This is going to be a big different – I’m using my cell phone for all these pictures instead of a dedicated camera. I’m not sure yet if I like it. I’ll probably compare to previous entries.

Also, I’m posting this a week and a half behind of when we actually went. So I suppose I shall date these at the top for my future reference.

01/13/2024

It’s vacation time! Viagen had a client ask for their pet to be delivered to the middle-east-island of Cyprus. The island was conquered by the Greeks and later owned by the UK. Now it’s owned in the north by Turkey and the south is mostly independent. I haven’t been overseas in a decade and I jumped at the opportunity (to be fair, I don’t think there were a ton of volunteers for this one considering how close it is to Israel and the current conflict). A long flight with an adorable kitten later, JA and I had landed, handed over our precious cargo, and drove 45 minutes from the Larnaca Airport to our hotel in Limassol, the Royal Apollonia. Which was mostly dead due to it being ‘winter’ and therefore out of season for most folks.

JA and I are not what you’d call fancy people. We don’t usually splurge for extras at the hotel. This was a lovely surprise for us when we entered our room. We did sample a couple of the sweets but we were definitely jonesing for some Mediterranean food.

We found a spot that seemed busy and had a decent reputation and ordered their kebaps. Which…were ok, not fanastic, just ok. As we were going to learn, most of the food here was mediocre to just not good. Maybe we just picked the wrong spots (or were given bad recommendations), but nothing really was worth having while we were here. Huge disappointment for a couple of folks who were looking for something better than what we could find at home. Didn’t even come close to the wonderful stuff we could get at Greek Fest.

We made up for the poor food by getting some decent drinks, sitting in fancy chairs, and taking blurry pictures with one of the locals:

There are a LOT of cats on Cyprus. This one was a hotel resident and had on a Seresto collar, which caught me off guard. She was a super sweet kitty. I believe the hotel had two others, older cats, not as friendly. This one is a pretty typical specimen of the ‘Cyprus Cat’, which I think someone is trying to get recognized as an actual breed. Domestic short hair cat, far as I’m concerned.

Worn out by the 16+ hours of travel, we knocked out fairly early, which was fine because we had a lot planned for the next day. One thing we learned before calling it a night is that you cannot flush toliet paper. You need to wipe and then throw it in the garbage/bin. They don’t have the ability to handle it here.

We had the breakfast buffet (courtesy of the client) on our ticket the next morning and we were the only folks in there for at least an hour before other hotel guests starting showing up.

Not a bad view for breakfast.

Once we were done, we got back on the road to Larnaca to check out a famous church built over the supposed tomb of Lazarus (after he died of old age, post-resurrection).

The stonework is very pretty and for what it is, it seems pretty small. I can’t imagine how packed this little square gets during tourist season.

It’s also free to visit. If you can get past the little old ladies asking for donations.

The inside is set out so you can walk around and view most everything easily, but also is clearly a church where regular service happens. These benches were neat, the highest arm rest part is just high enough to reach JA’s armpits. Not sure what the purpose is.

I have no idea what any of that says and there was nothing to translate it. A quick google search shows that last word (Λᾱ́ζᾱρος) is Lazarus, so I’m assuming this box of bones is supposed to be his? Looks like some ribs and the top of a skull.

I’m not sure why Christians display the bones/body parts of their holy people, but I dig the macabre in general. It’s crazy if those are his actual bones – that’s pretty well preserved for 2000+ years.

This alter area is just so opulent. I can’t even imagine the amount of work that would go into something like that.

As hoped for, there is a way (in the church) to go down to the tomb itself. As expected, JA is a little too tall to be comfortable in these spaces.

I’m not. I fit most places just fine (JA’s finger in frame, he’s just that big).

There is a small pipe here with water dripping out of it. This lady was drinking from it as we came down. I don’t know if there is a significant reason to do so (she did make the sign of the cross before) or if it’s just down there for cleaning purposes, but I’m assuming the former. I’m also assuming the signage around probably had a lot of information, but it was all greek.

The tombs! Well. The coffins/sarcophagi I guess. It’s a little underwhelming for the resting place of the guy brought back to life before Jesus.

The fan is for ventilation since we’re currently below ground.

I suppose these were offerings but I’m not sure.

The church itself is really very pretty.

The other entrance! We could have avoided the little old ladies altogether.

The square around the church is a neat little area. Cobblestone streets and little shops. We stopped in one to grab coffee and baklava.

That was really the only thing we had planned to see in Larnaca. On our way out, we passed by an ancient Greek aqueduct. We could have stopped and walked around but it didn’t seem like there was much to see beyond what we could see on the road, so I took some photos while JA drove. The driving pattern here is the same as the UK, by the way, everything on the wrong side.

We also drove by so many orange and lemon trees!

