Our adventure begins full of excitement in an unknown land for both of us. A full week of exploring...
Day 1 (Sunday, 25th March)
We finally landed at 9,30 pm local time (a 4 and a half hour flight from Manchester) and we were greeted by the surprise of being given a totally different car to the one that we had ordered 😅... nevertheless, after a bumby start whilst Ant got himself used to the automatic car, we drove to the Vrachia Hotel where the man behind reception welcomed us with orange juice and also questioned Mercedes on her marital status...
“Is your husband waiting in the car?”
“My future husband, yes” 😃
The room looked nice but we were too distracted by the sound of our rumbling stomachs, we hadn’t eaten since our very rushed lunch in Manchester Airport (when we nearly missed the flight, not!😅). We were so hungry that we drove back again to Coral Bay and we found this pizza place that smelt delicious. It was called “Yummy Yummy", a very accurate name!
On the first morning of our trip we woke up to the sound and the amazing view of the sea. With not even a cloud in the sky we sat outside to eat breakfast in preparation for an exciting day of exploring.
Views from our room
From the hotel
Our first stop has been a small ancient town by the name of Omodos, from wine tasting with friendly locals to sitting in the sun with a couple of tasty milkshakes. The beauty of the narrow cobbled streets has amazed us both and we can’t wait for what’s in store for us when we get back on the road.
Typical houses in Omodos
Main square in Omodos
Mercedes enjoying a healthy banana & soya milkshake
After Omodos, we stopped at the archaeological site of Kourion.
As we are fans of history we had no choice but to visit this site belonging to ancient civilisations that called Cyprus their home thousands of years ago. The points of interest included the remains of a Gladiator House and an ancient Greco-Roman amphitheatre.
Nice views from the archaeological site of Kourion.
After learning some ancient history, we visited the Kolossi castle.
After a mini tour around the site, we decided to sit down for a light snack in the neighbouring cafe. We had a race to see who could ruin their pants first, Ant dropping chocolate from his icecream and me spilling bacon grease all over my nice clean white jeans.
Then we drove onto the next stop called Limassol. Upon arriving to our accommodation, the look of the building and the hallways made us feel a bit anxious but after opening our apartment door, a wave of relief washed over us as we realised the apartment was perfect for us: stylish, clean and a huge terrace all to ourselves.
Our amazing aparment in Malibu Court
For dinner, we found an amazing seafood restaurant just around the corner called Ocean Basket.
The atmosphere, according to Mrs Maria, had a Spanish feel to it with a terrace packed with locals who knew where to find the best seafood in the area. We ordered this wonderful platter full of gambas, mejillones, calamares fritos y lenguaditos. Nada que envidiar a los andaluces.
Day 3 ( Tuesday, 27th March)
We started the day off with a fruity breakfast on the large terrace in the sun. We had pears, apples, bananas and bread that was given to us from a local woman in Omodos. We got ready to meet Anthi,a friend of mine thru the phone,who gave us the warmest welcome to the island with advice on what to see in Limassol and three huge bags of Cypriot food for me, Ant and my headmaster Jose. She was full of beans and even offered to let us stay in her house and use her car the next time we visited the island. At this point we started to realise how warm and welcoming the people of Cyprus are.We drove to the Marina to have a walk to the old pier and after daydreaming on a bench for a while we decided to have a couple of drinks in a place that Anthi recommended called Pier 1.
We ordered calamari in mushroom sauce with nuts and this amazing fresh passion fruit juice as we looked on to the never ending sea over the pier.
Walking around the Old Port in Limassol.
After a mooch around Limassol (and buying Mercedes a new pair of pants) we set off to our next destination, a small village by the name of Lefkara which is famous for its lace. Upon arriving we were greeted by a local who spoke to us about the town, where to visit, his time living in Manchester and also his previous brief visits to my hometown Warrington (small world eh!).
