Cyprus & Greece

We started off early, picking the Knells up just after 6:00am. Easy ride to the airport, then we went to check in.
Bad news.
Our flight to JFK was delayed and we would miss our connecting flight to Athens...ugg, they decided to send us anyway in hopes that our flight was delayed!

Excited and ambitious on our first flight!
Ended up missing our connection by less than 5 minutes, the plane was just pulling away from the door. So they re-routed us through Amsterdam, then on to Athens. In Athens we had obviously missed our connecting flight to Cyprus and unfortunately the tickets were non-refundable and non-flexible.....so yes we had to shell out more money for the flight to Cyprus.
By the time we got there, 30 hours of travel later, it was late Wednesday night....remember we left early Tuesday morning. Lost a whole day in there somewhere! Abe and Gretch were happy to finally be there!

We were loving the spring air and the cool Greek writing!

Even though we were exhausted, we had to explore the Four Seasons,(which was amazing) and we found this gigantic pineapple! We were slap happy and thought it was hilarious! Just a tree of course, but you know me and pineapples, I couldn't resist!
After a good night sleep, breakfast and a real meal were a welcome sight! Sitting out on the pool patio felt wonderful!

The Four Season's property was beautiful! We would have loved to stay and lounge for days, but this was our main day to see the island! So off we went!

We went into the nearest city called Limassol and walked through the markets and streets! This building looked so beautiful to me, very European!

In one of the markets was a huge box full of these sweet little spicimens! Stay tuned, they make another appearance!

None of us did much research about Cyprus, but Abe and Gretchen had some "Cliff Claven" facts on hand....one was that Cyprus was the first place cats were domesticated.....and we are guessing they have never stopped....they are everywhere! At breakfast, in the street and we thought this cat herder was hilarious! They were all over him!

Our first tourist stop was the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty!

The water color was unreal, and coastline spectacular!

To get closer to the beach, we took this path and tunnel that was only wide enough for one pair of shoulders at a time!

Ahhh, the SUN!

We were just enjoying ourselves taking pictures when we noticed the Knells.....

Abe was taking pictures of his Aphrodite....we busted up! So Hans had to have his turn!

Wow, need I say more! What a hoot! Sure love that guy!Abe thought it might be a sign that the first rock he picked up to skip had a seaweed "A" on it for either Abe or Aphrodite!

Love these guys!

It was cool to look through this dark tunnel and have the turquoise water glowing at the end!

We journeyed on to the coastal town of Paphos. This was the old fort.

Hans decided to find a happy place and had a small explosion in the cramped position! We laughed and....
LAUGHED!

On the roof looking out over the Mediterranean!

Jail cells and very cool arches and architecture!

Lunch next to the water.

Beautiful day, setting, and friends!

Next we headed to some ruins in Paphos which is were the old capitol of Cyprus was BC. I can't even comprehend this, but it was there and I saw them. The most intricate, colorful and beautiful mosaic floors I've ever seen!

They looked like huge rugs...

They were actual stones of that color....blues, reds and yellows!

When you get closer and see the detail of this little boy's bum, look at the different shades of stone....these little pieces were about 1/4 inch square!

These rockin' calves made me laugh....incredible non the less!

Next we made our way to a church where the Apostle Paul came to preach....this church was built on the ruins of that church.

But this is the actual pillar he was tied to and was given 40 lashes for speaking about the "unknown" God.

The Tomb of the Kings was a burial ground of the upper classes. It was still creepy!

Abe even busted out his Thriller dance skills!

Burial spots within the caverns!

After all of our exploring, we took a two hour drive west and north to the capital Nicossia. This is where Hans was going to be working the next couple of days. The next morning, Abe and Hans went to the conference where Hans was speaking and Gretch and I went to explore! Lucky for me, Gretchen lived in England so was comfortable driving on the left side, because I would have freaked out! She drove us to the town center and we started exploring. The town center was surrounded by this huge wall that was in a circular shape with arrow points coming out of it. Bizarre! The interesting part about this city is, in 1974, Turkey invaded and took half of it over along with the northern third of the island. We were walking down a shopping street and didn't realize were were crossing the border. We had our passports so we decided to go for it! We couldn't take pictures in the border area, but it was crazy. Two blocks of bombed out buildings that pretty much create the border.

The Turkish flag and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus flag!

We found the Mosque and decided to go in, but had to remove our shoes and cover our heads first. It was very empty inside. Just a lot of carpet space for their praying!

The beautiful stone building makes me wonder if the Turkish invaded this far to make sure they had this mosque.....

As we stepped across the street from the mosque, I couldn't believe the sign... Turkish Delight? I thought that was made up in the Narnia books? We had to try some and bring some home for the kids!

The store was beautiful, and the fresh turkish delight was actually very good! The rose flavor tasted exactly how a rose smells....crazy!

