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| A shipwreck, viewed from our condo in Paphos, Cyprus |
Today is the first full day of "being here." It would be a great day to relax and enjoy the views from our condo... or just meander through the souvenir shops of Paphos. Instead, we have gone into our usual over-achieving travel mode. After our internet fix at the coffee shop, we will head into the mountains of central Cyrprus to visit the Kykkos monastery, meander north to the coast at Polis (hiking to the ponds where Aphrodite, the goddess of love allegedly swam millenia ago), and take in some wineries along the way. Cypriots claim that wine-making originate here on their island. Anyway, we'll see if we actual achieve all that today. We'll find the right balance between touring and relaxing eventually, but for now we're just excited about all that can be seen and experienced in this part of the world.
The very recent bank crisis here in Cyprus has folks on edge, but that hasn't diminished their hospitality or sense of humor. Last night we chatted with a gentleman who moved here from Italy two years ago and transferred all his money to a Cyprus bank two days before all accounts were
frozen. He was going to buy a retirement home, and now it looks like he will lose as much as 60% of what he deposited. If that happened to me, I would be pretty devastated. He found a way to make the story entertaining, though, as he waved his hands, alternated between English and Italian, and shared his optimistic philosophy of life.
Leroy's almost finished with his coffee, so it's time to find out what adventures await us today. Speaking of coffee (and other hot liquids I avoid), Leroy dumped a full cup of tea into my lap during the flight from NYC to London. We were squeezed into the middle seats in the center section of the 747, and Leroy tipped the cup off the meal tray with his elbow. He shouted apologies while collecting napkins from other passengers to clean up the mess. For the rest of the trip, I was soaked to the skin and trapped on a soggy foam seat!
