Day 8

Nothing special today, just solved the issue for the pictures, then went to swimming pool to equalize my tanning then sleep, then dinner :-)

Well, just kidding. In Cyprus, there are lots of feral cats, and lots of people give them eat and drink. So, one cat has owned for territory my hotel's swimming pool. So it's common that when you go to rest around it, you can see an asking cat, mostly for caresses and attention. This cat is absolutely no shy, and sh really comes near to you. I did not see any balls, and I felt a round belly, so I think it's a pregnant female ferral cat.

Nights are sometimes active when she has to defend her territory against other cat, that was the case yesterday. So she disappeared this morning, but reappeared at the usual time, 2PM.

Day 7

First , big news, I'm solving the issue with the pictures, its now all uploading, but it's quite long.
So the 7th day, I've been to the North of Cyprus, exactly to Famagusta and Kyrenia.

To get to Famagusta, we crossed the United Kingdom base. And that's funny to see beach towels on soldiers windows, and to be honnest, the scottish are the most proud and their towels are mainly all the time the Scottish flag.

After crossing the border, and I must tell you that the Turkish policemen use kind of bungalow in the color of Turkey, we entered Famagusta.
Famagusta has the ghost town, so I was able to see how was Cyprus before 1974 as the house stayed how they were at that time.

After we have seen the old city, it means the city inside the venitian walls. The cathedral has been transformed into a mosquee, the lala mustafa pacha mosquee. But the people over there are nice, they speak Turkish, English and Greek. And overl all, they don't need a calculate to make a division by 2, as 2 turkish liras are 1 €. The port is almost desert ads they can trade only with Tukey.

Staying there 1 hours, after we took again the bus to cross the island to Kyrenia. So, there are the mesouria , which consists of lots of prairies between the 2 mountains chains of the islands. There are some settlements village that are visible, with village name such as Inönu, which is obvious they are settlements.
Crossing the pentadaktylos (nice mountains), we stopped in villapais, the only Christian building which was not destroyed.
It's a little abbey build by Venetian, first it was catholic then orthodox. You can see in the entrance that the mosaic has been destroyed by Turkish authorities.

Then we went to Kyrenia, and I realized what means colonization. There was only Turkish from Turkey, not speaking English, using calculate to divide by 2, and giving you Turkish liras, and for eating, there was only Turkish thing, in the same price as in a Western Europe Kebab restaurant. The Turkish army was everywhere, some Turkish looking at you in a weird way. There I met a Belgian couple, and she told me she regret to go to North Cyprus, I told them she could go to Paphos next year :-).
Even the doctors seems to be not really good, as the mom hurted her eyes with the hotel swimming pool and the doctor told her to use water. I asked her to go to Lefkosia, to cross Ledra checkpoint and go to a European doctor.

After that, the bus took me back to Aya Napa , and it's obvious , it's the Cypriot Ibiza, full of Russian boys and girls, lots of activities, I may go there one afternoon.

Day 6

Today, I've been to the last capital of Europe separated by a wall: Nicosia.
In fact, I've just been inside the walls and from bothside.

Hard to speak about it without speaking about politichs, but I'll try not to make it.
It's just strange and sad to give passport to change district in one town which is as beautyfull in the Turkish occupied zone (the souks, the mosquees) and the free area with all this shopes, these litle streets, and the houses let as they were in 1974.

Suprised when I heared the muftis from the free zone sitten the the HQ of Cypriot Orthodox church.

Spoken with different people, I've seen Turkish-cypriots girls in free zone to buy clothes, and Greeks in occupied area to eat for cheaper.

It has marked me, really, I felt strange when I crossed the border, as it's also a cultural border between christian world and islam world, between Europe and middle east.

Day 5

the fifth day began by image on tv, euronews, that spoke about ERT breakdown. I quickly understood it was political, confirmed by some Cypriots. But I had afraid of a military putsch.

This events was a reason to speak with Cypriots, and I understood something: They are Greeks, but they have their own country, different with Greece.
It means different countries, different interrests. They are "hellenic" and not "helladic" , not to confuse.

But today was a farniente day, imagine: wake up at 8AM (6AM GMT) , on the bed and breakfast and shower until 10, swimming pool until 1PM, lunch until 2PM, rest until 4, back to swimming pool until 7PM, then after shower etc... I get off to eat until 11PM. I met some AEK Larnaca fans watching basketball game, but they are not so "nice" and "noble" as the MAXHTEC. They are just some young rich Cypriots that sucks others Greece teams (mainly AEK Athens), I left them quite quickly.

