Cyprus December 2001

Fun Bus - One of the excusions we went on was called "The Fun Bus". It was an old '50's Bedford city bus - if you can really call it that. It was a bus to take the locals from town to town, or up to the hills to tend their goats. This poor bus should have been retired around 1955 at the latest. But, a little tape, some paint, and air in the tires, and I'm sure that it will be around for another 50 years. Actually, it was one of many still on the roads. Our bus driver was Paul Dundee. He was actually in the band "Men At Work". His story is that he wrote "Down Under" but broke up with the band just before they made their millions. He's still a little bitter about not receiving any of the royalties from that album. The following pics are from that trip.

Adonis Falls - This is where Adonis had his baths before meeting with his married lover. One day, his lover's husband found out about the affair, and a curse was put upon him. One day when he went to the waterfall for his bath, he slipped at the top, hit his head, and fell to his death. The Cypriots have made more of a soap opera of their gods. They definately have more fun than the rest of the gods.

Just above the trees (top centre) is where Adonis was said to have hit his head. Quite a long fall, really.

Whoops - there's me spoiling the shot.

On our trip back from Adonis Falls, we had problems with the roads. A week before we arrived, Cyprus had major storms, and part of the road was washed out. We had to hoof it up the road, so I decided to take a quick snap of the country side. During the winter, the temp was between 10-20degC, and during the summer it gets around above 40. Most of the locals go away for the summer to escape the heat.

Oh man. We stopped for lunch, and had way too much vino. The local brew (can't remember the name - it's about $3 per gallon) tasted quite good, but had a wicked backkick. As a result we were conned into performing a stupid dance. Temporary insanity really. The bald guy becide me was an interesting Irish bloke. For part of lunch he performed his "Dorf" impersonations.

Just behind the bus was this beautiful beach that we stopped at. We probably had about two hours just to run around, throw rocks at the sea, and generally have a good time.

This is the side of the world famous Cyprus Art School. When the class graduates, each student donates something to the wall. We were not sure if these were gag tokens that were left, or if these were actual works of art. Maybe that's why they haven't been stolen yet.

We had a stop at the reptile refuge. The owner is a world famous German researcher. He has found out that snakes are actually affecinate towards their young. At the refuge they have about 20 different types of local snakes, both poisonus and non-poisonus.

They also have quite a few lizzard habitats. Unfortunately the lizzards are both quick, and small. If you look closely, you can see a couple on the rocks and a couple in the grass.

Another lizzard habitat. They are hiding in the grass. There's one on the bottom left, but you have to hunt for him. Kind of like "Where's Waldo", but without the red and white stripes.

Pathos - We wondered around the ruins in Pathos. We saw 2500 year old mosaics, the world's oldest odeon, ruins and tombs.

This is the worlds first odeon theatre. It seats over 2000 people, but they aren't sure if there were more teirs or not. They believe that they had shows and plays over 2000 years ago. This was in the middle of a complex, which had other buildings attached. Kinda like the mini-mall.

The following 6 mosaics were on the floors of houses. They are not sure if nobility owned these, however, looking at the detail, they must have cost quite a bit.

This mosaic is believed to be a family crest.

This mosaic displays the different family members.

Here's Kim admiring the mosaics. You can see that in this musuem park, they have built a building around the mosaics, however, most are in the open.

Outside the mosaics were acres of ruins. It was amazing - some had been unearthed, some were just open, and there was a ton that hadn't even been explored. They even had running water 2000 years ago.

The next three pictures are from "The Tomb Of The Kings". There was no actual kings that lived here - that's just their name. They are still excavating other caves, and still haven't unearthed several. This one was truely amazing. It was bigger than most flats, and had a great view. It just needs a little stucco, some paint, and it could be rented out for the summer. Plus, it's on a beautiful hill, over looking the ocean. Those people really knew how to build them.

On the left was the main living room, and off to the right was the mother-in-law suite. 2000 years later, and you can still smell the cooking goat.

This cave house was truely amazing. You could have an entire family leaving in this one. It would take forever to dig this with just a shovel and pick axe. Thank goodness they had powertools!!

Nicosia - One of our day trips was to Nicosia. I believe that it is the last of the divided cities - the north is owned by Turkey, and the south by Cyprus. It was a really weird experience, and it was the first time that I have ever seen UN tanks and patrolls. Sure, I've seen machine guns and people with heavy equipment, but that was only in LA and Chicago. Nicosia is located pretty much in the middle of the island, in a hilly area. The current city was built on an old fort, and the old walls are still around today.

This is a statue of the Archbishop. He was the first president of Cyprus, but was much shorter than his statue. His body is burried in a guarded shrine in the mountains, close to Mount Olympus.

Here is Kim showing us the gate to the church. And what a lovely day it was.

Here, Kim is showing us the back of the church. The building on the left is a religious museum, and behind Kim is the end of the church.

This was the church where the Archbishop used to serve. He was Archbishop and president at the same time.

