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Time for a Cuppa!

The Magazine

For all the Family

My Second Visit to Paphos Cyprus
By
Mike Coatesworth

My daughter, Lesley, had moved to Cyprus to live, so when she rang and asked me to visit her for a holiday, I decided to take her up on her offer. Over the previous months, I had been under a lot of pressure, due to my sister passing away, and my moving home twice. I knew that I was in need of a rest, and having visited Cyprus before, I knew it to be a wonderful and relaxing paradise island.

My son, Stephen and his girlfriend, Pam, along with her nephew, nine year old Nathan, accompanied me. We flew with Cyprus Airways, as they were the only company I had found that I could book and fly with at short notice.

This was Nathan's first trip overseas and he was very excited. "What do I call you?" He asked as we were introduced. "Do I call you Mike?"

"You can call me Granddad," I replied laughingly as I ruffled his hair.

It was freezing the following morning as we got in the car and prepared to leave the snow filled countryside of Yorkshire. I wrapped myself up in warm clothing as the icy wind began to bite. The smell of coffee filled my nostrils as I got into the car, and for a moment I looked up at my kitchen window, to find my wife, Betty, looking out at me. I knew that she was preparing herself some breakfast, and I knew that I was going to miss her. I had asked her to come with me, but she had politely refused, as she wanted to get the renovations in the house completed, and she could have it done a lot quicker if I was out of the way. "Anyway, I don't really like hot countries," she had stated. "You go, and I'll see you in two weeks."

I waved to her and she waved back, and I knew that she would still be standing at the window for a few minutes after I had gone, as she had done so when other family members had left to visit places in the previous months. It was a sort of ritual, and I don't know why she did this? Maybe she was hoping that the person leaving would return a few minutes later?

Soon we were heading down the motorway and as we passed the moors, everything was covered in a blanket of snow as far as the eye could see. I was thankful for the warmth from the car heater as just looking at the white rolling hills in the distance made me shiver.

When we arrived at Manchester Airport and checked in at the flight desk, I found Cyprus Airways very helpful and courteous. They made arrangements for me to have assistance in getting on the plane, and when all the passengers were ready to board, we were given priority and ushered to the front of the queue, and after displaying our passports and boarding passes, Stephen and I were escorted to the plane by the friendly airport officials. The staff couldn't do enough for us, and after transferring to a smaller wheelchair; we were taken up in a lift and boarded the plane where we had been issued front seats for our convenience. After we were settled, the rest of the passengers boarded the plane and we were off to a two-week holiday in the sun, where my intentions were to do nothing at all but sit and relax.

With engines screaming in protest, the plane soared high into the dark grey clouds that I knew would open up and soon more snow would be falling. As the pilot levelled off, the noise of the engines turn to a comfortable hum, and the seatbelt light went out and everyone appeared to settle down for the flight. Although I have visited twenty five countries, it has never ceased to amaze me how the majority of my fellow passengers always appear to be tensed up on take off and landing, but as soon as the seatbelt sign goes out, they are immediately relaxed. Now whether it is the noise that worries them, I'm not sure, but later, when a fellow passenger asked me if I could smell bacon and eggs, he didn't seem too amused when I informed him it was the angels cooking their breakfast outside on the heat of the engines. I'm sure that I saw him take a sideways glance out of the porthole to see if I was telling him the truth.

When we landed in Cyprus four and a half hours later, we were the last to leave the plane, but once again the staff were very helpful and we were in the arrival lounge with the minimum of inconvenience. As we went through passport control and into the main terminal, I heard Lesley before I saw her, "Hi Dad," she called out, waving her arms faster than a young chick trying to keep airborne.

It was already dark when we had landed, and already I could hear the loud sounds from the crickets in the neighbouring area. All my warm clothing had been shed, and I was now down to my shirtsleeves. After the flight I was a little tired, so even though I was being enticed to go out into the town, I decided to remain in the house and enjoy the peace and quiet.

After the others had gone out, I sat by the window in my room with a Cuppa in my hand, and looked across the dark open fields to the bright lights of the harbour in the very near distance, enjoying the serene atmosphere and the smell of the ozone from the ocean as it wafted by my nostrils, all was quiet save for the waves crashing gently on the shore, and in the background, a woman was singing and even though I couldn't understand the words, it was a beautiful song. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to sit by the window at the same time every night to see if she returned, and to my delight, she did. The funny thing was, it was the same song every time and appeared to be coming from the ocean, I'm sure it was a mermaid. I wonder if she is still singing? I will miss her wonderful voice.

