At the end of my last day in Paphos, I went horseback riding! My hack through the hills began and ended at Eagle Mountain Ranch, which is adjacent to a wildlife conservation area and a traditional Cypriot village about five miles above Paphos.
I am in the Cypriot seaside resort town of Paphos, a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its archaeological treasures. I am sharing an apartment near the water with a part time tenant who sneaks in from the veranda. She responds to “kitty” even though in Greek she is “γaτάκι” –pronounced “ghataki.”
People in my life have probably not assumed I was going to stop giving advice just because they are technically out of hearing range. And after six weeks, I am starting to feel the need for “sharing” because pretty much no one on the road is going to listen to my opinions, including the woman who gave me a manicure today and filed my nails so they looked like salamander toes.
This is not my hand after the manicure. This is actual salamander toes.
For the last several days, I have been in Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus. Since the reunification of Berlin, Nicosia is the only city in the world that is divided between two nations. (Istanbul is divided between two continents but, unlike Nicosia, it is one big happy family). I am staying on the Greek side but close enough to the Turkish side that I can hear the call to prayer from the Mosque on the other side of the “green line” while I am listening to the chanting from the local Greek Orthodox church.
There is a tiny shop in Larnaca that, from the street, looks like a cross between conceptual art and a pottery studio. Once inside, you realize those brownish babies and body parts are candles.
Cyprus wasn’t on my short list. Or any list. I flew here from Tel Aviv following an elaborate multi-variable calculus involving the several ways to get to Jordan via Safed, all of which are either expensive or complex. But Cyprus is a really good inadvertent!
