2006
A pretty uneventful holiday in Cyprus. We visited a few new places. Different falling down stuff, revisited Tomb of the Kings – it was still stupidly hot.
The holiday we originally booked would have been a bit further down the road, I think it was called the Tomb Of The Kings Apartments or something like that, but Sarah found some really bad reviews that had been posted very recently, so we decided to move the booking. A bit further out than our usual bookings that tended to be right in the middle of Paphos, but it was a nice place all the same.
I seem to remember it was the holiday when Glenn decided he’d had enough of coming on holiday with us, just so that we could take the piss out of him for a week, and told us that it would probably be the last group holiday he’d join us on. So farewell – YouKnowGlennRenegadeGimpBoyHelloSaliorClop! – not the last time we’d see him, just the last time on our group holidays, after which he was just Glenn with his girlfriend Our-Mel.
The main event from this holiday was our brief but very interesting visit to The Dark Side – otherwise known as North Cyprus. We booked a coach trip to visit the Northern Turkish side of the island as we’d heard a lot about it, but never visited. Even the coach trip going there was eventful, when we arrived at the checkpoint in Nicosia a second guide joined us. It seems they always have a Greek guide and a Turkish guide, just for balance, to make sure that no-one makes any wild claims or accusations against the other. We drove about 100 yards and the first thing that greeted us was an enormous Turkish flag painted onto a hillside, so much for balance. We drove on to the monastery at Bellapais, very tranquil and beautiful and is apparently the site of where Lawrence Durrell wrote Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, describing his time living in Cyprus long before the Turkish invasion and the separation of the island.
We travelled on to Kyrenia Harbour, a beautiful town dominated by the Byzantine castle in the harbour. We split up into 2 groups, with ‘the boys’ wandering off to find a coffee somewhere, whilst me, Kate and Sarah went for a walk around the castle. After we’d been wandering around for a while, we got a distress message from Carl. They’d decided to stop at a little café with some outdoor tables and sat down to order their coffees. Very soon the owners came out, all of them, apparently about three or four of them, all very friendly. Trouble was, they were a little too friendly, the Turks can be very “handsy” and over attentive and it was all a bitoverwhelming for the poor chaps who just wanted a quiet coffee, not to be quizzed and fussed over, being told how special they were and they had become the owners new best friends.
We did eventually find them and join them for a quick drink before carrying on our tour, but it was all too much for them and so the nickname of The Dark Side was applied to North Cyprus.
We visited the famous Aphrodite’s Rock, where legend has it, that if you swim around it anti-clockwise you can restore your virginity. We didn’t attempt this. The beach alongside is supposed to be where Aphrodite came to shore, she was born out of the sea after Zeus, her father, had his testicles removed and thrown into the ocean by his son Chronos, the resulting foam gave birth to Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love and beauty. (as a side note, I might start including all the ancient gods & goddess myths connected to our holidays)
