My Travel Adventures

On my last morning in Cyprus, I made a quick walking tour of Limassol. The city has a relatively new cathedral dedicated to Agia Napa as well as a very blocky medieval castle, but its most appealing attraction is its long, palm-lined waterfront. Even quite early in the morning, people were walking and jogging beneath the palm trees, and elderly men sat on the pier with fishing lines drooping into the water. Since the waterfront forms a gentle convex curve, one can view the new high-rise buildings of Limassol and the hills behind the city by walking out on one of the jetties.

I began the day at the Tombs of the Kings in Paphos. The site’s name is a bit of a misnomer: no kings are thought to be buried in the necropolis, but the tombs were originally thought too fancy not to have been built – or rather dug out – for royalty. While some are simply niches dug into rocks, several catacombs branch off from proper Greek-style courtyards with columns that would have resembled the living quarters of the buried.

Putting far too much faith in Google Maps, I left my hotel in Kakopetria a little after eight and, after making a quick stop to check the pressure in my tyres, arrived at the Church of Panagia tou Araka at nine o’clock. That was when the church was supposed to open according to Google but there was a sign outside saying that the opening time was actually ten. I probably should have expected this, as Google Maps has the correct opening times for several other churches in the area, including the lunch break between one and two in the afternoon.

I checked out of my hotel at half past eight and drove down to the Larnaca waterfront. The streets were largely empty as people were still waking up from New Year’s Eve, and there were plenty of parking spaces all along the road, but when I parked the car, I realised the ticket machine only accepted coins. Luckily, I quickly found a private parking place that took cards. It was opposite Europe Square, which houses the historical buildings of the district administration, the municipal art gallery, and the archives museum. Incidentally, Europe Square is also where one can find the statue of Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism and perhaps the most famous citizen of Kition, now Larnaca.    

I arrived in Cyprus on Tuesday evening, picked up my rental car at Larnaca Airport, and drove to my hotel north of the city centre. Both the car and the location of my hotel came in handy the next day when I drove up to spend a day in Nicosia. Somewhat confusingly, locals and road signs refer to the Cypriot capital not as Nicosia but as Lefkosia, which is an older name likely derived from the words “leukós” (meaning white) and either “theós” or “theá” (meaning god and goddess, respectively). It is quite possible and fitting that the name recalled the sea goddess Leucothea.

On my last half-day in Malta, I woke up early and made a solo trip to Valletta. Brent and Joel, who had arrived in Malta a day earlier than I did, had visited and recommended the archaeological museum in town, so they did not join me for the first few hours. I took the number one bus from Senglea to main gate of Valletta, joining the ranks of the immigrant community who make this whole island run on their morning commute. After finishing my breakfast, I walked to the eastern end of the island to take in the views and to kill some time before the museum’s opening hours. Unexpectedly, it opened a little before nine o’clock, and I slipped in as the first visitor of the day.

We had rented our car for two days, and on the second day of our driving around the island, we returned to Mdina. The city of Mdina was the capital of Malta from its founding by the Phoenicians around the eight century BCE until the Middle Ages. Its name was originally Maleth – also the name applied to the whole island. Mdina is famous for its massive walls, which accentuate the city’s stark elevation above the countryside and protect its dramatic spires. It has a cathedral dedicated to Saint Paul, who was shipwrecked on Malta and was supposed to have met the Roman governor Publius on the site of the future cathedral.