The next morning, the first thing that we did after breakfast was to hire a car. By the time the car was delivered to the house, we were ready for a trip around the local villages to get a view as to how the locals lived and fared on an island where drinking water is almost as precious as gold, in fact most of the islanders we saw were drinking bottled water, bought from the local shops, so taking note, e did the same, even though the tap water is fully drinkable.

After we had visited several villages and taken lots of pictures, it was decided to visit a village high in the mountains where we could have a traditional local evening meal. Soon we were over five thousand feet above the towns and still climbing, until we eventually came across the village marked on our map. It was a very small village, so small that it wouldn't even pass for a hamlet in rural England. There were approximately seven houses scattered around, but nowhere that sold food and drink, which surprised us as the other villages we had passed through all had at least one eating establishment. We decided to drive through the village and see if there was another one further up in case we had made a mistake and had gone to the wrong destination. By now it was dark, and the roads, or rather mountain tracks were getting narrower, and Neil, our driver was getting worried as the only lights were from our vehicle.

"Don't panic," I told him. "Only start worrying when we run out of road." Then out of nowhere I heard a woman singing, it was the song that I had heard the previous evening. I told Neil to stop immediately, and he got out and took a look. A few yards in front of us, we did in fact, run out of road. We were at the peak and couldn't turn around. So my son, Stephen, had to walk behind the car and slowly guide the driver back for approximately a hundred yards until we found a place where we could turn very carefully and go back down the mountain. We were all relieved when we eventually came across the beginning of the road lights, and soon we were back in Paphos town, were we decided to have our meal of the local dish, Kleftiko, and the smell the of lamb dish was mouth watering. It had been a wonderful and enlightening first day, and one where we promised ourselves never again to visit a remote village in the dark.

As I lay my head on my pillow that night, the song from the mysterious lady was still going through my mind.

As I awoke the following morning, the smell of fresh hot bread was very pleasing, Neil was preparing breakfast. "Hi Pops," he called out, "Would you like a couple of boiled eggs?"

Arrangements were made for us to visit Lefcosia, formerly known as Nicosia. This is the main border between Turkish occupied and Cypriot residents, dividing north and south Cyprus. The Cypriot soldiers have been on alert there since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. We had been warned not to take any pictures of Cypriot or UN soldiers on duty there as we could get ourselves into a lot of trouble from the authorities on both sides.

The sun was shining high in the clear blue sky and the birds were singing merrily as I sat under a palm tree on the veranda waiting for the others to get ready for the trip. A last minute check was made before we left to ensure that we had everything that we needed for the long journey ahead.

After a short drive down the motorway, and as we were in no hurry, we decided once again to take the scenic route through the Villages in the mountains, but this time we were fully equipped with maps. Normally the journey would have taken approximately one and a half hours, but we stopped often to see some of the tourist attractions, one of which was a winery, and to our surprise and delight, it was adapted for wheelchairs, so I had no problem in getting around. There were no other vehicles around when we pulled up outside the building, so we weren't sure as to whether it was open or not? The main door suddenly opened and the smiling owner came out to greet us and shook our hands. In broken English he explained that we were the first visitors of the day and he ushered us into the entranceway where there were tables set out with an assortment of wines on one side and boxes of wine glasses on the other.

We were escorted to the room were the grapes were crushed and the juice extracted in to giant stainless steel vats. We were given a short lecture on the different temperatures for different wines, and how long each batch was regulated. We then went to the bottling room and learned how each bottle was sterilised, labelled and finally stored, we even briefly got to use the machine for corking the bottles. Everywhere in the room the empty bottles were stacked high, and I was a little worried about hitting one of them in case I sent them all crashing, but Stephen took hold of the wheelchair and carefully guided me through the rest of the room. After another short lecture, we were guided to the place I had been looking forward to, the wine tasting room.

The owner sat us around a large wooden table with several different bottles of wine in front of us and we were each given three glasses. We helped ourselves to the different wines and tasted them. I wasn't too keen on the first batch, but when I tried the sweet red wine, I found it tasted just perfect and immediately purchased three bottles. After eating some of the fresh fruit that we had been offered, I waited for the rest of my companions to purchase some of the wine that they also liked.

It was time to say farewell, but before we left, the owner handed me a package. It was two of the bottles of wine that we hadn't purchased, but he wanted us to have them as a gift to try them later. We thanked him and he was still waving to us as we drove out of the driveway onto the main road.

As time was getting on, we decided to go straight on to our destination and after driving along the country roads through wine plantations and Banana plantations, within thirty minutes we were entering the city of Lefcosia. We parked the car as near to the border as was permitted and went the rest of the way on foot. We didn't have far to go before two UN soldiers who informed us against taking pictures confronted us, and showed us the route that we were allowed to safely take. The whole of this area was so quiet that I didn't even hear any birds singing. We went along the border and looked at the abandoned property that was in dire need of repair or demolition and which I knew would never be occupied again. Even if the Turkish military left Cyprus, we were informed that the property would probably be demolished, but at the moment, due to an agreement on both sides, the property was to remain exactly as it had been after the invasion.

Finally we came across our first sighting of an armed Cypriot soldier standing guard on the ramparts of a wall that had wide slots for viewing the other side. He looked at me as I approached, and I pointed to the camera around my neck and asked if I could take a picture, but without speaking, he shook his head and turned away. So I decided not to do anything that would possibly upset the locals and followed the rest of my family into the information bureau, where we were given free literature to answer any questions that we may have had.

We spent a good while around this area before leaving the border and heading to the main tourist attractions in the town.

When we finally left Lefcosia, we headed back along the country roads with the intention of meeting up with the motorway before nightfall. We had been driving for almost an hour without any sign of the main road and theorised that we must have missed our turn off. Suddenly we came across houses with large Cypriot flags in the front gardens, and I realised that something was wrong. So after stopping the car, I looked at the map, and a few seconds later I told Neil to reverse up and go back the way we had come as fast as we could. Neil did as I requested without question and a few minutes later he stopped the car. "What's up?" he inquired.

I informed him that we had been less than a hundred feet from the border of which I wasn't sure who was in control there, but the last thing that I wanted was to be arrested, and if I hadn't noticed the flags in the gardens?

The two weeks that I spent in Cyprus were brilliant, the most enjoyable that I have ever spent in any country that I have visited so far. The people are very friendly, and courteous, and the whole country is filled with history from at least six hundred years before the Roman period. And everywhere you travel there is always someone offering you free fresh oranges, or apples and Bananas. Some of the farmers were giving away fresh tomatoes rather than let them go to waste.

I found the local food very palatable and I must admit that I did tend to over indulge myself a little. After visiting other towns and coasts such as Limassol, Polis and Coral bay. We saved our last whole day, for a special trip to the most well known resort of Troodos high up in the mountains. Learning from experience of the previous days, we stuck to the main roads and highways, as there had been a lot of snowfall reported. I couldn't believe that a hot country in the middle of the Mediterranean, could possible have snow, but as we entered the large village, the white snow that I had left Yorkshire for, was here, and it was so cold that I had to wear a jumper. The view from the village over the rest of the island was worth getting a little chilly for. We spent a good couple of hours in the village, looking at the horses that were available for trekking higher up into the mountains to visit places not accessible to motor vehicles. This is also an excellent place for fishing, or you can just stroll along and enjoy the magnificent scenery that surrounds the village. It was time for us to leave the friendly inhabitants and make our way home before it got dark.

The last day of our stay in Cyprus was spent buying gifts to take home to our families and enjoying the hospitality and food from the locals in Paphos.

That night, I sat by my window looking out to the well lit bay, listening to the boats moving about in the harbour as the sailors prepared them for the following morning's deep sea fishing excursions. Finally all was quiet, and only the crickets could be heard, and it was like this for almost half an hour until a gentle breeze flowed through the window and then even the crickets went silent as the mysterious woman began once again to sing. It was as if the whole island was listening to her soothing voice that appeared to go on for eternity, and to be honest, it would be well worth a return visit just to hear the music.

I awoke still sat by the window, but with a blanket around me, and later, when I went into the main room, I thanked whoever it was that had the decency to prevent me from getting cold. Each and everyone of them stared at me, and apparently not one of them had been in my room, never mind placing a blanket around me for my warmth, but this wasn't why they were staring at me, and it was only when Stephen handed me a mirror that I found the reason for their strange looks.

On my forehead was the imprint from a pair of lips, where I had been kissed?

Mike Coatesworth

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