Below is an arial shot of Nicosia. You can see the green dots thru the city, starting in the lower left, then moving diagonally to the top right. The north of the city is less developed than the south. The south also has a lot more tourists, and is continuting to be developed.

To the East, you notice that there are high rises springing up, and generally more wealth than to the north. This is in the Cypriot side of the city.

In the distance, you can see the north part of Nicosia. There is a no-mans land of several blocks, where the buildings have been decorated by bullet holes. There are plenty of signs warning you not to take pictures (we obeyed the signs, but there were a lot of American's that weren't. At the border just down the street was a UN outpost with sandbags and the whole 9 yards. This was totally out of character of the city, as if you handn't gone there, you would never have known what was really going on.

This is looking west. Just past the trees is the north section of Nicosia. You notice that before the trees, is quite a bit of development, and in the top right, they are smaller buildings. There just isn't much money going into the top part of the city.

This is the map of old Nicosia. There 11 heart shaped turrets in the walls, and the walls are about 30 feet high. The wall is still there, although the modern city has expanded well past them, and the walls only show the history. There was also a river going around and thru the city, for extra protection, and as a source of water. All cities should have a moat.

Lefkara - One of our day trips included several monastaries, mountains, hills and of course Lefkara. Lefkara is where the women of the town create masterpieces in lace. The village is so famous, that several famous designs are on their pound notes. We purchased several examples of their lace doilies and a table cloth as well.

The church has a beautiful mosaic, which I am blocking part of your view. They also have two taps for water, which are clean and safe to drink. Very nice of the locals, don't you think?

Off in the distance is the upper section of Lefkara. In this section is where most of the richer families live and socialize.

This shot is looking north, more at the landscape, hills, and farms, rather than the town itself. And, no, there's no gold in them hills.

This shot is a little off the beaten track. In the middle of the picture is where most of the tour busses stop, to let the tourists off to buy the lace. It was quite a cottage industry. Prices were reasonable, however, we also found the same lace at the airport shops, for just a little more. Oh well, the village was very interesting, and it was fun to meet the locals.

Hotel - Now, after all these pictures, you are probably asking "Now, where did they stay?" We stayed at the "Cynthania Hotel", on it's own little mini pensunila, looking south upon the Mediterrian. It was rough. All you could eat buffets, a ocean view, and our room was on the third floor, so there was all those stairs. And our room's patio - it had two rubbermaid chairs (which I accidentally broke one on New Years) and a table. It was such a beautiful setting to sip wine and cool off after a long, busy day.

The next two pictures are looking toward Coral Bay. It was about 5 miles away, and on Christmas, Kim and I walked there. At Coral Bay are some nice beaches, and little shops and restaurants. It was just a nice leisurely day. This picture is looking west.

This is looking south towards Egypt. If you zoom this picture, you can see the Great Pyramids of Goyza. Just on the right is part of Coral Bay. I should have joined these three picture together, or just get one of those panaromic cameras. It was weird to get to sleep the first night - there was quite a few rocks at the beach infront of our window, and I have never slept by the sea. When we got home, I sort of missed the sound of the ocean. I will have to buy one of those whale / ocean tapes now.

Monistary - One of our day trips took us out to a monistary towards Mt. Olympus. They had a very sacrid painting of the Virgin and Child. The story about how this little monastory acquired the painting goes something like this: There was a King who was walking through the woods and he was somehow separated from his guards. After a day he was hopelessly lost, and he found a praying old man. He asked the man how to get out of the woods and the man ignored the King and continued praying. This made the King quite irate, so the King got a twig and started hitting the praying man. The man didn't flinch (ok, maybe a little) and continued praying. The King eventually got bored of this, and continued searching for a way out of the forest. A little while later, the King found his way out, and back to his kingdom. About a week later, the King got really sick. On his deathbed, he was praying to God, asking why he had been struck down with an illness, when he had been such a wonderful King. Then he remembered beating this old man. He then called his guards to find this old man. Several days later his guards found the old man, and the King said he was sorry for beating him. The old man then spent several days praying and praying for the King to get better, and (as if this wasn't a good enough story) the King suddenly recovered. The King was very greatful, and asked the man what he could offer in return. The man thought about it, and asked for this very sacrid painting in the Holy Land. The King sent off several messengers to fetch the painting, but it was a prize possession of another King, and he wasn't going to give it away. Then the King found out that the other King's daughter was in very bad health, so the old praying man was sent to see if he could pray for the daughter. Well, the old man prayed and prayed, and a week later of dilligent praying, the daughter was cured. The second King (from the far away land) asked what he could give to the old man, and he requested the mosaic of the Virgin and Child. The second King was so touched that he cured his daughter, that he gave his prize possession to the old man. The painting is now in this church. Now, after reading all of this, you would like to no doubt like to see this painting. Well, you can't. First of all you can't take pictures inside of the church - that's a pretty common rule. Second, they now have a blanket over the painting. The rumour was that if you looked upon this symbol of God and you weren't holy enough, then your eyes would burn, and you would turn to stone. The weird thing about this, is the blanket was only placed over the picture about 100-200 years ago. So how come people were more holy then they are today? Now after all of this long story, you are probably thinking that you read all of this for nothing. Well, this painting is supposed to be painted of the Virgin and Child. Not a replica, but the painter was actually infront of Mary and Jesus. Hey, that's the story. Since Mary and the child were so holy, the painter couldn't look at them, and had to look at their reflection in the river and paint them that way. There's a little bit of 2000 year old history for you. This is also a very rich Monistary. In the olden days, if you couldn't afford your taxes, the government could take your property. If you couldn't pay, you could give all your possessions to the church. This made the church very rich. I am not sure why the church didn't just give back the land to the people. I guess they had their reasons.

