Cyprus Week 10 – An Ancient City & Traditional Cypriot Sundays

The week started with another visit to Nicosia but this time we had Nick, Lisa & Sarah with us, hooray!

We found a little café to visit down a backstreet in the centre called Apomera which Aaron and I wanted to go to last time we were here but forgot all about it! It’s apparently where the locals go, which must mean that it’s good, so we had to give it a go.

We enjoyed some delicious spinach and cheese pastries and Nick & I shared a baklava too – so good! They had a large selection of different sweet and savoury options and I wanted to try them all! The setting was really lovely too, set in a narrow cobblestone street, and the girl that worked there was so friendly & welcoming, I’d definitely recommend finding this place when in Nicosia.

Feeling both full and awake after a very strong freddo cappuccino, we had a walk through the centre of Nicosia tracing the green line and the main three entrances to the walled city. After this, we found our way back to Ledra Street and crossed over the border into the Turkish side of Nicosia. Aaron and I had already done this a few weeks back, but the stark difference still amazed me. At this point in the day, we decided that we would go for some lunch, before making our way to Ledra Palace, based in the UN buffer zone.

We had heard good things about Bibliotheque but when we got there it was completely closed – having looked online, it looks like it may not have opened since pre-Covid but either way- it was definitely closed. The second choice was Rüstem Kitabevi which is a café and bookstore – the oldest in Cyprus founded in 1937. The place is filled with books from floor to ceiling and it has a proper restaurant upstairs, but we opted to sit in the outdoor patio. We had a traditional lunch which included salad, and a main each (we went for tuna & beans and aubergine and it also included a coffee and cake too. The coffee was a traditional Cypriot coffee, very strong and thick. Sarah hates coffee usually, but this one went down pretty well, until she enjoyed it a bit too much and drank the sludge at the end too.

By time we made it to the buffer zone, it was time for a beer so we stopped in The Home Café, which is located in the UN buffer zone, and opposite Ledra Palace. A few beers later and remembering that one of us needed to drive home, we ventured back into Greek Cyprus to find the car and headed back to Limassol.

The following day was the last day for the guys, and our last day of company! The guys were keen to soak up as much sun as possible to we got up early and headed to Malindi Beach where Nick made friends with some cats (despite being allergic…) and we had a last dip in the sea, and game of ball (obviously!) together in the sun before we dropped them off at the airport for their flight home. We’d all had such a great time and the weekend had flown by; I was really sad to see them all leave!

The rest of the week was spent catching up on work but on Saturday we were keen for a break from our computer screens and to stretch our legs, so we decided to check out the Amathus ruins which are on the coast – around a 20-minute walk from the flat. We’d driven past them enough times on the way to Malindi so thought we’d go and take a look.

It was about £2.50/£3 to get into the actual site and at the entrance there are some information boards about the history of the site. Amathus was an Ancient Royal City of Cyprus until 300BC and was the main place (after Paphos) where the god Aphrodite was worshipped. However, when walking through and looking at the ruins, Aaron and I really had no idea what we were looking at as there was no further information around the site. You could also walk all over the ruins and touch everything which we thought was quite odd.

After a day of trying to be cultured, we ended up in Gerrards for the evening to watch the football and had an epic (on Aaron’s part) darts battle where we played around 20 games of around the clock where Aaron had reached 20 before I’d even gotten past 5. Darts is hard…why does it never go where you aim?!

On Sunday, we were kindly invited over to Lexi’s mum’s house on Saturday for lunch. We were so excited because we’d been for a BBQ at Lexi’s mum’s when we visited in 2020 and it was DELICIOUS so we couldn’t wait for more of her traditional Cypriot cooking!

We really wanted to take her a little something as a thank you for having us so we decided to pick up some flowers on our way. Could we find any?! NO! We looked everywhere and it was only when we had given up and had decided to leave it that we drove past a flower shop. We were already 15 minutes late by this point but we thought best to be late and turn up with something than late and empty handed. I ran into the florist and picked some flowers and there was a huge queue! We were both on edge and sweating and ended up arriving over 30 minutes late. We felt terrible but at least we had flowers….!

The lunch was amazing – as was expected – and included all of the delicious Greek foods you can think of, halloumi, souvlaki, sheftalia, Greek salad, stuffed peppers. There was enough food to feed about 20 people, and we were sent home with a massive box of leftovers which was so kind. It was enough for two more lunches each that week!

Cypriot culture is the best, all about getting together with friends and family and enjoying some great food together. It was the perfect Sunday.

By the time lunch was finished, it was getting dark so before we headed home, we decided to go for a coffee with Lex & Chris at the Four Seasons. Despite living opposite it for 10 weeks, we had never gone inside. However, even as we joined the motorway, we could tell that Limassol was busy, in fact it was the most cars we’d seen on the motorway since we’d been there. The Four Seasons was no different. Cars parked everywhere and a queue coming out of Colours Café, which is part of the Four Seasons Hotel. We went into the hotel and asked for a table, but there was nothing free and they told us to come back and check in around 10 minutes.

We took a stroll around the hotel, which unsurprisingly was incredible. It had a gorgeous, relaxing spa area, as well as the most beautiful outdoor pool area, complete with a pool with koi carp swimming in it. The hotel is right on the beach too so you could hear the sea!

Unfortunately, the situation in the café was much the same after 10 minutes so we decided to give it a miss and come back next week instead. We ended up in Croseria café, where Aaron and I often go to work in the day – it was strange being there at night and without our laptops! Also, the same girl that serves us in the day was there at night, which left us wondering whether she ever goes home.

We can’t believe we’ve only got two more weeks left in sunny Cyprus and that next week is our penultimate week. Read all about it next week!

Love, Meg

xx