cyprus, been there?

In Paphos for 4 days. Touristy but not repulsive. Have a first floor apartment on the esplanade. Crystal water and lots of English tourists and bulgarian staff. Missing the Akamas peninsula but finally really relaxing. Have another funny story to tell about mrs hinge, salmon and tiny black handbags- when I can get a real computer and not this fat finger phone.

Sorry guys been ignoring A2K for awhile.

Am now in, jesus h., forgotten where. Paphos had its ups and downs, but very glad we did it.

We've discovered that you cannot trust tripadvisor in Cyprus, and I'll be publishing a paper on why crowdsourcing fail once I'm in my prof position again.

We have a hire car now we call 'Stavro' , he's a chevrolet station wagon with ineffective airconditioning.

Using a blend of lonely planet and tripadvisor, we've been picking restaurants. Both rated Argo highly, but it was mediocre. A pom working in a bar recommended theo's and mrs hinge rates it one of the best fish she has eaten-and she's caught and cooked mangrove jack within 30 minutes, and trust me she is a great cook.

Normally we avoid large restaurants with great locations but theo's was another cyprus restaurant that broke that rule.

If you find this on the web we absolutely recommend 7 st georges: family owned, organic, make or grow everything themselves even though its in suburban Geroskipou, even the wine (no sulphides). No menu, they just keep bringing out food unti you are full. All small tapas sized tasters. They say its how meze is meant to be. Meze is cypriot smorgasboard that mostly they dump up to 20 dishes on your table in 2 or 3 waves. 7 st g prefers giving you time to linger. George and his cypriot- australian wife lara started it and now their sons Ben (sexy hunk of a maitre de - who loves Cairns) and Damien (the chef) carry it on, although george did show up late after a day on the farm.

Some random observations:

Cyprus is full of UK citizens, either expat retired or on 1 week package tours with their kids and families. I was actually glad to hear an American accent.

Every cypriot who finds we're australian is amazed we came so far.

Lots f hospitality workers are bulgarian or roumanian because they can speak Russian

You cant flush toilet paper in cyprus - ponder the implications. ..

They drive on the left.

Their wall sockets are like England's

Wifi is ubiquitous in restaurants and almost so in hotels.

They are very nice to us.

Taxis rarely have meters, you find out the cost when you arrive although they seem to roughly charge the same for equivalent trips plus or minus two euro.

There are maybe six traditional cyprus dishes:

Kleftiko
Sheftalia
Souvla
Moussaka
Stifado

But how good they are varies enormously. They do great salads with greens tomatoes & cucumbers called a village salad.

Everything comes with potatoes. Vegetables much more common than in spain and done well, particularly beetroot

Waffling for my own benefit, sorry.

We are in Pissouri. We went from Paphos to Limassol and were horrified by it. An 8 km strip of average beach backed by seedy restaurants and accomodation, too much for our gentle souls. We cancelled our accommodation and backtracked to Pissouri Bay which is a calm oasis of sanity and doesn't smell like chicken poo like Limasshole does. Quiet day today before a road trip to donkey sanctuary, cat monastery and ancient Kirion.

Our last day in Pissouri Bay today. Did a great meze up in the village which means we won't want dinner tonight. Every place weve tried has been good for different reasons. Liminaki good enough to try twice.
http://www.limanakipissouri.com/Welcome.html

Yesterday we went to st Nicholas monastery of the cats. A little underwhelming - I saw more cats in someone's backyard in kato paphos.


Ancient Kyrion more impressive, especially backed by white stony outcrops and crystal blue sea.

Tommorrow we venture to Nicosia via a donkey sanctuary, a winery and some notably picturesque villages. Time to brush up on my french.

Couldn't find the donkey sanctuary, another lonely planet fail. Did get to Lanea, a very pretty village in the Highlands. We shared our lunch with cats. again. The taverna makes its own commandaria, the local dessert wine which is unique in that the only sweetness comes from the grapes.

To me its reminiscent of a tokay, smokey raisins. We grabbed a bottle for nightcaps.

Now in Nicosia's old town lesz than a km from tbe green line, the UN controlled buffer between the republic and the Turkish controlled north. The last divided capital (sinnce the berlin wall fell) although I'm pretty sure there's a city on a river in Africa that is the capital of two countries.

I'm enjoying your trip notes a lot, Hinge.

This all reminds me of a book I remember liking but am not remembering now the details of - Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons, regarding his time in Cypress.
Too bad I gave it away or I could reread.

G'day Hinge and greetings from Morocco!,

I'm surprised just how much. I use my rusty French here..
Certainly shared meals with a numbe of cats!

Margo, love (I mean that), for years I have wanted you to tell more of your trips. You are so politely and cautiously no on description. But I think of you as me or a person I might be, so I get disappointed.

I still want to read.

It's a curmudgeon conundrum.

Ha! Using my french again too as we arrived in Strasbourg yesterday soir.

This is a beautiful city but a bugger to find an open restaurant on a dimanche noir.

In a beautiful apartment in a restored convent a stone's throw from the magnificent cathedral.

Alsatian cuisine will no doubt be great when we're hiking six hours a day but right now sausages and saurkraut would sit like lead in my belly.
Will come back later and talk about Nicosia.

No cats here!

I took a day trip to Strasbourg just before Christmas, from Basel, and noted it as a place for later inspection. Christmas markets were good. I'm guessing they're not there now?!
Marrakesh to Casablanca today,then on to Portugal for a week.

paying attention to y'all.

We loved Portugal! What bits?

In Colmar for two days before the start of our next 7 day inn to inn hike.

Its called little Venice but the canal(s) don't compare at all. But it is realy pretty.

Note to self: was this area impacted by Ww2. Doesnt seem like it.

I'm not as adventurous as you - nor as energetic!

In the limited time I could get off work, I can only manage Lisbon and Porto, before flying home.

See: Colmar pocket

Thanks walter, it was more about the old city buildings in strasbourg and colmar, I'm having difficulty determining whether they were largely untouched by bombing and fighting or local (re)building regulations enforced consistency with the existing cityscape.

I've been there very often in the 70's and 80's.
I don't think that they were damaged (a lot) during the war. (There wasn't any important war industry.)
From the 80's onwards, especially Colmar was "updated" = the old houses renovated, with modernised apartments inside.
Strasbourg has always been a bit ... not so nice outside tourist hotspots and EU-businesses until ... well, 20 years ago.

The old town of strasbourg is a picture postcard around every corner. We dont make the effort to see the 'real' strasbourg.

Though there are some very interesting other spots in the city (Old Saint Peter's Church, for instance, which is half a Catholic, half a Protestant church)
(And "vues carte postale" are really a lot better in Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Obernai ...)

I think the hike takes us to obernais and riquewihr. If there's wifi I'll report.