On Thursday was a holiday here in Cyprus, it was Fish day where all of the Cypriots can have fish that day. For lent, the local Cypriots fast and essentially become vegans, where they don't eat anything that comes from an animal. After Jackie and I spent a few hours at the beach, we went to Loizos's parents house for a traditional Cypriot meal. They made pork chops for us meat eaters, chips (fries), a few Cypriot salads, and plenty of other great foods. I found that lemons are very popular to add to almost every meal. I noticed that almost every dish had lemon juice added to it. That must be a reason that there are so many lemon trees everywhere. Anyways, the meal was awesome, and we were able to see what a traditional Cypriot meal is like. It was also really interesting to listen to his parents tell us a little about the history of the island. Thank you Loizou's family for a great meal.
This past weekend, Loizos and his family took us on a road trip to see the other side of the island, Pafos. We started off driving down the sea coast and first made a stop in Limmasol. We checked out this really old amphitheater that had some of the best acoustics. They said there are still jazz concerts that are played at the theater. After checking out some of the ancient mosaics there we hopped back in the car and headed towards Pafos. At Pafos we checked out some more ancient ruins with nearly intact mosaics and different houses. Jackie, Stephanie, and I climbed on some of the ancient ruins to make sure we would get the best shot. It was neat that we were able to actually climb on the ancient ruins and not get into trouble. After checking out the ancient ruins, we checked into our hotel, took a swim, and decided to go downtown Pafos to eat.
We found a place to have some souvlaki and chips and then Jackie and Stephanie decided to get some Starbucks for a nice little treat. Yes they do have Starbucks all the way in Cyprus. After Starbucks, we decided to walk back to the hotel by ourselves and hopefully find our way. We were successful in our adventure!
The next day we headed next door to the Tomb of the Kings to check out some ancient tombs with very important dead people. We of course did some rock climbing on the tombs and even played dead in some of them. After checking out all of the tombs we hopped in the car and went up to the mountains. A few struggled with car sickness but in the end we made up to the Kykkos mountains and checked out a Monastery. We had to wear these really cool purple robes because we couldn't show any skin. In the monastery there were a lot of really impressive mosaics and the church was filled a lot of gold chandeliers, candles, and art pieces. After checking out the monastery we head back down the mountain, had dinner, and headed back home. Overall, it was a really fun trip and really cool to see all of the ancient ruins. I think my favorite part of the whole trip was climbing on all of the ancient pieces and taking fun pictures.
On Monday, after practice, we went to Derynia to check out our roommates volleyball match. His team was playing the last place team and it was a very important game. Whoever lost the match had to move down to the second division and is essentially demoted. It was a really great matches to watch as it went to five games. Josh's team came out on top but after the game things really started to get interesting. For some reason, some people were angry and a fight broke out between some managers, fans, and players. One guy came flying in from the stands and jumped on someone's back to hit another guy in the back of the head. One guy from Paralimni who is from the US said he got spit on but did not get attacked so that was a plus. The locals take their sports very seriously here. After the whole debacle we were treated to a free meal with Josh's team and then went home.
Finally the last part of my blog is our time last night performing Karaoke. We have been trying to make it to the Skylight bar for Karaoke and we finally did last night. Jackie, Stephanie, Alina (teammate from Belarus) and I went and sang a few songs. Jackie and Alina started us off with a very interesting and entertaining version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. At one point Jackie started to make up her own words but she was very entertaining. Next Stephanie and I performed a classic hit with Hit Me Baby One More Time. I think we were pretty entertaining because we pretended to hit each other throughout the song. One funny thing about the night was that we were very goofy with each song and having fun with it, however the rest of the crowd all chose very serious songs. We also attracted a lot of weirdos that night. Our next performances included Jackie and Stephanie doing I'll Make Love to You, that got a little weird with the English guys getting a little too close to stage. Alina and I performed Love Will Keep Us Together, which prompted an Indian guy to ask me if I would do a duet with him next time at Karaoke and rehearse with him. I definitely found a way to get out of that one, but creepy! Finally Alina closed out the show with Kiss Me and in turned received a kiss from one of the karaoke singers. The night was a success and we had a great time.
That is all, until next time! BYE! Here are some more pictures from the trip.
Birthplace of Aphrodite.
