terribly sorry about the lag in posts. the one computer with a dial up connection at our place of residence is coin operated and usless piece of piddle. it's eaten up my money and frozen on several occasions, sometimes on its own accord typing a single letter over and over and over again until my time runs out.
i've found a lovely internet cafe in town and am drinking illy espresso while i type. sure beats the the nescafe espresso i've been plagued with.
aaaah, coastal bliss. after a week of fun in nicosia, the capitol city, we are now residing in a small flat in ayia marina, on the north west coast. we are near a lovely village called polis, where i sit now. i don't have much time and i don't know when i'll make it to this internet cafe again, so i will attempt to give you a synopsis of the days.
week one/nicosia, cyprus:
we stayed in a fine hotel called "the classic" within the venetian walls of the old city. a lot of time was spent walking up and down ledra street -- a sort of pedestrian mall with the likes of starbucks, mcdonalds, traditional tavernas, shoe stores, and the green line dividing the cypriots and the turks.
while in nicosia i visited a few museums:
1) the cyprus museum, a house full of archeological wonders which i mentioned in a previous post.
2) the handicraft museum, the byzantine icon museum and the modern art museum all within the archbishop's palace. while there a minor hurricane hit and tashi and i sat on a covered balcony watching the rain travel in horizontal slabs as the palm trees bent and swayed. the paved grounds all around the archbishopric filled with about eight inches of water and we had to wade out. the streets were flooded, angry cypriot drivers in a bottle neck were cursing each other, and then we witnessed a collison. a fine day of art and weather.
3) the state gallery of contemporary cypriot art. it was my first time visiting this awesome neo-classical house full of incredible art work. i loved it. i wish i could include some pictures here, but i don't have time. some of my favorite artists were constantinos yiannicouris, adamantios diamantis, andreas-antis ioannides, telemachos kanthos, john corbidge (he made a painting of me when i was about three), angelos makrides, christophoros savva. to name a few. now repeat those all with your eyes closed.
and of course there was family, family, family in cyprus, my godmother, and my childhood friend olga. i had souvlaki five nights in a row.
last thursday my mother, my aunt tina, tashi and i departed from nicosia in our rental car. we drove through a clay pot making village, kornos, and chatted with the old ladies forming the thick red pots. we drove through lefkara, the lace making village, but a storm hit and it was too rainy to get out and enjoy the sights. then we went to apollo's temple perched above the sea, followed by kourion, an ancient amphitheater and archeological site also perched above the sea. we looked at mosaics and ruins and pillars and then went down to a beach where tashi and i splashed around in some big waves. and then onward to ayia marina, our home until our departure at the end of july.
our first day in this area was spent swimming in strong waves, driving as far east along the northern coast as permissible before hitting the cypriot/turk partition, and eating awesome fresh fish and calamari.
the next day was spent hiking into a breezy gorge, swimming in a rocky cove, and driving on twisty dirt roads through abandoned crumbling villages. we saw loads of goats of all shapes, sizes and colors, some with straight horns, some with curly horns, some with beards, many with spots. they were perched on rocky cliff sides, standing on old tin cans eating the leaves off of tree branches, crowding the road in front of the car, lolling about in the shade. crumbling stone structures, or small caves built into the cliffs, cropped up here and there where the sheep herders sleep. tashi and i fed grass to donkeys and watched partridges scoot along the road.
a bit of flora and fauna includes bright violet bouganvilla, white and pink oleander, aromatic jasmine, gardenia and geranium, purple thistles, luscious grape vines, olive, carob, juniper, cedar, eucalyptus. . .
today my mother and aunt tina are going to drop tashi and i off at the hippy beach by the campground. we discovered it last night, a clean, sandy, shallow, calm stretch with umbrellas and lounge chairs along a fragrant stand of eucalyptus. you can view the the akamis penninsula to the west and the pomos pennisula to the east. most of the beaches so far have been rough with deep drop offs which is difficult for tashi, but this one is perfect. and because it is close to a campground, i call it the hippy beach! it is clean with a snack bar and we are going to have a relaxing day while my mom and aunt visit monasteries in the mountains.
ciao, for now!
