refreshed we headed over to Lady Mile beach which is just outside Limassol port, we had a light lunch and met the resident Pelican.

Its getting cold here in Cyprus during the night time so we decided to buy some logs for the open fire, the living room got a bit smokey......infact, Very Smokey...ah well, back to the drawing board.

Flea Market and Aussies

We went over to the local market at Farousi, wandered around the colourful stalls, we were quite impressed at the variety of goods on Sale. We drove over to Curium beach for a coffee, w were surprised to se that they had demolished the “Blue beach bar”, apparently they are having a new place built on the same spot.

The was quite a breeze blowing and we spent a while watching the kite surfers and windsurfers ploughing through the waves.

In the afternoon we went to the “Pissouriana” bar to watch the rugby game, Wales V Australia, there was a good crowd in a we enjoyed watching a thrilling 29-29 draw.

Pafos , the Internet and a New found Local Taverna

Took a drive into the town of pafos and went to the tourist district, we were not that impressed, lots of building work going on and lot of young Brits hassling us to sell time share properties. We noticed that there were a lot of “Tat” shops.

Back in Pissouri we went to the Internet café, Young Mark was very helpful and we soon had our laptop set up to a quick connection. Mandy put in the lamb chops and we took a stroll up to the Ampeli Taverna, a real peaceful haven with some great views over the valley, this could well become our local.

Butchers and mice

 We have just been up to the local Village butchers, they have a very good selection of meat, we bought a bag full and the butchers son threw in a packet of local sausage as a welcome gift. We then walked over to the small internet café, we explained to the guy in there that our PC mouse had got damp and asked what could we do about it, he said “ feed it to the cat” ….we need a new mouse.

Walking Limassol, Ghosts and Ghouls

Today we decide to go into Limassol, lots of traffic in the city centre but we finally found a parking place down by the seafront. Limassol has a fine seafront and the promenade is ideal for walking, wide tree lined and passing through a sculpture park. After grabbing a sandwich near the castle we wandered through the back streets of the old City.

Tonight we went to a Halloween party up at Pissouriana bar, the was a good turn out of people wearing costumes, from Uncle Fester to witches, Ghosts and Devils.

Everybody was very friendly toward us. There was a terrific thunder storm outside, with loud cracks of thunder, which added to the Halloween atmosphere.

Exploring the Melanda coastline

We took a trip to Melanda which is about 10 minutes drive from Pissouri, the coastline here is rugged with small stony coves. We both said that this would be a great place to watch the sun go down and promised ourselves to return with a picnic and hopefully get some good pictures as the sun sets over Pissouri.

Relaxing by the Sea

We headed East of Pissouri and spent a lazy day relaxing and reading the Sunday Papers by Curium beach. There are 3 tavernas along the beachfront and it a great place to relax with a coffee. Behind the beach is a tall cliff and where we  watched the paragliders jump off and slowly float down to the beach.

We popped into the local store because Mandy wanted some envelopes, unable to find what she wanted she asked the young assistant for some help, the young lady returned with the envelopes, and then said “With these envelopes, if you need to put money inside”, we both listened seriously for the following pearl of wisdom, “then make sure that you put my address on it! and her face broke into a huge grin.

Mountains and wine

We took a drive into the mountains and stopped off to wander through the narrow streets, a passing van stopped and a local farmer sold us 4 litres of red wine for 4 Cypriot pounds, we tasted the wine that evening and it was very good.

Making Contacts

Last night we made our way to the Pissouriana bar, this is the place where the Brits in the area tend to meet.

We were greeted by our friends Liza and Dom, Dom and some of his friends were holding a meeting, they plan to Cycle around Cyprus for a charity event in November 2007. 

This morning we drove up to the mountain overlooking Pissouri, from there you have superb views of Pissouri Bay, Pissouri village and the surrounding hills.

Getting Stoned in Pissouri

We flew out from Cardiff airport to Paphos in Cyprus, there were only 19 passengers on the plane so we had plenty of room.

 We drove to the villa in the village of Pissouri that we had rented and settled in, then we drove to Paphos to buy mobile phones to keep in contact with the outside world.

 That night there was a violent electrical storm that caused a certain amount of damage in the area and some local flooding. We woke the next day to find piles of hailstones in the garden, not what we expected to find in Cyprus !

A Farewell gathering and Packing

Mid October and we are begining to pack our things for our trip to Cyprus, Mandy is having trouble deciding what to pack in her case,

"so much she wants to pack, so little room"

Our family and friends gathered up at a local restaurant to wish us well on our travels, it was also a chance to celebrate Lisa’s 25th birthday.

Today in Wales, we have had nothing but constant rain, so hopefully the next entry in the blog will be from the sunnier climes of Cyprus.