Cyprus

Welcome to the best vacation I never blogged about -- Cyprus. In May 2012, for Rich's birthday, we took a week trip to Cyprus to celebrate and spend some much needed time in the sun. Cyprus is a nice little island south of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean sea.  It's off the coast of Asia Minor but it's considered part of Europe.

We stayed in a resort with half board (breakfast and dinner included) which worked out perfectly for us. We could get up, eat breakfast, head out to the beaches or town, enjoy our day out and about and then be back for dinner and to put Ariana to bed. 

Everywhere we went the views were beautiful. The water was beautiful and even though the beaches were small and most of them rocky we found some little lagoon type beaches that were pretty relaxing.

Below is the view from our room overlooking our pool and the private hotel beach. The hotel beach was not our favorite. It wasn't gently sloping down the the water but instead had a big drop off in the sand and then maybe 2 feet of sand where the water didn't rush up. It would have been nicer if we hadn't been there with kids but when you're at the beach with kids it's nice for one parent to take a break and relax on the towel while watching the other parent frolic in the waves or build a castle. You couldn't really do that at this beach.

 

We figured out the local bus system easily and traveled around to the different beaches on different days.

 

The sunsets here were just amazing. I loved all the colors and everyday was so different. Our hotel faced the west so after dinner I often was out by the water in awe of the slowly setting sun.

We enjoyed the pier and old town one day. We walked along all the stores and restaurants and even stumbled upon a giant pink pelican by one of the restaurants. Ice cream was a must of course and we cooled off with some fancy drinks while waiting on our glass bottom boat ride.

 

I found one of those fish spas and gave it a try. It was very tickley! Ariana even got lucky and they let her stick her hands in the tank to see how it felt.

 Finally it was time to hop on the glass bottom boat to get views of the island, see some sea sponges and a small shipwreck.

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the hotel for our dinner. Everynight was a huge buffet full of fabulous food. There was 4 courses each night, soups, salads, dinner and dessert. There was always something we liked.

Ariana made friends with some of the hotel cats and she always wanted to take them food. There was even some kittens but there were some rambunctious boys who always were chasing them so they were scared of kids. I don't blame them. We got them to come out once for us and we gave them a treat.

 

We found some nice beaches that had rocky patches to explore as long as you had some water shoes on. There was always pretty colorful barnacles, little crabs and shells to search for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And like I said, the sunsets were beautiful. This is from the hotel beach.

One of the days we decided to take a jeep tour up to the mountains to visit a winery, monastery and see some waterfalls. We also go to explore some small villages and take in another part of the island. It was much different up in the mountains than it was by the beaches.

We saw Aphrodite's rock. Which legend says she took her lovers there.

The food was so yummy. We visited a hillside restaurant and ate lunch overlooking the villages and surrounding moutnains. It was so lovely up there.

 

The views from the mountain trails were very pretty and once or twice we saw huge boulders blocking the path in the road. That was a little scary, just thinking that one could drop on us, eekk!

 The waterfalls were pretty and Rich was brave and climbed to the top with Ariana for a photo.

Our last sunset there was just amazing! The sundays were just shining so beautifully throughout the clouds and the colors were amazing. Someone had dragged 2 chairs out by the beach which made a great picturesque photo.

 All too soon our vacation was over and it was time to head back to the airport and say goodbye to our vacation in Cyprus.