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In 2006 when we visited Cyprus, Paphos was a disappointment. The Lonely Planet guide described the town very favourably, raising our expectations. Little remained of Cypriot culture. Even the food in the restaurants was English, perhaps reflecting the effects of British rule from 1878 to 1960. Almost all of the old buildings in the town have been replaced with the mediocre architecture of the 1950's and 1960's. The town was quite spread out, making it necessary to use a car, but parking was hard to find, and there was no beache until we finally found a nice municipal one in a nearby town. Based on the Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we had reserved a hotel for four days, and could hardly wait to leave. Paphos is well worth a brief visit, however, in order to see the wonderful mosaics at Roman Paphos. They are by far the most impressive we have ever seen. Perhaps they will be surpassed by those at Ravenna which we haven't yet seen.
The Basilica of Maria Maggiore, photographed in 1994, is only one of the many beautiful buildings in Rome.
In 1994, when we vacationed in Italy, we visited the coliseum in Rome. Being there, one could easily imagine how horrific it would have been to be there in ancient Rome to see early Christians being thrown to the lions.
You can see what happened when the second photo of the Trevi Fountain in Rome was taken in 1994. My husband, Paul, kindly agreed to hold my handbag while I took the photo - the only time in his life he was photographed holding a woman's handbag.
When we visited Turkey in 2001, we went to Side to see the ancient ruins including the Roman Temple of Apollo featured in the photo above. We were disappointed in Side, because of the way modern development had been allowed to encroach on the ruins. This temple bathed in light at sunset was very nice. We stopped here for a while and had a long chat with a young couple from Vancouver. They were very upset about an expensive Turkish carpet they had purchased and then asked the shopkeeper to ship home for them. When it arrived, there was a $400 duty charge to be paid. This was refused by the husband's mother who returned the carpet to the shop in Istanbul. The young people were on their honeymoon, and now had to return to the shop in Istanbul to hopefully sort things out. We realized how fortunate we were that our own carpet had arrived home safely without duty charges, but we had no idea what had made the difference.
In 2006 when we visited Cyprus, Paphos was a disappointment. The Lonely Planet guide described the town very favourably, raising our expectations. Little remained of Cypriot culture. Even the food in the restaurants was English, perhaps reflecting the effects of British rule from 1878 to 1960. Almost all of the old buildings in the town have been replaced with the mediocre architecture of the 1950's and 1960's. The town was quite spread out, making it necessary to use a car, but parking was hard to find, and there was no beache until we finally found a nice municipal one in a nearby town. Based on the Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we had reserved a hotel for four days, and could hardly wait to leave. Paphos is well worth a brief visit, however, in order to see the wonderful mosaics at Roman Paphos. They are by far the most impressive we have ever seen. Perhaps they will be surpassed by those at Ravenna which we haven't yet seen.
