I found a message from Jim reminding me to reconfirm our reservations when we leave Cyprus on Tuesday and the reservations from London home on Wednesday. Unfortunately we will be spending our final few days in Cyprus out of computer access, as Liz has rented a small apartment in Larnaka within walking distance to the beach. Anita and I can not think of a more wonderful way to spend the final days of this magical trip than soaking up the sun and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.
Liz and George arrived a few minutes earlier than planned because George cancelled his plans to visit one of his banks yesterday. I don't know if he will be with us today as we handle some last minute visits with family who will be out of town for the weekend, and back to work by the time we leave next week. We also have a bit of shopping to complete.
It took about 30 minutes to drive to the beach. Liz had told us to wear our swimsuits under our clothes as there would be no easy location to change. Within about 20 minutes, Anita and I were ready to swim. We had our loungers and the umbrella man had rented us an umbrella for the day. George, Liz and even the waitress at the cafe where George would spend the day guarding our stuff wanted us to sit and enjoy a cold drink or morning coffee. I explained that I had come from America to swim in the sea, and that was my first activity. Everything else could wait.
Of course, Anita and I were careful in this beach sun. We are at the end of high summer and the sun is still very bright and warm. Add the reflection from the turquoise blue water, and we were in danger of sunburn. We could walk out on a sandy, ridged bottom through bathwater warm water almost a quarter mile. Only occasionally, depending on our line of walking did I not touch the bottom. I swim easily - not so with Anita, so she stayed behind me. As long as she can touch bottom, she feels safe. We paddled around for 30-45 minutes and then decided it was time to get back to the umbrella and use our sun screen.
We were relaxing in the partial shade of the umbrella when Liz came with snorkeling gear, ready to swim with us. We joined her in the water, walking out almost to the rocky breakwater wall. At that point she put on snorkel and mask to see if any fish were visible. Anita had never snorkeled before, so was reluctant to try. Liz convinced her and Anita snorkeled while walking in the water. She was so excited to see the fish. Don't know what they were - certainly not the brilliant tropical fish when I have snorkeled in Hawaii and at the Great Barrier Reef. But it was great fun for Anita to experience something new.
Liz is an expert swimmer and certified life guard, so when Anita confessed that she had never been able to swim or even float, Liz took the challenge. Within just a few minutes, Anita was floating on her back like she had been doing it for a long time. Of course, the salt water helped her buoyancy, but she was floating! In fact, she continued to float from time to time, so that Liz began to teach her how to kick her legs to move herself along in the water.
I am not an expert swimmer, but I am comfortable in the water and enjoy swimming in my own way. I especially enjoy simply floating vertically by raising my legs at the knees and directing my movement with my hands and arms. It's not exactly a dog paddle, I mostly let the direction of the swells determine my movement.
The three of us played and talked in the water until our mother Liz decided we needed to return to the beach and rest. Anita and I fell asleep until Liz woke us for lunch at around 1:30. We had put more sun screen on, so we were not burning our skin. Cyprus beaches are fully clothed or partially nude, depending on the comfort of the individual.
We watched a father and his young son splash and play in the water for a long time. The father took his son into deeper water from time to time to get him used to being in water over his head. I watched the son chase his father trying to grab his trunks. When he succeeded the father's trunks were pulled down in the back as the son drew himself close again. It was great to see this relationship.
Lunch was fish mezze - we have photos again of the meal which began with salad, beets, tahini and yogurt with olives and 3 types of fish. One that Anita mistook for bread because of its light colored batter and square shape. The other two looked almost like large square shrimps, but were only pieces of breaded fish with a 'handle' for easier eating. Large lemon pieces were provided to season the fish. This was followed with a whole fish which Liz prepared before we ate the flesh. Other fish were squid and octopus deep fried. The final platters included small crabs broken in half and eaten whole and small red fish which when we were here in 1990, were even smaller and eaten completely whole from head to tail. Because these were larger, we only ate the flesh, although George ate a whole fish at the end of the meal. We again had no room for dessert.
Back to the water with an admonition from Liz not to try to swim for 2 hours. We would walk through the water, but not 'swim'. Anita and I walked out until the water was about hip high and then simply sat down. The wind had strengthened and the waves were coming from several directions. I was able to sit on my knees with my toes dug into the sand to keep myself stable. Anita was not able to copy my stance and was being bounced around too much for her motion sickness, so she went back to the lounger earlier than I did. I finally decided it was time 
to get out of the water and relax in the sun. More lotion to the areas I could reach as Anita was napping again by the time I got to my lounger. Anita had moved hers into the shade and was so protected a bit from the sun. I also fell asleep until Liz woke us around 3 pm. She said the restaurant was offering us afternoon sweets.We talked a bit with Liz before the three of us packed up our belongings and walked to the cafe where George had spent the day enjoying his beer. Our sweets were miniature eggplants, figs and apples. Again Anita and I are hoping to purchase a selection of the sweets to take home.
Our day ended at the beach around 5 pm. Traffic was a bit heavy coming back into Nicosia, and we were at the apartment around 6. Anita was not feeling well, so she went to bed to see if that would help. We were invited to dinner with our hosts in the evening at 8 pm. Anita and I had decided that we were still very full from the fish at 3 pm and would probably not want too much more to eat.
Luckily the restaurant chosen was not a Greek taverna, and the menu choices were such that we had only a couple of appetizers and dessert. I started with onion rings (a favorite appetizer which I like to try whenever I am in a new restaurant). Greek onion rings are very small, with lots of breading and served with a sweet tomato red sauce with a small salad. Anita also had onion rings and ordered an appetizer of prawns on avocado with salad. The prawn were the size that come out of our canned shrimps and were not too good according to Anita. Liz ordered the same and enjoyed it. We shared the onion rings and spring rolls with Liz, Xenia and Panos. My appetizer as a main course was 6 small spring rolls again served with the same light tomato red sauce and salad. Panos ordered chicken kabobs with salad and chips. Xenia had a burger with bacon, salad and chips. Panos did not order dessert. Liz and Xenia had a fruit crepe and Anita had one called MONKEY which was made with Nutella (chocolate and hazelnut paste) and bananas. Both types of crepes had vanilla ice cream as well. I simply ordered ice cream - 4 small scoops of chocolate, vanilla and 2 of strawberry.
The restaurant was named GRAVITY and the unusual decoration was a large TV screen showing films of fashion shows from around the world, with occasional advertisements and profiles of models. There was no sound and only occasional English text explaining what was being shown. We saw shows of clothes that will be sold next spring and summer for men, women, beach and sport wear and work clothes. Liz and Panos spoke in Greek most of the evening. Anita, Xenia and I smiled at each other a lot and occasionally had something to add when the current conversational topic was explained to us.
We arrived home around 11 and went immediately to bed. Anita told me this morning that she was ill much of the night but is feeling much better this morning.
I am recharging my Palm using the method Panos devised when we arrived with a plug on my charger that will not fit the outlets in Cyprus. He is a retired electrical engineer so love tinkering with electrical challenges just like Jim. His arrangement charges the Palm better than in Botswana. I think the strength of the current is more stable here than in Botswana, as the charge from last week lasted until today and Palm battery is not completely empty.
That brings all of you up-to-date. I hope everyone who was reading before we lost our Internet connection is back as a reader. I am hearing from some of you through your comments, and enjoy reading your comments. Thanks for taking the time. I'll continue writing until we lose access next week and will finish up, and post photos as quickly as I can when we get home.
Anita and I can't believe we are less than a week from returning to home.