Up on the hill, is where a lot of the bells are kept. I could let you in on a little secret - instead of the poor monks having to run up the hill every time someone wanted to ring a bell, it is now mechanical - yes, it's all just a bunch of wires and pulleys. Sorry about that. You may notice on steeple on the right, is another bell. I'm sure that this one is rung the old fashion way - I'm sure this is where Quazi Motto learned his trade.

This mosaic was up on the hill a little distance from where the Archbishop / President was burried. If you look closely, you will notice that this was created with little tiles. Each bit or color change is a different tile. The bigest tiles that they use are no bigger than a square cm (or less than half a square inch). This is also where I made my $200 zoom lens into a little more than a paperweight. Always remember that when you pack your zoom lens in your jacket, to take out your zoom lens before taking out the jacket. Any offers on a 80-200 zoom lens? I'll even pay for the shipping!

This was a very beautiful mosaic. The interesting part was we have Mary on her death bed, and in the back we have adult Jesus holding baby Jesus. You will also notice that Mary, adult Jesus and baby Jesus all have yellow halos. This is the holliest of halo's. There's also other people that have white halo's, but they're not as important.

These are several more great examples of the differnt mosaics. The gold that they use is really bright and totally light up the picture. Some of the larger mosaics were 12" by 10".

A closeup of Mary and Child. I am not sure, but they always call this type of mosaic "Mary and Child" instead of "Mary and Jesus". I am not sure. I didn't want to ask. They are a little obsessed about their religion, and you dare not say anything bad about the church. It is worse than a shrine.

This was taken from the balcony at the restaurant. What a great view. Those monks really knew a good piece of real estate. Problem is getting a decent fish supper. It was a 3 week pony ride up the side of the hill. And, by then, the fish was no more than expensive fertilizer!

Well, what's worse than getting your finger in the picture? Well, having a missfiring shutter. My thoughts for including this picture was that if I was going to pay £0.50 to get it developed, then I am going to make you download it. Anyway, you can see the top of the monistary. One thing this picture does show, is that they have mosaics everywhere. Notice them on the top left above the arch. Also, nice roofs.

Mt. Olympus - By reading the title, you already know the answer to the question... The question is: What is the most famous mountain in Cyprus? I always thought it was in Greece. See what happened to the school system? 17 years of learning, and I didn't even know where the gods live.

After the gods moved house from Mt. Olympus, the government decided to build a radar tower ontop it, and then the skiiers also decided to build a ski hill. I wanted to take a hike up the hill, but I was told that I would probably get shot for entering a military zone. The government doesn't like tourists as much as in the village. Of course I could always show them my CDN flag sewn on my backpack. That's always defused many a hostile issue.

It was actually snowing when we went by Mt. Olympus. I think it snowed just for the tourists. I also didn't know that there would be skiing up there. You always think of Cyprus as a totally tropical island, but in the hills it gets quite nippy in the winter. We tried to go skiing as we had a couple of spare days, however, it is really hard to get to, and there was no bus trips just for skiing. Oh well, we will have to go back to Whistler to do our skiing.

No, this isn't Venus' winter home, but a closer picture of the radar tower. I wasn't really allowed to take this picture (top secret you know) but the camera accidentially clicked and the picture was taken. Sure, I had to spend 3 days in army detention, but the picture was worth it. I didn't crack until they plyed my with the Monk wine... mmm...

This is a better picture of the ski hill. The ski hill was actually quite steep at this point, but not very long. There was also a bunny hill off the other side.

This mountain was opposite from Mt. Olympus. I am not sure it's exact name, but on the top was a large military antenna as well. Or, a space ship. Either way, it was big and red.

There was a 20 (or so) seater church, that was on the top of a mountain. The builder was working in the mountains, and God told him to build a church. So, he found the best spot for miles, and placed Gods church on the top of a mountain. He also added a white 80 foot cross at the top of the hill. We travelled for about 4 hours zig zagging around the moutains and just when we thought we had passed thru another mountain range, we would look out, and there would be the church. It was really freaky.

And, with that, that is the end of our Cyprus tour. I hope you have enjoyed it.