Thu, Jul 2nd - 12:27AM

Day Three:  Monday, June 29

Tim’s first official ‘work day’.  This time we made it easily to Starbucks and back with plenty of time before breakfast.  Now let me tell you a little about the breakfast that they bring each day.  There is a little pot of hot water and little packs of Nescafe coffee or tea and the NoyNoy milk stuff and sugar.  Then there is a basket with a lovely croissant, one slice of wheat and one slice of white toast, and a piece of cake and sometimes another little pastry treat.  One plate has sliced luncheon meat and the first two days it had halloumi cheese, today it was sliced American ‘cheese’, and little packages of Laughing Cow cheese.  A second plate has French butter, honey, and jam.  To round it out is a little carton of French yogurt and an apple and a banana, as well as a glass of juice (apple or orange) and a hard-boiled egg in its own little cup.  Needless to say we never eat all of it, for varying reasons.  The interesting thing is that some of it is REALLY good and some of it, as you can see, is better left on the tray.

After breakfast I walked Tim to the coffee shop where the guys from work were meeting up. We had a good cup of real coffee and I waited with him until the other guys showed up.  I took a roundabout way back to the hotel then spent the rest of the day reading, lounging around and *shock* doing some writing. 

Later in the afternoon I walked over to one of the little Greek cafes and ordered another yummy Village Salad, took pictures of some cats and other interesting things, then stopped at the corner grocery store to pick up some fruit and a bottle of wine.  When Tim got home we explored a little more and grabbed some take out from a different little café and took it back to our hotel.  We were both tired but feeling good about sort of ‘settling’ in a bit.

I wondered if this would be a ‘typical’ day if we were to live here????. (Not that we are planning to, mind you!)

Day Four:  June 30 – Tuesday

Ok…it really felt like we were getting into a routine.  The breakfast, the walk to get REAL coffee, etc, etc.  Hmmm, I was thinking it would be nice to shake it up a bit.  At the coffee shop, I met Teemu from Finland, who had just arrived last night with his wife Tina and little boy Max.  He suggested I try and meet up with her later on. 

This time when I left the coffee shop I went in the opposite direction of the hotel and walked to the shopping area that had more department store type places.  I did lots of looking but not much buying and it was getting really hot, so I headed back to the hotel.  I opened the door to find Tim back for lunch!  So we grabbed a salad and sandwich at a place called the Monaco café.  It was our first disappointment with food here (except of course for the ‘breakfast’ trays).  It was ok, but just sort of like a Denny’s – well, not that bad – maybe a notch up from that.

Tim told me that George would be by about 4:00 to pick me and Tina and Max up for a trip to the Mall, if I wanted to go.  Tina wanted to go to a REAL grocery store.  That puzzled me a little – a grocery store at the mall? – but hey, who am I to turn down a shopping trip.  I met them in the elevator going down, and thankfully Tina speaks fairly good English (as well as Finnish and Swedish).  Max speaks toddler-ese.  He is a year and a half old.  It was fun to walk around and shop a little and get to know each other.  And it was an experience to go grocery shopping in a big supermarket inside the mall, surrounded by clothing and toy stores.  Of course, just going down the aisles and seeing some familiar foods, but many new to me, was interesting, too. 

I have to admit, it was way cool to walk out of the mall with groceries and have George waiting in the Mercedes; jumping out to open doors for us and take packages!  I felt very ‘special’ – lol!

Speaking of George – I chatted with him as we drove along and found out that he is married and has one little daughter, 2 ½.  He does not ‘allow’ his wife to work.  Yes, he wants more children, of course!  His English is sometimes hard to understand, but there was no problem understanding that he is part of a very patriarchal society.  And even though Nicosia appears to be big city-like, it is really still just a small Cypriot village as far as family values, belief systems and customs.   

I informed Lindsay of the George news and she laughed, saying even if he had been single, it sounds like he is not her ‘type’ – independent career woman that she is!

Rene, the other American that Tim is working with, invited us to join him for dinner at a traditional Greek fish restaurant.  He ordered the meze, which is a veritable feast of seafood dishes!  They just keep bringing out plates with more and more fish, shellfish, salad (of course), as well as other vegetables and pasta and bread.  There was SO much food.  Much more than the 3 of us and the two cats could eat.  Yes, cats!  Did I tell you how the Island is overrun with cats?  Ok…I will in a minute, but let me finish up dinner here…well, we sat outside and two little cats came and plunked themselves at my feet, by side of my chair, out of view of the wait staff – lol – smart felines!  So I proceeded to feed them bites of fish all evening.  They were SO cute!  I wanted to bring them home.  Rene said I could probably fit at least one in my suitcase…haha.

*note on the Cats of Cyprus:  Steve was telling us that several hundred years ago, the queen of England at the time had hundreds of cats brought to the island to kill the snakes.  I haven’t been able to find documentation of that.  This, however, is an interesting link, if you want to read it:

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1906.htm

But however they got here, they are definitely here now and have the run of the Island.  I have been taking pictures, so whenever I get around to posting them, you will see lots of cats!

A Cypriot cat:  http://webspace.webring.com/people/jc/chriswrites2/Cyprus_June_July_2009_016.JPG

Day 5:  Wednesday, July 1 – The Heat Catches Up to this Blogger

Ugh.  I think the late night ‘fish feast’ along with wine, following a HOT day of walking all over town yesterday, finally caught up with me.  We did go get our coffee, but I stumbled back ‘home’ to the hotel and stayed put all day…napping and hanging out.  I tried going outside a few times and just felt overwhelmed by the heat, so decided not to fight it and just take a day off from exploring.

I was glad of my decision when Tim called later in the day and said that Steve was taking us all to the old town for a traditional Greek meze dinner – we were to meet at the hotel at 8:30!!! Ok…another nap was in order – lol.

But I managed to stay up and the dinner was – once again – a feast with SO much food!  This meze was meats and potatoes, salad, vegetables and couscous along with pita and tahini and other yummy condiments.  The restaurant itself was in ancient building, didn’t look like much outside or in, but it is known to be one of the most authentic and for a Wednesday night at 9, it was overflowing with customers.  We ate inside and there were no cats L.