We’re home safe and sound after 11 days of travel, fun, exploration and experience.  After a year and a half of planning, we finally were able to say ‘hello’….and in what felt like an instant, we had to say ‘goodbye’.  Here are some random thoughts about the trip:

1. Cyprus was a very interesting place…not really at all what I expected.  But, I really enjoyed these every day:

2. I appreciate some of the creature comforts of home that you may not think much about…like hot water and the ability to flush your toilet paper IN the toilet.

3. I am VERY uncomfortable driving on the opposite side of the road AND the opposite side of the car from what I’m used to.  I won’t miss these or the reckless Cypriot driving:

4. Cypriot people are VERY welcoming and always want to feed you.  It’s a good thing I love, love, LOVE Greek food (I ate a lot…and I mean a LOT)!

5. The months and months of planning was well worth it.  We covered just about everything we wanted to see in a short amount of time….even with an array of ages and limitations in the group.

6. Keith, Dad and Alex really tried hard to experience ALL of the Ouzo they could:

7. Cyprus looks a heck of a lot like Lancaster in Southern CA…where I spent my teen years.  Not my favorite landscape, honestly.  The only saving grace was the very blue Mediterranean surrounding the Island.

8. Cyprus is not only where my family is from, but now it’s where my son asked his bride to be to marry him.  The island will hold a special place in my heart…always.

9.  Searching in Amsterdam for Dutch chocolate in the rain…without a proper map will NEVER happen again.  At least I got a little taste of it…oh and this Belgium chocolate (which was just okay):

10.  I really enjoyed my time with the family…even with me suffering with a cold the ENTIRE trip.  Every time I look at the gorgeous lace I brought home…I will always remember the fun we had:

Thanks for following my blog.  As always, I had fun writing it and sharing it with you.

Until the next adventure….

After a really good night’s sleep, I woke up to darkness.  This isn’t unusual for me because it’s dark at home first thing in the morning.  I looked at the time and realized it was 5:30am.  That is crazy early, but we all have planes to catch, so we need to get moving.  It was quiet on the streets at this hour, but we had a lovely view from our room:

We took turns taking a quick shower (gotta enjoy that hot water!), then packed up the final items in our bags.  Here’s Alex trying to get Brit moving:

This is a view of our room.  It was really good for the short stay we had.  Breakfast was being served downstairs, so we all headed down for some.  There was an array of food to choose from, breads, cheeses, meats, cereals, fruits, fresh juices, coffee, tea, etc.  It was all VERY good and totally worth the 5.90 Euro!  Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to our hotel and head off to the airport.  If you’re ever in Amsterdam, and want a decent place to stay for a day or two…check this one out:

We walked next door to the train station and found our platform to Schipol Airport.  It seems like not everyone is truly awake yet:

Oh never mind….that’s how they always act..like nerds.  🙂

Here comes the train…time to get on:

It only takes about 10-ish minutes to get to Schipol…not bad really.  Here’s Mom, Dad & Thea hanging out on the train:

We arrived at Schipol Airport Train Station…where everyone was gathering up their belongings, ready to check in for our flights:

It was a mad house once we got over to the check in area.  I felt bad for the ticket desk team….they really have a hard job.  After standing in the long lines, everyone finally got through and figured out which gate they needed to go to.  We had to go to the ‘D’ wing while everyone else had to go to the ‘E’ wing.  After 11 days together, we said our goodbye’s and headed for our gates.  Time to prep for our 10 + hour flights (Thea’s flight was only 6 hours, I think).  I knew our flight would be full by how many people were in the area.  Here we are just before going through security (which is at each gate):

Then we boarded the plane.  There was a slight delay of getting off the ground, but we were cleared for takeoff and headed home.  Keith’s drink of choice this flight was this:

He was quite happy.  I binge watched Downton Abbey Season 3 while Keith played on the iPad. Overall it was a smooth flight and although we left Amsterdam a little late, we arrived home on time and in sunshine!  Neither of us slept the entire flight, so it’s going to be a challenge staying awake all day…but I can do it!  That’s the only way to get back on our time zone.  Zzzzzz

