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As you can see from the second photo taken in 2006, the Troodos mountains are beautiful. We stayed a couple of days at a lovely village called Kakopetria. The first photo is of Archbishop Mykarios' mausoleum which is located in these mountains. Even today, many years after the partition of the island, there is in Cyprus a strong dislike and even fear of Turkey, feelings that were initially promoted by Mykarios and which continue to make it impossible to achieve an accommodation between the two peoples of the island. Recently, the Muslims of the north voted decisively to unite with Cyprus in order to become a member of the EU. However, they were spurned, and, as a result, must continue to rely on the support of Turkey and to suffer from a lack of investment and development.
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.
These two photos from 2006 illustrate the charm of Kyrenia, a lovely port town in the Republic of North Cyprus.
In 2006, when we visited Cyprus, we spent four days at Paphos, which the Lonely Planet Guide described as a beautiful and interesting place. We were very disappointed: no beach, whatever charming old areas had once existed had been replaced by nondescript post-World War II urban sprawl, scarcity of parking, no transit, little Greek food in the restaurants but plenty of bacon and eggs and shepherd's pie, and great heat. Roman Paphos was the exception. We love to explore ancient ruins, and it was fascinating, as in the photo, to watch archaeologists working at such close range. There are also beautiful Roman mosaics to see at Roman Paphos.
The Deniz Kizi Hotel at Kyrenia in North Cyprus, which we visited in 2006, had a lovely beach as you can see in the photo. We had three days here and wished we could have extended the time. Kyrenia itself is a charming Mediterranean port town with lots of interesting things to see. It is also near Belapais Abbey and Saint Hilarion, both very much worth seeing.
The Troodos mountains form a small but attractive part of Cyprus. In 2006 we drove through the area and stayed for a couple of days at a small village called Kakopetria. Because the main street of the village is very narrow and the buildings are set almost on top of each other in the hills, we had to haul our suitcases the length of the village from the parking lot to the hotel. The village is very scenic and the hotel was lovely. Our room was furnished in an old fashioned style with a large four poster bed. The place was noted for its good food and was one of the most expensive hotels of this vacation.We looked forward to Kakopetria with eager anticipation after having spent four days at Paphos, a city filled with British pubs and fish and ship shops, and lacking in Mediterranean culture. Prior to that we had a night in Larnaca in a less than adequate hotel with an air conditioner that worked sporadically and made very loud gurgling noises, and with a toilet located in a small clothes closet with a sliding door. Unfortunately, however, because we had eaten something that didn't agree with us, we had begun to feel pretty awful by the time we arrived in Kakopetria. The food looked wonderful, but unfortunately all we could do was look at it!
Kyrenia is one of our very favourite places in the Mediterranean. You can see its attractive harbour in this photo taken in 2006. Near the harbour is a very interesting shipwreck museum in an old castle. It has the remains of an ancient ship (300 BC) discovered nearby. Swimming at Kyrenia is very nice, especially at our moderately priced but lovely hotel, the Denizkizi. Kyrenia also has a couple of excellent restaurants near the shipwreck museum.
