Cyprus - Saturday 20th of August

The trip got off to a flying start with an upgrade to business class from Dubai!

How lucky were we? They must have felt sorry for us after our long flight from Melbourne and our

stop over of 3hours......anyway, we had two choices. Use the opportunity to catch up on some well

needed sleep, or keep going! Really, there was no choice....as soon as we boarded the plane, which

was 8am Dubai time, we were greeted with a choice of water, orange juice or champagne.....after

thinking seriously for a second, we said champagne!!! After all, it was still really 3pm on our body clocks

and I was looking forward to a drink.

The flight was a great opportunity to see the landscape and the realization of where we were

travelling to started to kick in. Flying over and near areas such as Kuwait, Bagdhad, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,

Beirut etc, you realized you were no longer in Melbourne. The land was barren, with scattered legacies

of where all of the oil drilling had occurred - a complete contrast to the open green fields of Australia.

The land below us was all open desert patches and the occasional village - already I thought how lucky

we are to be living in Australia.

So after a nice 3 and a half hour flight, drinking French champagne all the way, we arrived in Larnaka to

be greeted by a smiling Chris and Mary!

It was great to see the Golden Greek after all of this time and a relief to know that they were there to

meet us and our holiday can begin!

The Golden has not changed a bit - great to hear his and the stories began....

We were driven from Larnaka, which is on the south east side of Cyprus to Nicosia (the capital of

Cyprus) which is where Chris and Mary live. A short ride of about 30 to 40 minutes and we were there.

Chris and Mary proudly showed off Nicosia to us by driving us through the city - a great way to

appreciate where we were. The country side is very similar to Australia, nice roads to drive on and

similar infrastructure - although older than Melbourne. After getting to Chris and Mary's place, it was

time for quick change and freshen up and time for lunch. What a lunch it was! Mary had prepared a

feast for us in typical Greek fashion!!!! We definitely were not in Melbourne any more.....the food was

magnificent and it was great sitting around their table sharing a home cooked meal, having a beer or

two and sharing stories with Chris and Mary.

After lunch, despite needing a rest, we battled on. After a short stroll in the late afternoon, it was time

to go out for dinner. Chris and Mary took us to the old part of Nicosia - what a contrast it was to what

we had already seen. We walked around what was the old city of Nicosia, listening to the history of

Cyprus from Mary and Chris and started to realize the history of this city. The area where we went

basically is now divided between the north of Nicosia - which is the Turkish side - and the south of

Nicosia, which is the Greek Cypriate side - it is literally divided by a "neutral zone" controlled by the

Greeks on one side and the Turks on the other side. You need to show your passport if you want to

pass into the Turkish side of this area. The history of the troubled times really hits you when you see

this area of Cyprus and it is hard not to feel the pain of the locals. Basically Cyprus is now occupied by

about 63% by the Greek Cypriates and 37% by the Turkish. Both Chris and Mary have been directly

impacted by this history and it was great to get a personal perspective on where we were now. We

were fortunate to get such a personal account of where we were and you can clearly hear the passion

in both Chris and Mary's voices.

Despite being very tired, our night continued on after dinner and Mary wanted us to have her

favourite ice cream, so we did. A great way to finish our first night in Nicosia!!!

We got to bed about 11pm local time, and I realized that I had basically been up since Thursday night

without any real sleep and it was now 6am Sunday morning Melbourne time.....any wonder I was

tired....still as I said to Nadeen, we are here to holiday, not to sleep!