Day 2 in Cyprus: Larnaca and Dhekelia

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.

Walking down the waterfront, I soon reached the medieval fort of Larnaca, which was closed for New Year’s Day. The majestic Church of Saint Lazarus just west of the fort was open, but it was in the middle of a service when I arrived. Having seen the two things I had set out to see, I walked back to the parking lot again and drove to the Kamares Aqueduct, an Ottoman structure completed in 1750 that served the city for almost two hundred years.

At the time of my visit, the footpath and road along the northwestern side of the aqueduct were under either construction or reconstruction, and the path on the southeastern side was unpaved. I did not think this would be a problem until I found myself sliding around in the mud, which made jumping across the little stream quite hazardous – fortunately I did not fall in. I then drove a few minutes to the second section of the aqueduct marked on Google Maps, but I could not find a very good vantage point, so I continued my journey.

My next stop took me a little outside Larnaca to the village of Kiti, which is home to the Church of Panagia Angeloktisti (literally “Panagia Built by Angels”). This church likely dates to the fifth century CE and has beautiful decorations, but of course it was closed on New Year’s Day. I only took a few photos from the outside before I drove on to Larnaca’s Salt Lake, a protected wetland area with a small population of greater flamingos. On the eastern bank of this lake stands the Hala Sultan Tekke, a mosque and Sufi lodge. According to Turkish tradition, Hala Sultan – known as Umm Haram bint Milhan to Arabic speakers – was a distant aunt and follower of the Prophet Muhammad. She undertook her journey to Cyprus quite old, and at the salt lake she fell from her horse and died.

I had done everything I had scheduled for the day, with the foreseeable New Year’s Day closures being partly to blame for my finishing so quickly. I had booked a hotel in Kakopetria under Mount Olimbos around an hour and a half away from Larnaca, but when I considered how much time I still had, I decided to make a quick stop by Dhekelia to see what a British Sovereign Base Area looked like. To my disappointment, it was no different from the rest of Cyprus. I was not even aware when I had driven into it; I do not recall there being any explicit signs, though it is true that more of them were written in English. What I did find interesting was that my phone's navigation automatically changed from kilometres to miles when I entered my next address.

Dhekelia does not have very many sights to speak of: the first place I visited was a potato statue. I was going to drive to the medieval tower nearby, but the road became worse and worse until eventually, a huge puddle forced me to turn the car around. This was probably for the better, as I had passed several signs saying the area served as a shooting range for the army. I also stopped by the closed Monastery of Agios Raphael & Agia Marina Xylotymbou and took some pictures of it from a little farther away once I had checked to confirm that the monastery was closed as well.

It was on my way from Dhekelia to Olimbos that I began to feel hungry and that I began to fear I might not find many gas stations farther away from the big cities. I figured I would find food at a petrol station, but of course all the petrol station shops were closed, and even the fuel dispensers were difficult to use. Cyprus is the first country I have visited in which one has to put their credit card into the machine before refuelling. I did not understand what I was doing wrong until I watched other customers go through the same bewildering process.

I trundled through a few villages looking for open restaurants, shops, and supermarkets, but after a while, I gave up and decided to power through until dinner. A new fear now displaced my hunger: an indicator on my dashboard showed that one of my tyres had low pressure. This made me worried but not worried enough to stop quite yet. I was too enchanted by the changing landscape, from the dry flatlands with huge balls of rolling tumbleweed to the hills covered in evergreen trees and olive groves. I had typed a few addresses into my navigation knowing they would either be closed or uninteresting, but I could tell I would enjoy the landscapes along the way.

A little after four o’clock I pulled up in Kakopetria, where I stopped by a petrol station before checking into my hotel. I could not quite figure out how the pressure pump worked, but luckily for me, a car had just pulled up behind me. I awkwardly walked up to the window and when the window rolled down, a whole cloud of steam poured out of the car. The passenger had an e-cigarette in her hand. The driver patiently explained to me how to use the pressure pump, but registering my uncomprehensive expression, he offered to help. Kneeling next to every wheel, the driver found that the pressure in the front right tyre was low and helped refill it. Somewhat concerningly, the indicator light continued to shine even after that, but I decided I would leave this problem for another day.