Nicosia (and home)

The Green Line in Nocosia - tacky tourists looking over the green line and no-mans-land towards Turkey
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Going to Nicosia was a long day. We all went as far as Larnica, where we had a look around the paleontology museum. It was small, but ok, and we were lucky to get in as it was about to be closed for a clean-up following flooding a few days ago. We couldnt get into the municipal museum, in the same building, as that had already been closed.

Mum and Jo stayed behind in Larnica while Dad, Colin and I went another 1/2 hour or so along to the divided capital of Nicosia. We parked just outside the odl city walls, had a quick lunch, then set off for our afternoons exploring.

House of Hadji Georgakis Kornesios, Nicosia
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We walked along the top of the walls to the Liberty Monument, a memorial to Cyprus's struggle against colonial rule, EOKA fighters raining the bars on a prison cell. Not a badly made monument really.

Wandering around, we stopped at the Famagusta Gate, one of three fortified accesses in the city wall. Some neat, small side streets took us to the National Struggle Museum, telling the Greek-Cypriot view of the 1955-59 conflict to free Cyprus from British rule. Interesting but a bit gruesome!

Theseus and the Minotaur, Mosaics in Pafos
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We went past (but not inside) the Omeriye Mosque on our way to Hadji Georgakis Kornesios house, a really neat old Turkish style mansion. Georgakis Kornesios was a Turkish dragoman.

We went up to the frontline viewing platform between Greek Cyprus and Turkish Cyprus, complete with sandbags, soldiers with machine guns and life going on as normal in the nearby workshops etc, and had a look across no-mans-land. We couldnt see alot, no-mans-land was a rat infested wasteland, but Turkish Nicosia was not much different to where we were standing. If we'd had more time, we could have taken a day trip over the border and round the Turkish part of the old city. We did have time for a quick look at an ok history museum before having to go back to Larnica to pick up Mum and Jo.

Tombs of the Kings, Pafos
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Our last day was a really long one. The flight left late at night so we had plenty of time to pack up and explore Pafos, including negotiating the backstreets around some badly signposted roadworks.

First stop were the Tombs of the Kings, a complex of rock-cut tombs, graves of the wealthy but not royalty. They ranged from simple tombs to more complex with pillars, paintings and ornaments. As it was so hot outside, we spent quite a bit of time looking round inside the tombs, not only cut into rock but also now underground.

Tombs of the Kings, Pafos
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Lunch preceeded a trip round the aquarium, which surprisingly wasnt too bad. Except for a few of the bigger fish who didnt have a lot of space. Next Mum and Jo went shopping while Dad, Colin and I headed back to the harbour for a closer look at the fort, ruins and mosaics. The mosaics were neat, housed in a cluster of ruined buildings (all Roman), and covered a variety of subjects.

We had dinner in one of many similar waterfront restaurants. The food was ok, and we could easily drag it out for a while as the service was so slow. Wasting more time before going to the airport, we went to a sports bar for a beer and some football, then to a cinema to see Rush Hour 2, wandered around a bit...then finally getting to the airport and finding chaos. The airport at Larnaca had been closed as the ground staff were striking, so all flights were coming in and out of Paphos. Despite all this, we still left on time!