We got up very early so we could finalize everything at the condo with our host…then headed off to the airport for our flight.  Thankfully, it was only a 3-ish hour flight to Amsterdam because I was itchin’ to get some of that Dutch chocolate I mapped out.  We left Cyprus where it was 80+* and flew in to Schipol Airport were it was pouring down rain, maybe 50* and about 30 mph wind!  Good thing I told everyone to dress in layers…and warmly!  We landed after a good 20 minutes of circling in the air due to delays in landings on the ground, got off the plane and headed to the train station within the airport.  We got everyone loaded up and rode 15 minutes to our stop. Once there, it was hard to see where our hotel was (even though it was supposed to be right next to the train station), so Keith and I told the group to stay put in the warm while we went out to find it.  Sure enough, it was just a little ways down the sidewalk, but far enough that we had to fight the elements.  Brrr!     We got checked in and I was quite impressed for the price we paid.  The staff were very nice, our rooms were right next door to each other, and the beds were quite comfortable.  I like it!

Now it was decision time…did we want to brave the elements to go to the city center, or stay at the hotel.  Alex & Brittany really wanted to see it and I was wanting chocolate, so the 3 of us headed out.  As soon as we got out of Centraal Station, I made sure they both took the time to look around at the architecture and take it all in.  Brittany’s response was, ‘It looks like Harry Potter land!’  🙂

The map I made up for all of the chocolate shops were useless because what I had to do was take a picture of it really quick so we could get there before they closed.  What I didn’t realize at the time was there were no street names on my map…nor the chocolate shop’s name!  We walked around blindly, hoping to come across one.  We asked 3 different people and no one seemed to know of any chocolate shops except for one….Leonidas….which I can actually get here at home (one of the 2 chocolate shops from Belgium in the USA).  I bought some chocolate for the family there, and kept trying to find the other shops I wanted to find….to no avail.  I gave up after wandering the streets for over an hour so we concentrated on things Alex & Brit wanted to do.  We were limited on time, and cold…and wet.  But exploring the city was nice with them.  This type of city was nothing they had ever seen and really were in awe by it all.

Here is Alex and Brittany in the town square.  They bought hats to help keep warm with ‘AMSTERDAM’ emblazoned on the front.  Totally looked like tourists!  But they were definitely warm.

Here is one quick pic of us in the pouring rain in the town square. From here we were heading back towards Centraal Station.  I wanted to find a shop that had some hot tea, but we couldn’t find one.  We did find some Dutch Frites (fries) and got some of those.  Mmmm!  Then, I had one last ditch effort and found a candy shop that had all kinds of candy.  They did have a couple of brands of actual Dutch chocolate, so I settled and bought some of that.  It was actually good!  Finally got to Centraal Station:

We got on our train and headed back to the hotel:

We were packed in there, but it was only a 5 minute train ride, so not bad.  After all of that exploring, we were tired, so we cleaned up and went to bed.  Tomorrow is a long travel day for us all.

We only have 1 more day to take in this country.  On the schedule, I decided a light day of packing, cleaning and maybe venture into Larnaca would be the best choice…which actually worked out well.  Everyone spent the morning trying to figure out where everything was going to fit in the suitcases.  This was the last opportunity to go to the beach, so I took Alex and Brittany over to enjoy one last dip in the Mediterranean…here was my view:

Not bad, right?  They swam for a while, then decided to search for pretty rocks:

They found some pretty ones…and actually gathered quite a bunch:

As we said goodbye to the sea, we went home, took showers and got ready to go to dinner.  Everyone was hungry so we headed in to Larnaca to see what they had to offer.  There were many choices…anything you wanted really…so what did we choose?  More Greek food of course!:

The restaurants are lined up all along the sea boardwalk, so we were hoping it would be good.  Here we are having a little fun:

Then our food arrived.  Mmmm!!  It was just as good as it looks:

Yum!  We finished up our dinner, then needed to walk a little.  We came across this gorgeous church…a couple were actually getting married, though I chose not to take pictures of them:

We left Mom, Dad & Thea at a cafe near here while we went to find this tattoo shop Alex was hoping to go to.  It was down the street, so we get there and  talked to the owner of the shop.  Alex & Brit wanted to get a tattoo each that represented their engagement:

Brit was up first and got it on the side of her foot.  It was the wording ‘Petra tou Romiou’…the place Alex proposed.  That didn’t take long at all.  Alex was up next:

He already had something drawn up for his, so the tattoo artist had something to go by.  It was a simple design and turned out how Alex envisioned:

Brittany’s wording is exactly the same as what you see on Alex’s arm.  It was sweet.  We met back up with the rest of the group and then proceeded to wander the streets for a long time trying to find where we parked the van!:

Seriously…we walked for at least an hour!  Thankfully, we finally found it and headed home.  Time to get some sleep.  Tomorrow starts a long travel day!