Day 4

Today I crossed the free zone from the East to the West as I've been to Paphos by intercity buses.
It was long very long trip, but a nice one.
So, the bus makes a "stopover" in Limassol. This stopover delays the bus of 1h.


Nothing to say about Limassol that could be nicknamed the Litle Sotchi as it's full of Russians shops.

What about Paphos ?
This town is divided in two section, the kato Paphos and Paphos in itself.
Kato Paphos is along the beautyfull beaches and there are beautyfull hotel with wonderfull swimming pool.
Really go there for honeymoon, you'll not be deceived.
I took a 1h boat trip that made my skin burned. We saw natural sponges and of course one warship that have been desttroyed in 1974. I did not listen the rest of what the guide said.

Paphos in itself is good but all shops were closed, I only was able to eat in a "Psistaria" a Pita Souvlaki with a Cypriot pita drinking ouzo, it relaxed me.

On the road, I've seen the birth place of Afrodite, the goddess of love in Greek mythology.

I deserved to drink a frappe in Finikkoudes , the street along the beach of Larnaca

Day 3

Today was my third day in Larnaka. First, I planned to have a farniente day, but it was not really one farniente day.
But let me explain, I planned first to go to supermarket to buy something to eat. This was done in Carrefour Larnaca  . I've bought what you buy if you make camping, mainly noodles and sauces, and of course bread and shampoo.

While I was preparing to stay in the swimming pool, I had the idea to go to Pyla, in the UNCYFIP buffer zone. First adventure: I missed the bus to Pyla from 25 meters, so I decided to walk, very bad idea on the Cypriot sun. After 5km, I felt quite bad, so I stopped in a place to drink frappe, then the barmaid found a friend of her who was from there and he drove me there. Surprisingly, he was Turkish Cypriot.
He let me in the center of the village which is unique: you have in your left 1 turkish cafe, on front: one greek cafe, on your right: a litle house for the UNCYFIP.
Walking aroung the village I noticed there are barriers everywhere. On the top of the mountain, the NCTR and Turkish flags. You have one orthodox church and one islamic mosquee.
The streets have no name, as I'm told, if the Greek would prefer "Makarios" for the main road, the Turks would prefer "Mustafa Kemal street".
Both schools, the Turkish and the Greeks are 100 meters away from each others.

This village was for me like all the mountain village, very peacefull. It's one cultural border between Europe and middle east, between christianity and islamic areas (but for the lebanon), and It's peacefull.

To come back to Larnaca, same issue, The 5.30PM bus did not arrive, so I decided to go to the big road and find a bus, and same guy, found me back and drove me back to Larnaka.

Going back my flat, I noticed that I get quite tanny, I must take care next days not to get really burned.

But really, it's good vacations until now

In this picture taken from Pyla, you can see the mosquee tower and in the right, over the roofs , the roof of the orthodox church

Day 2

Second day, a sunday, a good day to check the religious spirit of Cyprus, more exactly Larnaca. And I noticed there is lots of christian churches and even one mosquee in Larnaca.
I've seen, one roman catholic church, one orthodox church (seen from my room) , some different protestants churches, including one presbyterian and one anglican, armenian church and one mosquee.

I was surprised to see that mosquee is active, there was pople inside, probably one mufti. In fact, there are more than one but I've seen only one: the Byuk mosquee.

Visiting the museum of Larnaka history, it's clearly visible that Larnaka is really an historic town, from some early Byzantin tombstones, there was also Roman latin church for long time ago.

Maybe that explains how Cypriots are really open minded and nice people.

Here, news only speak about the events in Turkey, obviously. But they don't take any ideas, any camps, they just tell "the ottomans invaded us, and the Kemalists made us suffer much more".

I'll try to go to the unrecognized North Cyprus (Kyrenia and Famgouste next thursday) if the situation is good. You must know this de facto "republic" is recognized only by the Turkey, as its creation followed the Turkish army invasion in 1974.

Another point, I've seen many Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian around Larnaka. Apparently, Cyprus is a good place for the vories :
http://www.presseurop.eu/fr/content/article/1474151-l-ile-aux-russes
Exactly, there are some pubs with east Europe prostitutes, that act same way as in Bangkok.

Night appears quite early compare to west Europe, as it's night at 8PM. It's better as night gives some fresh air. Days are really very hot, probably 40°C in june on the sun.

Picture of the day: