Intro to Cyprus

   We've been here a few days and settled into a routine so it's time to bring you all up to date on our Cyprus adventure. First, I should introduce you to our two charges. 

  Max is 13 and an active and friendly sort. This is good for him as, if I were him, I'd spend my days having confused existential musings. You see, Max isn't a "he". He started out that way but, and this is unclear to me as I'm not a vet, he had an operation to fix some kind of bladder issue and they decided it was best if "he" became a "she". Don't ask. I'm not about to start checking his anatomy to determine what exactly changed. Anyway, he seems happy enough, as if anyone can ever tell if cats are happy or just f-ing pissed.

  Lucy, a 15 year-old ginger, has one eye and no thyroid as it was removed in an operation. As I have a non-operational thyroid I feel like we have something in common. I think that's where it ends though. She sleeps virtually all the time and has to be forced to go outside unless it's sunny and warm. Otherwise she's pleasant enough as long as you stay on her good side as she has a tendency to hiss at you if you've stepped out of line.

  Now, we were told both are "outdoor" cats so a litter box wasn't necessary. Unless. Unless Lucy doesn't want to go out because the weather isn't to her liking. Max goes out all the time, sometimes only coming inside for 30-40 seconds before deciding that was the wrong choice. He's not the problem, although I wonder if the operation also changed him into a dog. Since we're concerned Lucy might need to "go" but won't go outside we've gotten into the habit of filling the litter box when we go out or when it's bedtime. Great solution, right? Wrong. When the litter box is available Max comes inside to use it. Now, instead of not worrying about a litter box there are two cats using it all the time. We'll figure this out. Eventually.

  Now, I should introduce you to our humble abode. Last time I went on about the things that were wrong with it. It's cold. The power supply is inadequate. There's a rooster next door that won't shut up. If you know me then you also know my first couple of days in a new place bring out my negative side. Wait. There's a positive side? Those of you who know me can stop right now.

  The house is typical Cypriot. It's made largely of stone with wood supporting a tile roof. There's not a lot of trees in this part of the country but lots of stone. And, given that the climate is hot and dry for much of the year stone is cool. Not a bonus for us right now but for March to November, yes.

  Much of our backyard resembles a construction site as there's been a series of renovations to the house since the owners acquired it three years ago. Once you get away from the house here's what the rest of the property looks like:

  You'll notice the orange tree on the left. They're navel oranges and they're everywhere around the village as they ripen between December and March. Penny and I took a walking tour around here the other day. Virtually every house had either orange/lemon or olive trees, or both. Re olives, we learned that, although olives are ready for harvest in January (just missed it) they're not really edible right off the tree. This was news to us although maybe not news to you of Mediterranean extract. They have to be soaked in brine for at least a week before they're considered edible. There. You learned something today.

  Kallepia is a small village with only 380 inhabitants. The roads are narrow with houses crowding right up to the pavement so driving can be an adventure, especially when someone has decided to park on one of the smaller lanes. There are a couple of tavernas but not much else here. We have shops within a ten minute drive that provide us with everything we need.

  For those of you living in Toronto or other major cities, you might be interested in the cost of real estate around here. We were in Paphos yesterday to take in some of the sights and, since rumor has it there's lots of Russians laundering funds here, there's a lot or real estate agents flogging property.

  Homes near the water run from the low 100's (Euros... exchange rate is 1 Euro - $1.45 CAD) for a one bedroom flat in a complex with a pool up to the low millions, depending on size and proximity to the main tourist areas. Here in Kallepia, a house like this one runs around 50K Euros. That explains the huge British ex-pat population. That, and the fact most people speak English.

  Ex-pats and tourism are the largest factors in the local economy. Cyprus markets itself as a business service centre catering to financial institutions, consultants, etc. and attributes about 85% of the economy to the service sector. All restaurants cater to English tastes, running from full English breakfasts to fish and chips with Guinness. The local dishes are in abundance but it's a bit weird to see them competing for menu space with British fare.

  As I mentioned, we went into Paphos yesterday for a stroll around the waterfront. It's quite scenic with small fishing boats in the harbour surrounded by buildings from the 15th century and ancient Greek ruins currently under archaeological exploration.

  We came upon the Paphos Castle first and went inside to have a look.

  Our five Euros was happily taken by the admissions guy and we proceeded to wander around the building for almost twenty minutes. Not very long, you say. Well, aside from a description of a couple of paragraphs at the entry there were no signs anywhere explaining what we were looking at and there wasn't much to see. There were a couple of rooms on the main floor used as jail cells and, later, British salt stores, and stairs leading up to the roof for a nice view. It seems like the few people that wander into this site generate only enough revenue to pay for the guy that collects it. Like Greece, I guess this is how you keep people employed.

  After that we strolled along the waterfront trail and looped around the archaeological site back to where we started. These guys didn't seem to mind us walking through their grazing area:

  As we ambled back to the main drag we noticed a few buildings that incorporated old architecture, like this hotel:

We also stumbled upon some ruins below the modern street, much like we encountered in Athens:

  If you were paying attention in the previous episode you'll remember everything we saw in Athens from this time period was constructed from marble. There's no marble in Cyprus as it's a volcanic island. The castle we visited earlier was built from volcanic rock which is very porous and erodes easily. These ruins were earlier but also volcanic in origin. Because of the dry climate things don't disintegrate like they would elsewhere.

  Finally, we ventured down into a grotto containing tombs built in the 13th century. The flash on Penny's camera revealed a mural on one of the walls:

This is the "wishing tree", which is where you tie a piece of cloth containing a description of your prayer. It's special to Cypriots and thus the efforts, as you can see, to maintain it even though it threatens the foundation walls of the grotto.

  That brings us up to today. The weather has improved over the past couple of days and we're figuring to do some hiking in the mountains near the coast. The forecast is calling for rainy days next week so we're hoping to squeeze in some of the outdoorsy stuff before we're forced back inside to huddle around the heaters and fireplace.