For our last full day of exploring, we went back to Limassol to explore the city, meet up with some more cousins, and go to the beach.  This time, the GPS actually knew where we were supposed to end up, though that didn’t deter me from having to turn around at some point.  There hasn’t been a day on this vacation that I didn’t have to turn the van around!  Anyway, we ate a light breakfast (we’ve learned our lesson!) and headed off.  We arrived at Loretta & Lucky’s home within 45 minutes…though he had to guide me to a parking spot because the streets were SO narrow.  As I walked in to their home, they had the CUTEST puppy in the back.  I was so busy playing with him, I totally forgot to take a picture…but trust me, he was so cute!  Within 5 minutes of sitting down, Loretta was bringing out breads, cheeses, fruit, Greek coffee, etc. and oh boy was it good.  Shortly after, cousin Ellue came in and everyone spent time catching up.  Pictures came out and although some were ones I’ve seen, others were brand new to me:

I mean…this is a picture of my Yiayia and her siblings…I’ve NEVER seen Yiayia looking like this.  I bet she’s maybe 16 here.  She is in back row on the right side.  This is more like what I know her looking like:

Yiayia is back row, 2nd from right (next to my Papou).  She pretty much looked like that her entire life.  Now, interestingly enough, back row, left side is my Mom, then next to her is my Thea Cynthia.  Sitting on the bench from L to R is Thea Fay and Thea Connie.  Awww!  Everyone had a nice visit with cousin Loretta, her husband Lucky & cousin Ellue:

L to R: Mom, Loretta, Ellue & Thea Connie

From here, it was time to hit the beach for a while.  Loretta is about 4 blocks from the beach, so it was quite convenient.  The water was warm and blue, blue, blue!

Alex trying to get me in the water:

Alex & Brittany trying to catch the fish that were swimming all around them:

After playing in the water for a while, we decided to go to the old downtown area and explore the shops a little.  Alex & Brit wanted to stay at the beach for a bit and would walk down later so Mom & Thea went to a cafe to sit a while, while Dad, Keith and I explored Limassol Castle:

Originally built in the 9th or 10th century, it was used as the venue for Richard the Lionheart’s wedding to Princess Berengaria in 1191.  The Turks later rebuilt the castle as a prison and during WWII, it was used as British Army Headquarters.  It was beautiful inside:

And as always, there are interesting things, and funny things:

After the Castle, we caught up with Alex & Brit, found Mom & Thea, then shopped in town a while.  Everyone finished up the shopping they had to do, then we found a nice place to eat:

They had great food!:

I had to be quick when taking pictures of the food.  We were all so hungry, and grabbed it before I could snap a shot.  I mean…look at this lonely stick of souvlaki!  We headed home for the evening to get some rest.  Next up…packing, and our adventures in Larnaca….more soon…

It’s now Day 7 of our trip and so far we’ve seen and done a lot.  We have to maximize the time we have left here…so these next couple of days are going to be a mix of seeing family, sights and the beach.  Gotta fit it all in, right?  Today, we are going to meet up with my Yiayia’s Goddaughter Marina.  First, we wanted to see a few sights….so first up was the Sanctuary of Apollo Ylatis.  This is the ruins of a 7th Century BC shrine to the sun-god Apollo as well as areas marked clearly for dormitories for Pilgrims traveling through, ancient baths, a portico, gymnasium, gardens, etc. There was much to explore, so let’s get down to some pictures:

There was much to see here.  Mom did a great job of maneuvering around all of the rocks and steps with her back.  Dad found a ‘throne’ to sit on with ‘his queen’:

And Alex found a small cave to explore:

From inside, this is what you see:

We could only guess what the area was used for.  As we walked around, we were all amazed that this place was in such great shape for being built 25 centuries ago!:

And yet, we can’t even get a bridge built in America!  Alex was in rare form today:

Yup…that’s MY kid.  Anyway….we started down the ‘forbidden road’ to Apollo’s temple:

And apparently, Keith was in rare form too:

The columns were a re-creation built in the 1980’s to give an idea of what the entire structure would have looked like:

The rest was the real deal:

From here, there are 2 ‘roads’ that originally led to Paphos to the west and Kolossi Castle to the east.  We saw Paphos earlier this week, so our next stop was the Castle.  Mom, Dad & Thea were tired, so they stayed at the cafe close by while the rest of us went to explore the Castle:

This was a well kept castle smack dab in the fertile valley…it was originally built in 1210 AD and used by the Knights of Jerusalem but were sacked several times over the years.  This iteration was from 1454.  It was 3 stories tall with a drawbridge (originally) as the entrance:

The pulley system on the door was crazy!:

Once you walk inside, this fresco was the first thing you see:

WOW!  Then you turn and can see the rest of the room, which originally had paintings on the walls before it was destroyed in the sacking and looting:

Beautiful!  We walked around a bit on this level, then went up the stairs:

Yes, they did make us dizzy going up (and back down).  I imagine how those who were in full armor felt having to go up and down those stairs…but I think because this is all they knew, it was just what was done.  (The stairs in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany were exactly like this too…all 533 of them!)  Once on the roof, you get to see the gorgeous views where they once were able to keep track of what was going on in the fields as well as keep an eye on any enemy ships coming in:

And of course, the defensive arrow slits all along the walls:

Back downstairs, we saw a few more neat things:

This was the Sugar Mill complex..a very big trade back then.  From here, it was time to go to Marina’s house.  We attempted to find it with the GPS, but as usual, it got us quite lost.  We had to have her try to find us in the middle of the city…so NOT fun.  Eventually we got there and she had the typical Cypriot spread out for us: breads, cheeses, Greek Coffee, etc. It was a nice visit and before we left town, she took us over to where Yiayia & Papou used to live.  This house was where they lived once they went back to Cyprus after their children were out on their own:

Mom & Thea said it had changed quite a bit and did not like the results. We said our good-bye’s to Marina, but not without a quick picture:

As we headed out of town, we came across some wacky Greek advertising.  All I can say is, what the?:

More tomorrow…

Well, we finally made it…back to where it all began…the place where my Greek family comes from….Asgata, Cyprus.  It’s been many years since my Mother and Thea have been back here and although some things have changed, some things have stayed exactly the same.  We met up with Fito and Stella…cousins also from the village…who offered to take us on a tour of the area.  Thank goodness too, because I’m not sure I would have been able to maneuver around with the big van we had.  As with all Cypriot people, they had food ready for us…a beautiful spread of breads, cheeses, fruits, coffee, tea, etc.

Olive Bread

We enjoyed the amazing food, relaxed a little and they reminisced for a while.  Old pictures were pulled out as well:

It was wonderful to see their excitement…but this was just the beginning.  From here, we walked through the village to explore a bit of our history.  Mom & Thea were having a ball remembering all of the places they used to play, where they went to school and the people of the village.  First thing we found was a monument of some of the old coal carts:

Mom shared a story with us….apparently, one of my Great Uncle’s worked in the coal mines and most days of the week, the family packed a lunch and Mom used to take it over to him…so seeing these coal cars triggered a nice memory for her.  From here we walked over to the old cemetery where Mom & Thea’s Papou was buried:

Down the hill a little ways from this main area was a small church.  At first, Mom didn’t recognize it until she went inside:

It was then that she realized this was the church they used to go to as children.  She thought it was bigger than this, but because she was a child at the time, of course it felt bigger.  It seems that my Yiayia, and several others made donations to this church to help pay for the roof.  Her name is engraved on this marble slab outside of the church doors…4th name down:

Yes, that is ‘Kalypso Constantinidou’ in Greek!   Now here are a couple more shots of the inside of the church:

After this, we walked into what you might consider to be the town square…even though it’s not technically square.