Our next stop was some ruins, the archaeological site of Amathous. It was a small village where supposedly the Greek hero Theseus abandoned a seduced-and-pregnant Ariadne (this is the same Ariadne that helped Theseus kill the Minotaur). Thankfully, the location also had a huge temple to Aphrodite, so maybe it worked out for her?

It was pretty neat to be honest – you pay $3 and get to literally walk right up and even on to the ruins. It seems crazy to be able to just walk on to something built in in the 8th century (BC), but there you have it.

Foundations from the village.

Pretty sure those patch jobs are more recent, but there isn’t any information on it.

This as pretty neat with how intact it is compared to the rest. It was a water reservoir for the temple.

With an aqueduct.

Turning right from the reservoir, towards the temple.

Above the reservoir.

I’m still stunned/slightly appalled/slightly thrilled that we can just walk up to these things.

The majority of the temple.

I think this was the front of the temple? It’s facing the sea, away from the hill, which would make sense.

This is slightly above the temple. A small information block at the entrance to this stated a lot of artifacts were found in this area and are on display in various museums.

This is on the other side of the reservoir.

Another type of aqueduct. A neat ‘pipe’ system.

Given how picked apart this whole site is, I’m surprised this little bit of carved-something is still here. It was the size of my hand.

A view of the village ruins from the temple on our walk back to the entrance. We saw folks hiking on the hill – there was evidence of more ruins back there, but it wasn’t a protected area/place you had to pay to enter. Not sure if it was worth seeing, but we had other plans for the day. We did walk by two really neat trees on our way out.

No idea what this is. But it was neat.

I do know what this is though! It’s an olive tree! Very common out here of course. I love how gnarled they get with age. I’d love to see the 4000+ year old ones in Israel some day, but not sure that’ll ever happen.

One last set of ruins on our way out (Cyprus has a LOT of ruins for how small the island is, but we didn’t make it out to the others). Not sure why this was sectioned off from the rest.

We’re pretty worn out by this point. Jet lag is catching up to us. We drove to the hotel to take a quick break, get something to snack on, and some more water.

This was one of the cleaner/nicer views in Limassol. Maybe they clean everything up when the warmer months/tourist season starts. Limassol is supposed to be the most expensive part of Cyprus and I’m not sure what to take away from that fact. It looked pretty run down overall, lots of expensive shops that were right next door to pawn shops and other businesses that I would associate with poorer places. It was odd, not at all what I pictured based on Cyprus’s reputation. I’m guessing those pretty pictures on the internet are A) heavily edited and B) found only in a handful of spots and made to seem like that’s the view all over. Maybe it’s just not a place to visit in the off season.

Anyway, after resting a bit, we hit the road to our final destination, Kolossi Castle, a very, very well preserved Middle Ages stronghold, for the Knights Templar and other Crusaders. It’s three levels, each spacious, but not the type of castle for living in.

The top two floors were wide open and had lots of windows. On the second floor, there was a preserved fresco/mural – not sure if the whole room was decorated or if just that one part of the wall.

The very top floor had a latrine (aka, a chute on the outside wall that you could pee into).

The bottom floor was divided into 3 sections and was pretty cold in comparison – it was used mostly for storage. It also had access to cisterns.

Each level was connected by a single spiral staircase.

And you could climb all the way up to the roof!

Olive trees AND a castle in their backyard? Ok, I’m jealous.

…that’s a real tall tree.

So, some of us are really lucky to have a tolerant person in their life, who’s willing to indulge their shenanigans. Me, I’m that somebody. I gave JA my phone and asked him to go down to the entrance and help me fulfill a minor fantasy, in which there might be some Monty Python quoting on a castle. There as no one else around (I think) so I felt it was my only opportunity (not sure I could have done this in front of people, I’m a chicken).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2FiNKNNH3Z/?igsh=MzZlYXJwZ3RlMG5y

Post-shenanigans, we went back down to ground level to walk around a bit more.

A really neatly decorated piece of a column? pillar? entry? Who knows.

This part of the castle grounds used to be where they processed/stored sugarcane, which was a large export of this region.

These big roots (thicker than my arms) growing out of the ruins belong to…

…this monster of a tree. So big that it can’t support it’s own branches without help.

That wall is actually another aqueduct.

Pretty neat spot.

JA and I are pretty worn out and ready to call it quits for the day. We have to get up early to catch a flight to our next destination. Overall, while neat to see, I’m not sure I could recommend Cyprus to anyone based on this trip. Again, I’m not sure if maybe the off season is just a bad time to visit or if we’re missing something, but I don’t really feel like there’s any reason for me to come back here. I know we didn’t see everything Cyprus has to offer, but I think we saw enough to suggest that my travel time can be better spent going anywhere else.

We did get some pretty beach views to end the night though: