A freedom-oriented lifestyle blog

Category: Cyprus

2400 year old tombs and upper part of Paphos

We like to explore historical landmarks, to have a glimpse of past times and get a feeling of how life was back then. The King of Tombs is one of the places in Paphos where you can travel back in time for a moment. This was one of the last things we did before we left Cyprus. 


Vi tycker om att utforska historisk mark för att få en glimt av svunna tider och få en känsla av hur livet kunde var då. “The Tombs of the Kings” är en av de platser i Paphos där du kan resa tillbaka i tiden ett ögonblick. Detta var en av de sista sakerna vi gjorde innan vi lämnade Cypern.

Our last days i Cyprus were spent walking around the upper part of Paphos and exploring an archaeological site unveiling 2400-year old tombs.

Paphos has a several kilometer long beach walk stretching from the airport to the King of Tombs and it’s perfects for walks or taking a run and look at the scenery. We found a stranded ship standing on a coral reef.

It is MV Demetrios II, a Honduran-flagged cargo ship going from Greece to Syria, that had the misfortune of being stranded at the coast of Cyprus.

There is several beaches along the beach walk and we also found a fotball field.

Good that they have placed a sign about rip currents and what to do if you’ll ever find yourself stuck in one.

Took a sneak photo of Pontus while he was focused on his inner thoughts.

There something about seeing the ocean and go in to your own mind.

We hiked up a small hill where we got a good view over Paphos.

We ended our time in Paphos with going to an archaeological site with 2400 year-old tombs. The title is misleading, it was not Kings that where buried here, but aristocrats before and during the Hellenistic period (400-300 B.C).

it is an ongoing excavation and they do not know much about the history behind this Necropolis.

The tombs are replicas of the aristocrats living houses, so the tombs are like going in to a upper class house from 2400 years ago.

There are some man-made caves in the rocks above ground.

But most of the tomb houses are below ground level.

Some tombs are less excavated than others.

and in others you can see detailed designs and find artefacts.

More pictures from the necropolis can be found below.

 

We left Cyprus for Greece, but we both love Cyprus so we will definitely come back here!

Christmas and New year’s eve in Paphos

We spent the last two weeks of 2017 in Paphos,  a quiet city in the southwest of Cyprus. Here, you will breathe antiquity and you will stumble upon archaeological sites here and there around the city. It is also a place filled with British expats, mostly older people, that live here during the winter months. We had the holidays coming up, so we mostly enjoyed the calmness that laid over Paphos and we didn’t do much during the last two weeks of 2017. However, we did explore our vicinity on foot and of course we took our camera with us and we ended the year by going to the cinema.


De sista två veckorna i 2017 spenderade vi i Paphos, en lugn stad i sydvästra Cypern. Här kan du verkligen andas in antiken och man nästan snubblar över arkeologiska platser här och där runt omkring i staden. Det är också en plats fylld med brittiska expats, mestadels äldre människor, som bor här under vintermånaderna. Vi hade helgdagar som kom upp, så vi njöt mest av lugnet som låg över Paphos och vi gjorde inte mycket under de två sista veckorna i 2017. Dock utforskade vi vårt närområde till fots, självklart tog vi med vår kamera, och vi avslutade året med att gå på bio.

We decided to spend Christmas and New year’s eve here in Paphos.

The weather was fantastic just before Christmas, so we decided to wait for Christmas on the beach.

Ulrika was the first one in! Temperature like a Swedish lake during the summer.

We also started with intermittent fasting so our breakfasts or brunches were enjoyed on our balcony.

We also took long walks or runs to explore Paphos.

We found Nautilus anchored at the harbor of Paphos and we looked for captain Nemo, but we couldn’t find him.

We found a peculiar tree in Paphos. Could either be an art installation or a mythical/religious thing.

Paphos has even more peculiar things going in the city, We don’t know if they are building a roller coaster around archaeological sites or if this is a really advanced and huge art installation.

We tried a Cypriotic Meze platter, delicious local dishes with everything from vegetables to different meat dishes. This was just the first part of our night eating out.

Paphos by night when the bigger night clubs are closed for the season.

They had decorated the harbor for Christmas.

Our Christmas Eve, the day we celebrate Christmas, started with lunch, we had found Abbas Herring (Sill) in the local super market so Pontus got “Sillunch” for Christmas.

And After Eight-chocolate to our coffee.

No traditional Donald Duck, but we found strawberries, so we had strawberry with ice cream for dessert after an Indian Chicken Madras dinner. Whisky and coffee ended our Christmas celebration this year.

We did have Benjamin Syrsa (Jiminy Cricket) as a guest. He liked Pontus shoulder very much.

Christmas eve sunset from our balcony.

The weather got worse after Christmas. but it was nice just to take long walks and trying to capture mother nature in action.

The waves got higher and it created a violent, but beautiful scenery.

