Cyprus--Take 2

Escaping the hustle and bustle of Nicosia, we caught a bus up to the Troodos mountains, hiked up and then hitched down to little town called Platres--a quiet and scenic mountain-side town. Where we shared a reasonable priced little hotel,

It was great to find a town without the fracas of a city--the first in a while for me. Marcin taught me 1000, a popular card game in the Middle East.
Went on a little hike up to a waterfall,

and, thanks to Marcin's ability to speak 5 languages (English, Polish, Russian, German and Chinese--so jealous), we were able to hitchhike down to Lamissol, a beach town on the south coast.
We went over to what are supposed to be some of the oldest ruins in Europe, dating back as far as Neolithic 4000BCish--predating continental Europe. Although the ruins we saw dated back as far as 300BC. Apollo was a hit here.

In Limassol, spent some quality time diggin into 'Atlas Shrugged', which I've really enjoyed despite the fact that I disagree with Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism--which argues the inherent morality of selfishness and free market capitalism.

Jumped off the pier into the crystal clear water of the easter Mediterranean that is so salty even I float and after you get out and dry off, a thin film of salt covers most of your body.

Cyprus is littered with cats who were originally introduced to control the indigenous snake population and now, of course, run rampant.

Went up to a town called Aiya Napa where I knew my weak US $ (.4 Cyprus pounds) would disallow me to stay at any of the Hotels (no cheap options here). I did find a cheap little 4 hour boat cruise where we went around the coast and jumped in the water.

After which I scouted out a secluded piece of beach to stay for the night.

Despite it being very warm during the day, though, by 4-5 in the AM it was so cold I could no longer pretend to sleep that I got up and walked around till the sun came up. I knew it would suck, but thought it a chance to experience some suffering; get some of the perspective one needs in order to appreciate what we so easily take for granted. (Evidently I'd forgotten that lesson since I did it in Bali a few years ago, where I ran out of $ the day before my flight.) Anyway, after the sun came up, the beautiful Mediterranean beach quickly erased the cold night...
After returning to Larnaca, where there was an affordable place to stay, I took the long way to the airport and walked a few hours around a salt lake to find the beautiful Hala Sultan Tekese mosque on my way to the airport by foot--a first.

My departing days were much nicer than my arriving...