Last Days of Freedom

Wednesday we had a cooking lesson on Traditional Cyprus Cuisine - it was amazing!! We had Cypriot/Greek meatballs (which are different than Italian meatballs, they are made with potato), ravioli stuffed with halloumi cheese, and fried halloumi in a warm pita....I was in heaven!! Halloumi cheese is a traditional Cypriot/Greek cheese and it is amazing! but the cook said it was about 500 calories/slice!! ahhhh, stay away from it Marie!! That night we were supposed to have a scavenger hunt through the city, but we were too cheap to pay for a taxi, so we went back, watched movies, and played scattergorries.

Thursday we went to the Cyprus archeological museum. We saw bowls and sculptures made in 7000 BC! The picture is of sculptures that they worshiped; it is depicting a woman giving birth. They would worship these sculptures because they didn't know how it happened; they just knew that was the only way to have children. The figure is on the back of all of the Cypriot Euros. We also saw the original sculptures of Aphrodite, because she is said to be born out of the waters and onto the beach of Cyprus! We ended the night at "hip-hop night" at a bar right by our house; it was interesting, but fun.

Friday we took a day trip to the Troodos Mountains. We first stopped in a little village - Omodos - with quaint cobblestone roads and little old men and women in the shops; I loved it here! We went in a shop and bought some postcards and the woman gave us some pretzel sticks, they tasted like cardboard, but she was adorable! We went into another store and sampled the famous commandaria wine of Cyprus, it was very sweet. We also found shop with all handmade lace - it was beautiful and very impressive!

We got back on the bus, winded our way up to the top of the mountain, only for it to be raining, windy, freezing, and foggy - we couldn't see anything! :( We went to another village Kakopetria, but we got there during siesta time, so nothing was open (in Cyprus most shops close from 2-4 pm for "siesta time").

Saturday we walked to The Coffee Beanery and had a Cypriot frappelatte, it was delicious! For dinner we went to Tavern Plaka and had meze - it is a traditional Cypriot meal where they bring you little plates of almost everything on the menu! This particular meze had 35 plates! It starts with cold appetizers, then warm appetizers, the main courses, and desserts. We tried everything - greek salad, humus, tabouli, olives, pasta, halloumi, spinach and feta, chicken, pork kebab, rabbit, potatoes, fries, fruit, etc. It was DELICIOUS! but very expensive! (Most things are fairly expensive here becasue of the exchange rate betweent the euro and the dollar and because it is an island, so everthing has to get shipped in.)

Today we went for a run and explored the city a little more, we found the Cyprus International Fair Grounds and a sports complex with tennis courts, track, and a soccer stadium - I finally felt like I fit in. We thought since we were so good and went for a run, that we deserved some pie a la mode....then more ice cream down the street!

Classes start tomorrow, so we are all trying to get back into school/thinking mode, we'll see how this goes...