We’ve noticed that Cyprus is trying to be friends with as many countries as possible. There are a lot of Russian investors here, along with British and American personnel (military) that have set up private British and American Schools on this island. We haven’t seen any signs of China here, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they also are investing in Cyprus.

We walked over 10 kilometers this day and we didn’t get wet once, so our rain cloud-avoiding skill is still intact.

We went to see a movie during boxing week and we love countries that do not dub every English-speaking movie they have in their cinemas. We’ve been to the cinema in Jakarta and Bali (Indonesia,) and Acapulco (Mexico) and we didn’t have to be afraid of not understanding the movies, because they just put subtitles on the movies.

The cinema in Paphos was located inside a shopping mall.

We saw the latest Star Wars movie and we both liked it very much.

This happens if you run Windows on your computer, ” Potentially harmful software detected”.

Pop corn is mandatory if we go to the cinema.

9 Euro to see a movie here on Cyprus, half price compared to Sweden and twice as expensive compared to Indonesia.

Then it was time to welcome 2018 and we spent the last evening of the year 2017 eating a three-course dinner at our favorite place in Paphos ending with a Cypriotic dessert we don’t know the name of, but it tasted like Baklava with rose water.

Freedom-minded meeting in Limassol

We like meeting up with Libertarians and/or Bitcoin enthusiasts wherever we go and in Limassol we got the opportunity to meet with a Swedish freedom-minded person, Robert. Robert is the person behind the blog Avancemang and you can also see his political illustrations here and there, for instance in the newspaper Göteborgsposten and other places. 

Just before we met Robert we both listened to the newly started podcast from the Classical Libertarian Party where Robert was the first guest to have a conversation with another well-known Swedish Libertarian blogger and a candidate for the Liberatarian Party, Erik or Pophöger. Yes, Sweden does have one Libertarian Party, but it is tiny. 


Vi gillar att träffa frihetliga människor och/eller Bitcoinentusiaster vart vi än kommer och i Limassol fick vi möjlighet att träffa en svensk frihetligt sinnad person, Robert. Robert är personen bakom bloggen Avancemang och du kan också se hans politiska illustrationer här och där, till exempel i Göteborgsposten och på andra ställen.

Strax innan vi träffade Robert lyssnade vi båda på den nystartade podcasten från Klassiska Liberala Partiet (KLP) där Robert var den första gästen att prata med en annan känd svensk libertarianbloggare och en kandidat till för KLP, Erik eller Pophöger. Ja, Sverige har ett Libertarianskt parti, men det är litet. Podcasten verkar lovande så det ska bli spännande att se hur den utvecklar sig.

Robert was one of the reasons we decided to go to Limassol and we finally got a chance to meet for lunch and talk about everything from politics, education, expat life and cryptocurrencies.

We wanted to send a message to Pophöger (a political, Swedish blog persona), but we only manage to get this less flattering picture. Hej Erik!

We lived near this egg-shaped building and we only had a few minutes-walk to the beach in Limassol.

Empty beach and perfect for morning runs.

We also used the out-door gym at the Limassol Promenade. It is so much nicer to work out when you are in a warmer climate.

Limassol is also lovely to explore by foot and we really like the Promenade.

There are several art installations along the Promenade, for example the artificial lake, which you can’t jump in to, the warning signs claim that you can get electrocuted if you do.

Other art installations are less lethal. Also a lot of big ships  are anchored along the coast of Limassol.

It looks like some of the ships are involved in building something just off the coast of Limassol, but we don’t know what.

Is it going to be an artificiall island or are they looking for something?

We found a giant Christmas tree among all the palm trees and leafy trees.

Limassol Promenade from the harbour side.

The harbour consists of two parts – the old harbour,

And the new harbour.

There are a lot of nicer restaurants and shops at the new harbour. Off season for tourists so it was quite empty.

There is an newly built artificial island with expensive houses next to the new harbour. The Cypriots are building like crazy and we saw a lot of advertising of future luxury homes and flat complexes that were in the progress of being built.

We walked through the old town of Limassol, but it was a tourist trap, so we didn’t stay there for long.

It is lovely to see fruit trees in peoples gardens, even in a bigger city like Limassol. Imagine just to go outside in the morning and grab a couple of oranges.

We can’t complain about the Cypriotic food. Sheftalia, pictured here, is a traditional Cypriotic dish. It is a sausage wthout skin. Instead the ingredients are wrapped by either caul fat or omentum (the membrane that surrounds the stomach of pig or lamb). We ate it with lots of salad in a Pita bread.

The Greek-Cypriotic part of Cyprus is really like Greece. On our walk we passed the Grivas Digenis Mausoleum, where Georgios Grivas is buried. General Georgios Grivas was the leader of the EOKA guerrilla organisation and the EOKA B paramilitary organisation, that fought for getting rid of the British colonial rule and annex Cyprus to Greece.

Then it was time for us to leave Limassol for where we decided to celebrate Christmas this year, Paphos.
You can find more pictures from Limassol in the slide show below.

 

Kyriazis Medical Museum and Merry Yule to you all!