After a little more exploring, we found this great square with this darling little Greek Orthodox church right in the center of it! Great shops and cafes surrounding it, and trees growing out of a few inch opening in the stone!

Back on the Cyprus side, Gretchen and I loved the colors....blue an yellow, all different shades!

We stopped and had some lunch and loved that diet coke was called coke light, sounds way more appealing! The drink was of course followed up by some divine crepes! I should have taken pictures of them, but they were devoured way too fast! We loved them so much that we had two more that day and one every day after that.....nutella and banana was the best! I think it might be a new weekend breakfast tradition!

We brought Abe and Hans back to enjoy the old city, we just loved the feeling of these little streets, couldn't get enough! That night Hans and I went to dinner with some people from Cyprus while Abe and Gretch crashed. I was jealous because in Cyprus dinner usually starts around 9:00. We didn't get back from dinner until 1:00am. Tired...yes!

The next day, Abe had had enough of the conference and decided to come with us! We explored a little more and headed to the coast. Agia Napa. We weren't sure where to access the beach, but found this road that lead to a life guard stand.... we were really excited until we realized it was total garbage, rocky, dirty and surrounded by people over 70. We lovingly referred to it as Cacoon Beach, because all these Grandmas and Grandpas were having a dang good time listening to the accordion music...HILARIOUS!

This is Abe's sad face and Gretch can't even stop laughing to fake a sad face!

We drove a little more and found it..... amazing water, beautiful sand....and a few topless Germans...yikes!

A cute little Greek Orthodox church right on the beach.

Look at that blue! So beautiful!

That night we were invited back into the old city for a traditional Cypriate meal! I was dang excited, I love experience true culture, and boy did I experience!

This is my snail....yep escargot! I always thought they would be special or different than snails I've seen, but NOPE! They look exactly like the snails I've found in my yard.

Didn't taste bad at all....not good either, and the texture was just like meat. Interesting. I luckily got a little one, when Gretchen went to pull hers out of the shell, it kept coming and coming, way too long, it couldn't be done! Especially with Hans and Abe moaning and groaning!
Their pita, yogurt sauce, Greek salads and grilled houllomi cheese were all divine, but the intestine sausages and liver were best left untouched!

We were with people from Iceland, Norway, England and Cyprus. Such great new friends that we wouldn't be too surprised to see in Utah in the near future!

We had to get up early for our flight to Athens...the sleep deprivation continues!

Yeah! Greece! Gyros! Feta! Mousaka! The Acropolis! The Parthenon! Yeah!

All in one afternoon!

Great Greek cafe right under the looming Acropolis! Loved it!

Best gyro and feta I've ever tasted! And the baklava....oh man the baklava!

The Acropolis above the shopping streets! It is amazing how it feels like it rises up out of the mountain!

The theater on the way up to the Acropolis. Looks like it is still used, very cool.

This is Mars Hill where Paul preached again of the "unknown God." I bet the Greeks thought he was crazy....Zues, Athena and Poseidon, these were the Gods they thought they knew!

On top of the Acropolis. Tons of people on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. The funny thing was, we saw several people in parkas...yes puffy coats! We were loving the warmth!

The huge sprawling city of Athens.

The Parthenon is under construction to stabilize it! Funny fact....it only took 11 years to build and it has been under stabilization construction since 2000.....hmmmm! Maybe they had it right the first time around....even 400BC!

I love this flag....they are a very patriotic people, it was everywhere!

Who knew when they were playing in their underwear in the '70's that they would make it here together someday!

Standing on Mars Hill with the Acropolis behind us!

The Temple of Zues...16 columns standing of the original 104...I bet it was incredible!Great shot by Gretchen, the Acropolis at dusk with the Greek flags flying!

The Olympic Stadium that was built for the first modern day Olympics sometime in the early 1900s. And our Olympians!

Ohh yes! (Said in the Triumph accent!)

The Acropolis at night was breathtaking....our resturant was right beneath it and we ate on the roof!

Awesome finish to a great adventure with dear friends!

Our cool restaurant behind us! When we asked for our bill, the waiter asked why...he couldn't believe we wanted to leave. We didn't, but another early flight!

On our way back to the hotel, we found a crepe place and Hans got a fancy one that they lit on fire at the table. The blue flames didn't come through, and they didn't burn off all the alcohol either....Hans said it tasted like chocolate nyquil! My nutella was awesome!

It was a great whirlwind adventure! Loved experiencing new places and cultures, and loved coming home just as much! Thanks to Lindsey, Matthew and Gracie for doing such an awesome job! Sure love you guys!

Abe and Gretchen, what's next....Costa Rica? Brazil? Italy? And who else wants to come?
Gretchen and Abe, we sure love you and loved spending such fun times together, we will never forget it! Thanks!