31 « March « 2007 « jonathanchaoDOTcomâ„¢

*edit- Oh btw, I made about 300CDN playing poker at Rama. However, I bought my extended family dinner, which blew out about…$290CDN of it. Oh well.

Welcome to Cyprus. Here is a quick tutorial on the history of the land so that you can appreciate the following more.

After getting off the Milpensa Express, I headed to the Cyprus Airways check in desk and got my boarding pass and lounge invitation. As it appeared, most ground handling out of Milan is outsourced…but thankfully not to India. My ticket did give the check in agent a few questions, so she simply called up a supervisor and took care of it instantly. It only took about 5 min to check me in and before I knew it, I was on my way to the lounge. Boarding was swift on the brand new A319.

The seats were quite nice and reminded me of the Air Canada First Class seats, but were newer and bound in soft leather instead of cloth. Oddly enough, that made it more comfortable. Predeparture drinks was my choice of champange, OJ, or water. One we got in the air, some crustini type appetiezers were provided and more drinks. The main course service weren’t too impressive, but was served on one of the most full trays I have ever gotten.

Cyprus airport is one tiny airport, with ONE terminal and seven gates. Reminded me of a bus station where all the terminals turn onto one door, the one out to the buses. They do use new buses to get to and from the plane.

I noticed a pattern in Europe. No immigration questions. None. Zip. Zilch. I didn’t even get asked how long I was staying. They just literally stamped my passport and sent me on my way. I think the US can learn something from the Cypriots.

Found out the Cypriots are quite lazy as the city BUSES only operate between 6:30am and 5:30 pm. Forced to take a cab- a Mercedes E class to the hotel. Cost 10 CYP (~22USD). On the recommendation from someone that worked for Air Canada, he recommended the Crown Resorts Henipa which was exactly what he billed it as, cheap, clean, and functional. Granted, the hotel reminded me of the 60’s and 70’s a bit too much and was the cleanliness of a roadside motel 6, but at 15 CYP/night (35USD) it still was worth it. I promptly fell asleep and woke up at 5am since I was severely jet lagged. At this point, I had already slept through 4 different time zones in 1 week. (Pacific/Eastern/Italy/Cyprus). Turned on CNN Europe for the financial news and then watched the sunrise from my balcony.

I got bored so I decided to walk to the beach and take some video of the “beach”. Compliments of Cyprus, please enjoy a few min of rest before you resume your workday.

Checkout was at noon so I went back to the hotel, took a shower, and went to the breakfast “buffet”. It consisted of toast, good bacon, nasty sausages, cereal, milk, juice, coffee, and pleny of Cypriot OJ.

My plan was to visit the “green line” and make a day trip to the Turkish side of the fence so I headed to Nicosia or Lefkosia depending on whom you might ask.

The public bus system in Cyprus is horrible. They have yellow bus stands with timetables sitting in the middle of nowhere, but oddly enough no bus will EVER pick you up at a stand- even if you jump up and down buck naked waving at the driver. (Ok, I didn’t do that) After an hour and two buses, a British/Irish expat headed to the store next to me took pity and let me in on their secret…you need to find “Da Man” who will flag down a bus for you to ride into town and sell you your ticket. I asked who “Da Man” was, and he immediately pointed me out to a paunchy, chain smoking, old Greek guy who was sitting on a beat up leather lay-z-boy on the sundeck. “Da Man” was wearing shorts, a dirty wifebeater, and a Dick Tracy hat. Doesn’t that SCREAM bus stop?

I have NO idea what I was thinking when I didn’t ask him to flag down a bus beforehand.

Nonetheless, in less than 5 min I was on my way to downtown Larnaka to catch my bus to the capital, Nikosia/Lefkosia.

Arrived at the beach in Larnaka, and I had a stopover of an hour. I didn’t have much to do, so I took pictures, enjoyed the morning sun, and explored.

The boardwalk: (reminded me a lot of a mix between Santa Cruz,CA and Waikiki, HI)

A cool looking cafe:

Beach view:

The empty beach:

After wondering around, I got onto the Nicosia bus and rode through the countryside for about an hour. Somwhere along the way, I fell asleep and woke up in what I thought was Singapore! Parts of Nicosia remind me exactly of Singapore. Nonetheless upon arrival, I called up Dave Welz to meet up and hang out.

We ended up in the Old Town, walked around, and eventually decided on some Lebanese food.

Afterwards, I met Dave’s GF Lori and their sweet little puppy, Cagney. I was still jetlagged, so I went straight to sleep after making a few dark rum mojito’s for their friends visiting from another apartment.

I need to catch my plane for Rome right now, so I need to go. I’ll have the next installment, my trip to North Cyprus ready by the time I land and make it into Rome. (+/- 12 hours)
Ciao!

Here is a quick preview on my trek to Northern Cyprus (Turkish controlled)

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