Trip to Paphos

Statue Of Makarios III In Nicosia
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Paphos was a beautiful and quiet place to spend a two week holiday break if you're just looking to get away from it all. For those looking for architecture and culture, there is some wonderful Greek and Roman influenced sites to be found around Paphos and its neighbouring towns. Cyprus was once ruled under the leadership of Alexander the Great before coming under control of Ptolemies of Egypt and then annexed by Rome so it's very rich in its history.

My friends Paul, Khandkar and I spent our first week visiting the old Paphos Port and the main town looking around at the food places and the culture around Paphos itself. At the end of the Port was a beautiful castle which was built as a Byzantine fort to protect the harbour many years ago and has been restored twice. Paphos is known for its fishing ports and it has a much bigger harbour in Limassol where we set sail to Egypt for a two day excursion offered by the hotel. You can read more about this in my Egypt entries. Paphos port has a lot of restaurants with some really exquisite tasting food which I highly recommend to anybody visiting the port. We also took up a glass bottom boat trip during an afternoon but there wasn't actually a lot to see unfortunately. The main town is made up mainly of shops and a few small clubs and pubs if you're looking for nightly entertainment. During an evening there, we bumped into a guy handing out flyers who just so happened to live a mile or so down the road from me so you could say it's a small world! We were hoping that we could visit Ayia Napa for a great evening out but it turned out that it would cost us a fortune in taxi fare so we decided to stay around Paphos for the evenings.

For those looking for architecture and culture, there is some wonderful Greek and Roman influenced sites to be found around Paphos and its neighbouring towns

Khandkar In Front Of The Old Castle At Paphos Port
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So we could see a bit more of Cyprus, we opted to take up a day excursion to Nicosia which is in the centre of the island. The capital presents two distinct faces which include the old original part of the city surrounded by sturdy Venetian walls over 400 years old, and a busy modern metropolis representing today's heritage.

Our first stop was at an Archbishop Palace with the statue of Makarios III and just opposite to that was the Eleftheria (Liberty) Monument. One thing Cyprus is full of is beautiful monuments and buildings that have that little something about it. We spent a little time later having lunch in the main town and then walking around for a couple of hours visiting the streets of Nicosia and the souvenir shops. You can also find many different label brands as well which is ideal if you're looking for specific items. Closer into town you can find soldiers guarding certain areas of the wall. This is the divide between the Turkish and Greek sides of Cyprus. There are excursions which take you to see the big TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) flag cut into the side of Pentadaktilos Mountain but you can see from certain places in Nicosia.

Aphrodite Rock
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In our last week we visited Aphrodite Rock which is the supposed birthplace of the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It's a breathtaking site along the shores of Paphos along the road to Limassol. According to ancient tradition, Aphrodite was born from the waves on the site off the coast of Cyprus and was then escorted ashore on a shell by the soft breezes of the Zephyrs at the rocks known as Petra tou Romiou. Petra tou Romiou means "the Rock of the Greek" and does not refer to Aphrodite but to another myth, that of the Byzantine hero Dighenis who threw the rocks at pirates to protect his lady. There some beautiful views of the rocks and the sea there and the beach is a lovely place to spend the afternoon there as are most of the beaches in Cyprus. The country is a lovely place to go and I'd recommend it to anybody looking for a quiet and peaceful trip away from the daily grind of life. Let it relax you.