Touring the Antiquities

I'm exhausted and a bit burnt from all the sight-seeing. We started our day by visiting the Amathus Archaeological site. It's not far from where we are staying but closer to the waterfront. It boggles the mind how those who lived there so many years ago had running hot water! We think we're so cool with our technology, but we're not.

We then drove along the waterfront to Lady's Mile beach. Some some blokes para-surfing. Like having water ski's and being drawn by a parachute. Then we found the Convent of St Nicolas of the Cats, or "Agios Nikolaos ton gaton". Coming back we drove along the salt lake.

Our next stop was Kolossi Castle, was a medieval castle. Not a particularly big castle compared to what I've seen in other parts of Europe. Then we went to Kourion Archaeological site. There's a small amphitheatre that is still used even today for Shakespeare plays. The view from there was breath-taking.

From there we went to Kourion beach and stopped at a restaurant right on the edge of the water for lunch. After eating, I could not resist walking in the water. Took pictures of the sea and the rolling hills while I was walking in the water.

Then we stopped at the Temple of Appollon Ylatis, another archaeological site. Interestingly enough, most of the sites we visited were on hilltops, from where one could see the Mediterranean sea. It was funny. Both Steve and Samer thought that the Appollon Ylatis was something else. Samer thought it was the Kourion site, and Steve thought it was at the birthplace of Aphrodite. But when I pointed it out along the road, they were both surprised. It was one of the bigger archaeological sites, with nice remains. Loved the circle there. Stood for a few minutes to feel the energies.

Our next stop was "Petra tou Romiou", the birthplace of Aphrodite. Basically a series of 3 large rocks on the waterfront. Steve stopped at a nice Vista point from where we could see the rocks down below, and took a picture of Samer and I with the rock in the background. Then we went down to see the Rocks proper. This particular waterfront is not so much sandy but has tons of 'gallets', round rocks polished from the sea. I could not help myself but had to walk into the water there. Also 5 stones decided that they must come home with me. And I also ended up tying a kleenex on the ribbon tree before leaving there.

We drove to Pafos, to the harbour. Kato Pafos, in the old harbour was another medieval Castle, which we visited. Seemed from the same time frame as the Kolossi castle. Nice view from the top. Perfect lookout to see if enemy is approaching. From there we also visited the Kato Pafos archaeological site. This is a huge site, that includes 4 homes, excavated to show teh ceramic floors. Took lokts of pictures. There was also an amphitheatre, which Steve thought was bigger then the one in Kourion but didnt' seem to be. People were starting to set up for a play, we took pictures of the set too :) We also saw mosaicsm and the ruins of a 13th century castle. We picked up some souvenirs at Kato Pafos for Chris, Michelle and Eliane.

Wedding day in Limassol

It's the morning of the big day. I woke up at 6, 6:30, then finally got up at 7:15AM. I did want originally to get up at 6 to start on my hair, but rarely, I was too tired. I decided to let Samer sleep in while I ate breakfast.

I opened the door to the kitchen and it didn't take more then 5 minutes for Baby to show up for her breakfast. She ate most of it before the other female cat, I nicknamed "Mommy", came around and pushed her out of hte way. She didn't seem to mind so much and just went on her merry way. She's looking less skinny already, but she was full of sticky plant seeds, which I removed most of while petting her. She's quite affectionate and purrs if I pet her.

There's 5-6 children in this village and the school bus, a white volkswagen mini-van, picks them up around 7:15AM for school. The bus driver, a girl of no more then 20 helps them into the vehicule. They come back home at 1:15PM. Before the heat gets oppressive.

It's the Mediterranean, and people tend to stay in during the hottest hours. Only the crazy tourists go about in the midday sun.

The black orchid and tourist shops...

We went around the tourist area and picked up some souvenirs mostly for the women close in our lives and of course for my gay bf. Got him a postcard with a naked guy! After we did that, we took a walk on the waterfront of Limassol. Then we went walking back into the tourist area looking for the Black Orchid flower shop.

Samer remembered a George street.. so we went that way. But apparently it was a George church we should have been looking for. However we walked through the red light district of Limassol it seems. After walking around and not finding place, we called and realized we were in completely wrong area. So we tried walking to the flower shop but gave up at some point, we were both too tired of walking, and took a cab.

We now know the Black Orchid is near the Pizza hut and the Holiday Inn on the road between Amathus and Limassol on the waterfront. The owner, Anthony is pretty nice. He suggested Orchids for my hair, and suggested I go for white rather then pink. Said if was in Pink dress, the flowers should be a different color. He also insisted on making a small bride bouquet, his gift to me. Was made of miniature roses mostly.