Hotel Bellapais Gardens Kyrenia

... name of the village in Greek means "bad rock". Some say that in the past the area was full of rocks and it was difficult to come to it. However there was a custom in the old times that people that were about to get married used to dance around a big rock. However, an incident happened, and the rock fell on the groom and killed him, so they named that rock in the village as “bad rock”.

... and enjoying this evening late until wee hours of the morning.

It is much fun, and it is here that I have the chance to meet people from the Cypriot choir and have time to chat.

A successful festival night ends here.

... quite late and we have free time for our lunch. We walk as far as the old town of – Laiki Yitonia, and also come to the green line that separates Cypriot Nicosia with the Turkish.

The site below has every detail of the places we visited today, and a little about the history. I believe it has every detail a tourist might need to know before getting to the Island.

http://www.windowoncypru s.com/nicosia.htm

OUR PARTY IN KAKOPETRIA



I just want to show here, how Cypriots dance and have fun.

Of course I hate loud music, but I hate that I cannot dance all these dances that you see here. This is from our party in the lodge where we are staying, just outside the village, just 3 km from Kakopetria ...

... where some gifts are waiting for everyone on each seat.

Our first destination is a visit to Lefkara.
It is the 28th of October, and every single village in both Cyprus and Greece is celebrating. It is a National holiday, and is the big -Ohi- or "No Day",( the refusal of Greece in 1940 to allow Italian fascist troops into the country).
On this day, all public schools organize a parade where the best student of the school ...

... map downloaded from Google but we notice that he has a slightly baffled look about him and when we are shown the map the reason becomes clear, the path we are to take is one of very many that look rather like a plate of spaghetti covering the mountainside in twists, turns and loops! We have decided to walk this next section on the north side of the range as this side is far more dramatic and as our finishing point earlier in the year was ...

Today's walk started below Korucam from a recently renovated little chapel that is currently having a small amphitheatre constructed alongside on the western side of the village. Korucam, the last stronghold of the island's thousand year old Maronite Christian community, is set amongst gently inclined piny uplands looking towards Guzelyurt Bay. The small number of children left in he dwindling population are ...

... unaccounted for, presumed tortured and dead. The whole thing is bizarre and scary and yet I knew nothing about it since I associate Cyprus with package holidays and lying on the beach and getting drunk at weddings and accidentally swearing in front of my 10 year old cousin. South Nicosia, where Aaron and I were staying (the shittest hostel in the last 2 and half years) was a lot more built-up and cosmopolitan than I expected. Most of it was very British High ...

... not just some back street. And another thing that made it hard was the lack of pavements. Walk either on the gravel or the main road. I chose the gravel over death any day. On the plus side, the hostel I had located early that morning was an affordable 10 Euros a night Start here, now here Church - note the offerings in the shape of an affected part of the body! Mohammad for breakfast ...

... lady in charge about crossing over. It was 10am. I dropped my bags on a dorm bed and readied myself to leave. "Excuse me, do you know if it's to late to cross to the north side?" "Ooo. I dunno, meebee, why not you try?" Not wanting to waste time I jumped into a taxi and headed for the UN border, the only place in the entire country where it was possible to cross. The taxi dropped me at the first checkpoint. "Ok, you get out here, I can't take you any further" This sounded ...