We visited the Kyriazis medical Museum, which displays medical artifacts used by the medical doctors here in Larnaca from ancient times until the 20th century. We found this private museum using our favorite site for finding things to do around the world, Atlas Obscura.

We are also getting into the Yule feelings here on Cyprus so we will end our blog post with a Yule card from us 🙂


Vi besökte Kyriazis Medicinmuseum, som visar upp medicinska artefakter använda av läkare här i Larnaca från antikens dagar fram till 1900-talet. Vi hittade den här privata sevärdheten med hjälp av vår favoritsida för att hitta saker att göra runt om i världen, Atlas Obscura.

Vi kommer också in i julkänslorna här på Cypern så vi kommer att avsluta vår bloggpost med ett julkort från oss 🙂

Larnaca had a festival which included street art and bubbles and we passed the street where they where setting everything up when we were heading to the private medical museum.

Preparations for the festival later in the evening.

It was local artists that showed of their painting skills.

We also found an outdoor book exchange. We like these kind of things.

This was our mission that day and this is a private collector who open up his doors to the collection twice a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9 AM to 12.30),
You’ll find medical items, books and old documents showing the practice and history of Cypriotic medicine from antiquity to the 20th century.

The museum was founded in 2011 by Marios Kyriazis, who had inherited these artifacts from his grandfather and great-grandfather. This is a donation-based museum, so there is no entrance fee.

You’ll find small notes describing some of the artifacts in the museum.

On old crib from the hospital.

And an old dentist chair can be found here.

As well as more ancient medical tools.

There is even old documents with description of recipes to determine if the patient is going to live or die.

or how to treat epilepsy.

and even how to always have money in your pockets.

On old microscope – still functional today.

Aspirine pills from 1935.

We found interesting adds as well. More pictures from the museum will be displayed in the slideshow below.

 

Tomorrow is the big day during Christmas for us Swedes, its the day you watch Donald duck at 3 pm, eating a “Christmas table” (julbord) and Santa will show up just after dark to give out presents to children and grown ups. We will have our own kind of Christmas here on Cyprus.

Have a lovely and peaceful Yule everyone!

Cyprus and Larnaca in December

We decided to travel to Larnaca  on Cyprus for some time for reflection and recovery after a few months of lovely, but intense social gatherings. Our first week here was all about enjoying the increased number of sun hours per day and walking around our neighborhood with our camera.  We haven’t been to Cyprus before, so we were looking forward to see what kind of architecture style they have and explore their food culture. We heard that the peak season for grapes is December in Cyprus, so we were looking forward to taste grapes and of course olives. 


Vi bestämde oss att resa till Larnaca på Cypern för att få tid till reflektion och återhämtning efter några månader av härliga, men intensiva sociala sammankomster. Vår första vecka här handlade om att njuta av det ökade antalet soltimmar per dag som vi fick och promenera runt i vårt grannskap med vår kamera. Vi har inte varit på Cypern förut, så vi såg fram emot att se vilken typ av arkitekturstil de har här och utforska deras matkultur. Vi hörde att högsäsong för druvor är december på Cypern, så vi såg fram emot att smaka druvor och, naturligtvis, oliver.

This island is what we are exploring right now – Cyprus.

The sun is shining for more than a couple of hours per day, that’s what we wanted right now. The weather in Cyprus is perfect for us, 20 degrees during the day and 10-15 degrees during night time.

The beach in Larnaca, a few people jumped into the water, but the rest of us were satisfied just to touch the water.

The birds didn’t even look like they enjoyed the water, but it was not that cold – like an average Swedish lake during summer.

Christmas is coming and it is noticeable here, mostly an orthodox Catholic island, where the contrast between Christmas ornaments and palm trees is nice.

We found a christmas tree, the Larnaca people are decorating the town for christmas.

The first week here came with a little bit of bad weather, but it didn’t matter to us, we just relaxed and picked up our camera again. This was the view from our accommodation.

It is lovely to explore a place when you have more sun hours during the day that gives you a natural light making it much more fun to take pictures.

There are plenty of classcial buildings in Larnaca. This is one of the few more futuristic buildings we could find.

Other buildings looked more like this.

It is low season for tourism in Cyprus right now and some of the shops and restaurants were closed. However, there is a big expat group consisting of older British people and Russian investors as far as we’ve seen here, so there is some commerce around.

Visiting a place during low season is perfect for us. No crowds and often the local people have time to talk. It is much easier to walk around and notice things like a wall of flowers if there isn’t a lot of tourists in your way.

One of the things to see here is the Church of Saint Lazarus, a church built in the 9th century.

The level of graffiti on the island was higher than we expected. Apparently, this phenomena has risen during the last couple of years and it is probably the increased number of domestic football hooligans on the island according to a person living full time on the island.

We’re ending this blog post with an abandoned land in Larnaca that looked pretty dystopic during a sunset which created really strange colors. It felt like you were placed inside a computer game for a moment.

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