Cyprus

Greetings from Pafos, Cyprus! The weather here is very hot and very nice. We arrived in Cyprus a few days ago. After a 16 hour flight to Dubai, UAE and a 2 hour layover there and another four hours to Larnaka, Cyprus, we finally made it. Piece of cake. We spent four days in Larnaka. Our days have basically consisted of eating, drinking and lying on the beach. And shopping for me. I came to Cyprus with no expectations, as in unsure of what the beaches would look like. The sand is actually quite compact and more resembles dirt. It's nice though because you don't end up getting bits of sand all over the place! The water is amazing! It's like stepping into a bath. In the mornings it was a bit chilly but the brilliant sun warms it up quite quickly because the sea is quite shallow. Another thing I love about the water is how clean and pristine it is. Can see straight to the bottom. The other morning I went out for a swim and enjoyed watching the little fish scatter away from me and looking at the perfect ridges in the sand below the water. Away the beach Larnaka had some cool shops, perfect for browsing. The open times are weird though. A lot of shops would close for a few hours in the middle of the day for lunch. Plus banks are open 9am to 1pm. And that's it. I guess they are open a bit longer on Mondays. Interesting though, how different cultures deal with their businesses. Some a bit more laid back it seems. Although Larnaka isn't a bit place, it still seemed easy to get lost. The streets are short and winding. If you wanted to go back to a shop that you had seen a day previously, then you best leave a trail of popcorn or something but it is nearly impossible to find that spot again! I'm sure if you spend a bit more time there though you would become a bit more familiar with the streets. I guess my other problem is that I can't read Greek. Ha! After Larnaka we rented a car to drive over the other side of the Cyprus to Pafos, where some friends are getting married. Pafos is on the west coast of Cyprus so we had to drive from one side of the island to another. At first you would think that would take awhile but it only took about 1 1/2 hours to drive from the east coast to the west coast. Not a big place at all. Cyprus is a very arid place that hardly gets any rain. We're still not entirely sure what the big industries are here, other than tourism of course. There are a few breweries and wineries as well, so obviously there are some sort of agricultural operations. So I'm enjoying this holiday and seeing Europe for the first time. It's been very relaxing so far. In the next few days we're going to check out some of the historical sites around Pafos because there are quite a few around these parts. Also, on Thursday is the wedding on the beach which will be nice to watch as well. Will try to update more later when I come across the Internet again.