Marsellis Hotel Apartments Perivolia

... heart of the capital. Within seconds I had made up my mind I was going across this Green Line if allowed to see what surprises lay on the other side. A mountain rises above the city and the Turkish side has painted a giant flag on it to remind everyone who is in power over there.

Now as the bus rolled into Lefkosa, I noticed lots of traffic, wide highrise lined streets and all the shops straight out of Europe such as Adidas, Hugo Boss, Costa ...

... to stand for an hour crushed up against the gate door so I could be at the front of that Ryanair line. Even talking to an agent at the airport is free unlike Ryanair charging to use the counter (I check in online and prefer not to interact with anyone there). And Ryanair charges a credit card convenience fee to pay the counter fee anyway! So if you know the rules and play nicely within them, Ryanair is a great deal.

My travel experience on Aegean ...

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 !

Sunday, July 5th, 2009
This began one of the longest driving
days of the entire trip. If you get the chance look at a map of
Cyprus. We left Nicosia and headed to Agia Napa. En route we
stopped at a fishing village and several famous beaches. From there
we headed to Larnaka where following conflicting signs to the
Larnaca, Cyprus lantian1979

... in Turkey, relatively speaking. The
Turkish side was a bit more run down, however, signs of EU
intervention abounded demonstrating new agreements and a desire to
preserve the past. We came upon the top site in Northern Nicosia,
the Selimiye Mosque which combines medieval Christian architecture
with Islamic influence to create a most stunning Mosque. While
walking around the grounds, a gentleman by the name of Rammadan
(pardon the spelling) came and spoke ...

... is certainly a great place to vacation in the early fall. Late October and early November was still quite warm to our standards, but the tourist season was over for Eurpeans so it was a good place to vacation as it was moderately priced.

... a central hotel even though I tried to book one 4 months earlier. The hotel was in the suburbs, but luckily we had a bus stop just outside the premises. To be honest, this gave us the chance to have a closer look to the Scottish people and see how they behave in their every day life. We were so disappointed!! The youngesters were making so much noise, trying so badly to give a negative impression !!?? Even drinking ...

... genitals were thrown in to the sea by his son...and who wants to see that? I bet you never thought I'd use the phrase 'severed genitals' in this travelogue. I was disappointed to find out there are no passenger ships to Greece (only expensive cruises) so I booked a flight out of Cyprus for the next day, coinciding with Aaron's departure. I'll fly to Athens, while he flies on to Dublin taking home his THREE jumpers (he came for a week and it's over 35 degrees here).

... known. His snobby tone launched me into a defensive, "Which wrecks? I don't know, I just arrived on the Island for Christ's sake! You tell me... you are the tourist office right?". I wasn't too happy with the attitude around here. Worse of all, I was coming down with a cold. My eye infection, which crept up in Beirut was in full, eye constricting, force. One eye half shut, red, sore and itchy. My throat was starting to clench up too. A pain which I was having difficulty ...