Cyprus, July 9th 2012
First of all, no, I didn’t feel the earthquake that hit Cyprus today, so don’t worry. I didn’t feel it because I was too busy swimming in the shallow water of the sandy Kourion beach in Cyprus.
It was a beautiful day. Yesterday night the manager at Alexander the Great Hotel in Pafos invited me for dinner and I had the chance of meeting his lovely wife. She has Italian origins and we ended up speaking Italian and having a long walk together after dinner. And as it turned out that she was heading the same direction as me today, and I had a car and she didn’t, we decided to spend the day together.
She was going to be my guide (turns out she also has a travel agency!) and we could have lunch together and a last (for me) swim.
What a lovely birthday I had.
First of all, I gave myself a lazy morning as a present, sleeping until 10am for the first time in weeks, and checking out around 12. A cappuccino with Giulia (yes… she’s Giulia too!) and we were ready to go.
The first stop was at the Petra Tou Romiou, the rock where they say Aphrodite was born. Well if I were her I wouldn’t mind hanging out here too…
We then headed to Limassol and stopped at Apollo’s Temple and the huge Kourion archeological site. Man, was it hot out there! But what a view.
Greek-Romans were smart. Look at the location they chose for their amphitheater, which is still used for opera and theatre shows nowadays, thanks to its perfect acoustics.
Just below the Kourion archeological site is the Kourion beach, where the locals from Limassol go.
Sand, shallow water, waves, and the perfect temperature of the water – not too hot to make it feel like broth, not too cold to take ages to enter the water. What a treat!
But that was not all. Just after a pleasant bath and endless chats, we were ready for a typical Cypriot lunch with “fish mezze”: a selection of different kinds of fresh fish, salad, pita bread and dips… which is exactly the kind of meal I like!
By the time we finished eating it was already 5pm. It was time to go. I still had to drop off my car at the car rental in Larnaca and head to the airport. But before this I stopped at the Hala Sultan Tekke, a very famous mosque on Larnaca’s salt lake, for a last wonderful sunset.
Bye bye Cyprus, I will miss you!
Have you ever spent your birthday traveling? How did you celebrate?
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10 Comments
Lovely post!
Beautiful pics…I think you had the perfect b-day;-)
Perfect indeed:)
This sounds like a pretty ideal birthday. What a cool surprise that you got to hang out with someone you ended up liking and who could take you on a tour! I love the photo of the Petra Tou Romiou, by the way. The fish mezze looks interesting, but I don’t know if I’d be eating too much of the tiny fish. Did you like them?
Oh yes it was such a lovely day and my new friend Giulia was the perfect company! That’s what I love about solo travel: it makes you meet people!
I didn’t really like the tiny fish, I had just a couple of them… I prefer the calamari, prawn, and the dips!
The tiny fish reminds me of Alexandria! It’s a plate my friends and I usually order beside beer hehe
Amazing pictures by the way!
Last year I also spent my birthday traveling, in Spain. Spend the day at Cape Finisterre, then swimming for a while at an unknown beach, then back to cape finisterre for sunset and staying there till late drinking with loads of people from around the world! I loved having happy birthday sung to me in 5 or 6 different languages hehe :D
The birthday song in different languages is actually very cool :)
One of the perfect birthday getaways I’ve heard. I never really thought Cyprus was that beautiful. Now I know. The structures and scenery were all epic. The photos were perfect. :)
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Such a nice and happy post. It was a ideal birthday for you, I think. Beautiful photos! Love them all!
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