Mom & Thea’s Papou (Grandfather) had a bakery right here:

Fito tells us that it was also a cafe and then this coffee shop, but soon, this will be a bakery again….so I guess it all came full circle. From here, we went down the street to another cousin’s house who was renovating her house a bit.  She immediately offered us food and drinks, but we were still full from earlier, so we just had a little water (it was very warm that day!).  From here, we walked over to Mom & Thea’s childhood home…just look at these narrow streets!:

Remember, these villages were built way before cars…they only had donkey’s at the time…so why would they need to make them any bigger?  Fast forward to now and of course, it’s quite an issue getting around with larger cars.  Anyway, Mom & Thea saw their home and was happy it was much the same as it used to be….although Fito thinks the current owners will be renovating soon:

They definitely had humble beginnings.  But, what more did you need?  While here, I wanted to be sure to get a 3 generation picture taken:

I like it.  🙂   From here, it was time to…you guessed it…eat again. (I swear, that’s all we’ve done on this trip!)  We followed Fito to a restaurant that was smack dab on the coastline:

I mean, look at my gorgeous kids!  Yes, that is a beautiful view behind them too.  This was a seafood restaurant…and although Brittany does not like fish, she ordered this amazing pomegranate salad that was WAY good!  Here are just a sampling of the giant amount of food we had…and the crowd we were with:

And of course, no meal can be complete without Dad being a nerd:

Crazy!  Now that we were stuffed to the gills (ha!  I made a funny!), we headed back to Asgata where we came across Mom’s school:

Mom was excited and felt just like a kid again!  Across the street from the school is a huge lot that Fito & Stella own which include almond trees on the property.  All of a sudden, I heard rocks clanking together and this is what I saw:

They were using the rocks to crack open the almonds!  Just like they’ve done for generations.  Amazing!  Stella’s sister decided she wanted to gather a ton of almonds so she could do something with them later:

Cute!  The last thing we did was go to the local cafe where we met some more friends & cousins, townspeople and whomever happened by:

Coincidentally, the Mayor of the town happened by and brought over a couple of pictures after he was talking about the history of the Village:

One of them happened to be my Yiayia and Papou on their wedding day!

Beautiful!  How neat that they will be on the history wall!  Anyway, everyone had a great time catching up and taking lots of pictures:

It’s been a big day, and everyone was tired, so it was time to go home.  Last thing I needed to do, was get our van through these tiny streets and head home:

Goodnight!

Originally, on my schedule, we had planned to go to the Trodos Mountains on this day, but because of the horrible car we have and the very twisty roads to get there, everyone decided to choose Nicosia instead.  Nicosia is the capital city of Cyprus and the last capital city in Europe to be split in half.  This is where you can see first hand the wall that separates the Greek side from the Turkish occupied side of the country.  It was quite strange to see the wall as you drove through the city…and also hear the Muslim call to prayer from the other side of the wall.  Mom and Thea were NOT happy, as you can imagine and were explaining to us the experiences of some of their family during the Turkish attack.  It’s understandable why they are upset…some of their cousins lived on the north side of the Island and when the attack happened they had to run for their lives with nothing except the clothes on their backs.  Their houses were taken and they could never go back to them.  It was a horrible time….but war is never nice.  Now, the Greek side is a bustling city with the University, lots of shops and normal big city stuff….but Greek style….meaning chaos and very loose parking rules.  As usual, our GPS failed AGAIN to get us to our destination….and then to find parking once we found it was another bucket of crazy.  There has not been a day yet that we haven’t had to turn around at least once!  Heck, I even had to go around a roundabout TWICE!  The locals were laughing at us.  🙂   We finally found a place to park and this was the first thing we saw:

Not sure what building it is, but then, next door to it, you can see some remnants of the war:

Wow.  It was just so interesting to see things like this.  As we progressed down the street to our destination (Nicosia History Museum) here are a few more things we saw:

Typical homes….and then this:

Yes, you see that right….the DMZ (de-millitarized zone) with the Turkish side just beyond the barbed wire and fence.  There were snipers stationed in a couple of those towers with guns in hand at the ready.  It was crazy!!!  We walked for a bit and finally got to the museum:

That only took an hour to find!  The signage here is really bad.  You can see 3 of the museum workers just standing around doing nothing….that’s how you see a lot of people here….I keep asking, does anyone work here!?!?!?!  We got our tickets and headed inside.  My cold is in full blown mode and I feel horrible, but still pressing on.  I’m hiding it well don’t you think?:

We saw some really cool stuff in there….VERY old stuff….like before Christ stuff!  WOW!  Here are just a couple of examples:

