Les Palmiers Hotel Larnaca

... an "illegal" border crossing. We wouldn't want any evidence in our passports, would we? For some reason that stamp into the Turkish part could actually cause someone to be denied into back into Cyprus if the passport were ever to be checked.

To cross I had to register with the Turkish border police and get my stamp. Then leaving the "country" I had to present the piece of paper and my passport again to show that I was leaving. Can I count this ...

... for it himself. I don't need some overweight Greek man undressing me and I decided to mess around with him. Slooowing down the process as much as I could was awesome because the slower I undid the belt from my jeans, the more he started bouncing. "Wallet, wallet, wallet, wallet" was his next command followed by him reaching
for my shoes. I'd say I wasted about four minutes of his time and it was just great watching him come unhinged.

There ...

Where Shopping is a Pleasure. Isn't that Publix's slogan? I found a grocery store called Billa where shopping may not be such a pleasure but their checkout stand can put you on a road to some. Now visualize the g rated checkout stand at Publix. All the "racy" tabloids are covered up because God forbid should someone steal a glance at Britney Spears sans panties. Besides, our magazines but a big black rectangle over anything worth looking ...

All packing and cleaning is underway !!! Only 36 or so hours left before we hit the tarmac at Larnaca !! Just need to get the dog wormed and de-flead (not that he has them !), groomed and then buy him a travel box for the flight !

Fingers crossed all our accommodation arrangements have been made for Athens and Samothraki !

... fort ended with us parking the car and eating lunch...a mere
100 yards from the castle. From Larnaka we headed back towards
Limassol in order to visit Ancient Amathous and Kourion. Kourion,
although at the end of the journey, was perhaps my favourite. Here I
saw the ruins of the temple to Apollo as the sun was going down. It ...

Saturday, July 4th,
2009—Nicosia
The drive up to the capitol city of
Nicosia was uneventful and our attempts at locating the hotel were
good but we ultimately had to park and find tourist information to
assist. Even after that we had a bit of trouble but thanks to a good
navigator we found the hotel, checked in and headed back into the
walled city for lunch. After lunch, we just started to wander around
and we took pictures of the winding ...

... and general maintenance but is not for the faint-hearted. These dogs are so lovely, giving you unconditional love even when they are in poor health. On one visit I witnessed the selection and loading of eight dogs who were being taken to the vet to be put to sleep. It is a really heart-breaking experience. To find out more about the dog shelter, or if you can spare a few pounds to help these beautiful dogs please visit, http://www.eleniscyprusdogs.com

Spent a week in a resort hotel in the city of Limmosal. Toured the entire island except for the Turkish portion on the top third of Cyprus.

Most of the tourist signs are in 1) Greek 2) Russian and last but not least 3) English.

This ...

For 10 days, family from Pittsburgh, Bosnia, and Bangladesh gathered in Cyprus for a reunion after 8 months of separation. We had no big agendas other than to be with each other and to get reacquainted. These photos give some of the highlights of our Cyprus gathering.

... We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, it was really nice. The serve meza style -- there are about 15-20 different appetizers served and you take small portions, this is followed by a main dish of beef, chicken, fish, etc. Last night we had a fish. Everything was very good. Hope you enjoy the picture of my fish. Later . . .