We took a stroll through the narrow cobbled streets of the village which served as a little reminder of our time in Omodos, but with a slightly different atmosphere, it was slightly darker and more deserted but just as beautiful, especially when we arrived to the white church looking over the hillside. We were also accompanied by the delicious sandwiches prepared using the food that Anthi had given to us que rico!
Back on the road again for the final time of the day, we were on route to Lanarca to stay in one of our posh hotels, The Ciao Stelio Deluxe. Waiting for us behind reception was a very handsome man that Mer couldn't resist falling in love and flirting with as we checked in… "excuse me sir…". After Mer's 5 minute holiday romance we carried our luggage (and all our shopping bags thanks Anthi!) to the room, only to discover that we had accidentally booked a room with 2 single beds! With no other rooms available at that time, Ant couldn't resist re-arranging the whole room and pushing the two beds together.
After a freshen up, yet again we listened to the grumble of our stomachs and decided to have a stroll up the road in search of some food. We stumbled upon a nice traditional greek restaurant where we looked after, we ate a mixture of sea food, salmon and moussaka, and also enjoyed a few more conversations in our secret 'spanish' code.
Day 4 ( Wednesday, 28th March)
Wednesday was started off with a very piji breakfast looking on to the Lanarca shoreline. We were sat amongst some of the busiest businessmen in Cyprus and whilst they were preparing themselves for important meetings all day, we were plotting the next leg of our adventure… the visit to the northern city of Nicossia.
Upon our approach, we noticed that there was more hustle and bustle to this place with the traditional 2 lane motorway split into 3 lanes, traffic appearing from nowhere and the skyscrapers! Nicossia is partly situated over the Turkish/Greek border on the island, which was evident as Mer saw many similarities to her time spent in Turkey over the years!
After a stroll around the old town and a couple of fruit smoothies, we returned to the car for the final long drive of the trip, Nicossia to Paphos, from one side of the island all the way to the other!
100minutes of driving later (que lejos!😅), we arrived at our last hotel, the piji piji Leanardo's in the tourist part of Paphos. We have to admit, when we saw the hotel from a distance we were filled with doubt about how nice it was, but all that quickly changed when we saw the impressive hotel lobby and a polite old man took our luggage from us in exchange to 2 glasses of champagne.
It was obvious that the hotel mainly hosted English, Russians and Germans, and even more so when the young receptionist was happily surprised to see Mercedes' spanish passport !
It didn't take us long to get ourselves used to the piji life again, after grabbing a snack, settling into our room (and our dressing gowns😆) we were not going to allow the rain and grey skies affect our piji time so we decided to take a dip into the indoor pool and jacuzzi. The perfect way to relax the body after a few days of (bootcamp) exploring!😄.
Then it was time to get ready for our posh evening meal downstairs in the hotel lobby, where we even had to wait to be seated first! With our stomachs full of all different types of cuisine that the restaurant offered (including asian, surf N turf and italian) we sat ourselves down in the main lobby with a couple of cocktails and enjoyed watching a piano jazz band.
Day 5 ( Thursday, 29th March)
Our last morning of piji life started with a luxury breakfast, a stroll around the hotel pool area and also with Ant being close to tears about the fact that we had to leave! We sat a couple of comfy rotating chairs and as the sun briefly showed its face we felt like having a mid morning siesta! But we had more important things to do, like pack our things and begin exploring Paphos.
Our first stop was the archeological remains of the Panagia Chrysopolitissa Church, where we witnessed a modern day church mass in service. We then visited a medieval castle on the lively shoreline. Suddenly, whilst standing on top of the castle, we realised a storm was brewing with grey skies, crashing waves and then thunder and lightning! The tour of the castle was cut short , but instead we found a tasty seafood restaurant nearby along the harbour and treated ourselves to some amazing desserts.
Having eaten too much chocolate we retreated back to the car just in time before the heavens opened, the only option was to recline the car seats and have a tactical siesta before setting off to the airport, jo!
Upon arriving to the airport we reluctantly returned the keys of our loyal, trustworthy car to Europcar and our amazing adventure was officially over.
The first completed chapter in our never ending book.