It’s amazing to me to see how they had the ‘technology’ to create things like this so long ago.  Just boggles my mind at times.  After the museum, we walked to the older part of town to explore a little and get something to eat.  Very small streets and lots of people but what else could I expect here?  I’m just glad I wasn’t trying to drive through this:

This was an interesting sign from ‘Ria Money Transfers’…which was a store:

Here are a couple of other things we saw in Old Town Nicosia:

Interesting juxtaposition, I think.  As we walked back to the car, we realized we parked right next to the checkpoint that goes to the North side of Cyprus.  Alex and Keith wanted to go see what it was all about, so we got our passports and walked through the DMZ to the Turkish side.  Mom & Thea had never in their lifetime thought they would step foot over there again, but they now have the passport stamps to prove it! Here is the checkpoint on the Turkish side:

As we walked through the streets, there was a definite difference…not only with the language (because everything was in Turkish), but just the way the buildings were kept, how the streets were and just everything.  Trying to find our way around by the map was not easy.  We just started walking in hopes to figure it out as we went…Mom’s back was hurting pretty bad, so we didn’t want to go too far.  We found a map posted:

You can still see some damage on the walls of the buildings from the war.  It was crazy!  But, we can say we all went to the North….

I’m not sure if this is in Turkish, or if that’s in English…either way, it’s funny:

Now that we’re safely back on the Greek side, we headed back home to relax…here is one more shot at the Greek checkpoint:

The poster behind them is an explanation about a Greek man who tried to take the Turkish flag down in the DMZ, but was shot and killed because of it.  A grim reminder of that horrible time in Cyprus history.

There are 2 places in Europe that still hand makes lace….Bruges, in Belgium and Lefkara (pronounced lef-ka-da) here in Cyprus.  This place was important to me because when we were in Belgium 2 years ago, we went to Bruges and bought some hand made lace.  I wanted to have some from both places.  When we arrived, it was like a ghost town…there was no one around.  This is not the busy season, so there aren’t many people here right now.  We found a little place to eat some lunch, then started walking to explore.  First building we came to was this:

I saw all of the lace and went crazy.  This is a typical Lefkara street.  Can you believe people drive through there??  I’ll give you my story on this later.  We walked to one of the stores and as we climbed up the couple of steps to get to the entrance, Dad accidentally missed a step and took a tumble!  Thankfully he was fine, but he cut his knee pretty good!  Once the excitement was over, we walked into a store full of gorgeous lace and the first thing the sales person showed us was this:

What you see here is 1 Lira (Cyprus’ former money before they joined the European Union) with a picture of Lefkara lace on it.  Under it is one of the true pieces of Lefkara lace.  Isn’t is gorgeous?  My Yiayia used to make lace, but not this type.  We made some purchases and headed back out to explore the town.  Here is a gorgeous door:

Look at those gorgeous examples of lace in the next picture!  There were stores everywhere with all different kinds.  I loved it!

We came across the Lefkara History Museum and wandered in to see what it was all about.  Wow!  This is the outside courtyard as soon as you walk through the gates:

Look at all of that gorgeous vegetation!  Pretty, right?  Well, check out the roof of the room below…real thatched roof!

Some great info on the lace merchants:

Some views of the inside rooms:

WOW!   Look at the height of this piece of furniture!

I know this is a little ‘soft focus’ but I wanted to be sure you saw the old olive oil vats:

What a beautiful place this is!

Examples of old lace:

We were done exploring the museum and headed down the street to see some beautiful things:

As we were walking, we came across this Yiayia making some lace:

So wonderful!  After that, we came across the village church:

While there, Mom & Thea started talking to a woman there and realized she was also from Asgata (their village)…and actually related to them!!  Nuts!  Here is the inside:

Beautiful!!  And the final picture of the day:

So, I promised I would tell you about our adventure down the streets of Lefkara…we tried to follow our GPS out of town, but of course, it took us down the wrong way and I had to try to maneuver my way around the streets.  Oh man…imagine a LARGE SUV/Van trying to get through the streets….yes, it was as crazy as you can imagine!  Keith had to get out of the van to guide me through because there was literally 4 inches of clearance on either side to get by!!!!  It took a while, but we finally got out of there.  What an experience!!!