Cyprus Week 4 – Paddleboards and Village Tours

This might be a short diary for you this week because between KPG, my job and this blog we’ve been so busy beavering away!

To get out of the flat and for a change of scenery, we worked in our favourite café, Croissanterie and drank our body weight in coffee but it has been a very productive week.

However, we have made the most of our lunch “hours”, making a packed lunch at the flat and taking it down to the beach to enjoy in the sun with the cats.  Rainy, cold lunch breaks in Manchester seem a whole lifetime ago, which given they pre-date Covid, it pretty much was.

We have done some really fun things though this week, starting with something that we said we wanted to do before even leaving England…paddleboarding! After a bad experience with SUP in Montenegro where I genuinely thought I might have to be rescued out at sea, and sobbing my way back to shore, I was a little nervous to take the boards out.

The weather in the mornings is perfect for paddleboarding.  It’s sunny and there is practically no wind meaning the sea is so still so no waves to manoeuvre – until a speedboat went past and then it was a completely different story! However, we didn’t fall in once – despite our best efforts (see photo below) – and we paddled all the way to the end of the beach and back, stopping to sunbathe on our boards a few times.

We had an hour of paddleboarding before heading back to shore, to our favourite beachside café, Armonia where we had some toasties and frappes.

Later in the week, having worked solidly from 10-6 at Croissanterie, we went for a sunset walk to stretch our legs, taking a slightly different route on the beach path.

It was on this different path that we discovered the first village this blog is named after – the cat village! I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about the cats of Cyprus, and I had visited Cyprus a few times before, once with Aaron and then over a decade ago with my family. Yet, I cannot believe the number of cats here – I don’t remember there being so many last year, nor there being as many in Protaras where I visited as a kid.

During our stay, we have noticed that many locals leave biscuits for the cats along the beach path and outside of apartment blocks so the cats, at least those in the vicinity of the beach or tourist area, are going hungry.

Anyway, the cat village. I can only assume that a group of locals have put it together but it’s a little play area for cats with some scratch boards and boxes for them to play with and sit in and it’s where food is put for them.

Unfortunately. this means there are quite a lot of flies there but it was so nice to see they had a little area that they were being looked after at. Blimey there were a lot of cats and kittens though.

Once Aaron had managed to drag me away from my furry pals, we continued our walk and saw a spectacular sunset over the sea – the sky was bright orange and red so we stopped for a few beers and some dip to watch the day turn to night.

This weekend, we drove to a traditional Cypriot village called Omodos, which is also a village on one of the Cypriot wine routes and also famous for glass blowing. On this occasion, we didn’t stop for wine, but spend the afternoon wondering around the town, having a look in the little shops and stalls, and to watch the world go by in one of the many cafes there.

We went with Chris and Lex, and were later joined by Alex, Gery and their son Pari, where we talked football (Gery & Alex are Spurs fans!) and tried some traditional Lebanese deserts – baklava and mahalabia which I’d describe as a slightly less rich panna cotta flavoured with rose water and topped with pistachio. The baklava was my favourite, with the mahalabia a bit to floral for our liking.

Omodos is exactly how I picture a traditional Greek village – cobbled streets, colourful shutters, balconies overhanging the streets, pretty stone walls lined with colourful flowers and plants.

In the centre of town sits the Timios Stavros Monastery which serves as a working church and houses a piece of the rope that was used to tie Jesus to the cross, and a cross that contains a piece of the True Cross.

As we visited on a Sunday, the town was really busy, all the restaurants full and the streets very busy so the church courtyard was a peaceful oasis away from the crowds, with spectacular views from the balconies.

After we had finished exploring the streets of Omodos, we went back to Lex and Chris’s for a BBQ which we were all so ready for. One thing is for sure, Cypriots know how to do a BBQ properly and I would quite happily trade it for a Sunday lunch – bold words I know!

To make up for such a work heavy week this week, we’ve got a few very exciting things planned for next week so you’ll have to come back next week to find out more! See you then.

Love,
Meg

xx