The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

The annual spring flower festival happens in the yermasogia area near the parking lot. The parking lot is converted into a flower show and there is a parade (a smaller version of the limassol carnival) on the the beach road, with flowers being the theme

The tradition is for the kids on the float to throw the flowers to the onlookers. The people on the side of the streets are very eager to catch the thrown flowers. Probably, they are owners of flower shops and they just want to stock up on the flowers . Even Anith managed to catch some flowers. More photos from the parade…

written by Rajaram S

It is carnival time in Cyprus and that means revelry at its best on the streets of Limassol. Colourful costumes, out-of-the-world head-gears and bursting party poppers along with the beautiful cyprus spring makes it one the best times of the year to be in Cyprus. See photos of the various costumes on display from past years here. The king’s carnival, the official start of the carnival happened on thursday. This was the first king’s parade i missed . But, you can see photos from the king’s parade of 2007 here.

Schedule of the Limassol Carnival 2009 (The main highlights)

Sunday: Feb 22 :
11.30a.m. Children’s Carnival Parade
Starting Point: Ayias Zonis Str. (ESSO Service Station).
Finishing: End of Anexartisias

Tuesday: Feb 24
8.30p.m. “Tuesday’s Carnival Fiesta”, Medieval Castle Square
The Lemesos Municipality invites all young and adults to come in disguised costumes and participate in different carnival merrymaking with music and dancing.

Sunday: March 1
1.30p.m. Grand Carnival Parade
Archbishop Makarios III Avenue
Starting Point: Ayios Nikolaos Round About
Ending: Ayias Sofia’s Traffic Lights
Floats shall begin to gather from 8.30a.m. along the Makarios III Avenue, from Enaerios traffic lights to Ayios Nikolaos Round About. The parade will proceed along Makarios III Avenue up to Ayias Sofias Traffic Lights.

8.30p.m. Farewell Carnival Fiesta – Medieval Castle Square
The Carnival will end with a grand outdoor Carnival Ball with disguised costumes and music.
Carnival Costume Competition – Awards for the best three.
Fireworks start at 9.00p.m.

Enjoy!

written by Rajaram S

The most prominent mountain-top visible once one enters Cyprus through Larnaca, stavravouni monastery  (sometimes spelt as Stavrovouni Monastery on road signs) is the oldest monastery in Cyprus (Kykkos monastery is the most famous though).

It is perched on top of a 700 m hill almost equidistant from larnaca, limassol and nicosia. There is only one tarmac road to the top of Stvravouni and it is from the section of the Limassol-Nicosia highway.

• If you are driving from Limassol, go towards Nicosia, cross the Larnaca exit and within a few kms, you should see the exit for Stavravouni (13 kms from this point)
• If you are driving from Larnaca, go towards Limassol, take the exit to Nicosia and within a few kms, you should see the exit for Stavravouni.
• If you are driving from Nicosia, just drive towards Limassol, you should see the exit to Stavravouni

Almost 7 years back, my parents were here to visit me. I was just 6 months old in Cyprus and hadn’t travelled much. I decided to take them to Stavravouni. I have always seen this big mountain on the way from Larnaca and assumed that there would be an exit from the limassol-larnaca highway. it wasn’t to be and what should have been a 30 minute drive turned into a 2 hr drive. Yes, you can get lost in this small island

Few points to note:

• In summer, it can get quite hot on the top. Similarly, it gets very windy in winter
• The view is great from the top, so don’t forget your camera
• If you have a jeep and want to get adventurous, you can drive to the top from the larnaca side of the highway, provided you find the path!
• Only males (properly dressed ones) are allowed to ascend the steps into the actual monastery. Ladies have to just stand and admire the monastery from the parking lot, which would also be not possible on a misty day

Of course, the ladies (and the guys too) can visit the church at the other end of the parking lot.

I heard that there is a trekking trail to the top which avoids the roads. I am yet to go on this trail. Once i do that, i shall update info on that too.

written by Rajaram S

As far as food choices are concerned, I can be described as “the opposite of a gourmet” (If such a word exists). I am very picky about the food i eat and 99.99% of the time, i would pick vegetarian Indian food over any other and within this classification of vegetarian Indian food itself, I am very selective. So, this makes me a very bad company to anyone wanting to eat out. Vidhya has managed to put up with me somehow in this area.

So, for a person with such tastes, I surprised myself when i started liking the traditional cypriot meze in one of the restaurants in Lofou village. I was introduced to it by our gang after lot of convincing that i can manage with the french fries there. It turned out that i ate lot more than just the fries.

Lofou village is a short drive away from Limassol. You have to go on the troodos road and once you cross the Alassa park you will see an exit to lofou. From that exit, it is another 10 km drive. This part of the drive is on high plateaus and the views there are worth the drive. Lofou was once abandones, but now it contains a restaurant and few other agro-touristic homes. The village is small and it characterised by typical cypriot village architecture. A walk around the village will help in digesting the huge amount of food which you will eat in the meze

Once you near the village, there are clear signs pointing you to the “traditional cyprus tavern”. There is as such no entrance to the village. Once you take a left turn from the main road, you will see a small right which goes into the village. Here you can park the anywhere or there is a big parking place a little ahead on the right just opposite a schaool playground.

I love the setting of the entire eating area. We usually sit outside which is covered by tarpaulin and surrounded by plants. This place is always cool even in summer. Once it started drizzling and we moved to the centre table (outside) and the ambience was amazing, with rain falling all round us and us gorging on wonderful food!

We usually order the vegetarian meze for all of us. The meat eaters just order an extra non-veg dish. I never knew that you could so many vegetarian dishes in a restaurant in Cyprus. I wanted to count and photograph each of the items when i last visited, but i got so engrossed in eating that i forgot to do that. The list of items served to include (but not limited to) pita with cheese, haloumi cheese, fries, good salads, aubergine, mushrooms, okra (lady’s finger) ,pourgouri, tahini, humus and many others totalling around 28 in number. Our gang goes to many restarants, but we never experience the “fullness” at any other restaurant. On an average, we spend 3-4 hrs whenever we come here. it seems that the desserts are the best of them all (i don’t eat any of these). Lassanaki (dunno how to spell it) is the best.

Of course, you can drown all the food you eat in local wine!

If you want to eat traditional cypriot food in a traditional environment, then this place is a must-visit!

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

Technorati Tags: cyprus carnival limassol carnival brazil carnival limassol downtown

written by Rajaram S

The grand parade is two weeks from now and is a marathon affair on Makarios Avenue. Here is a collage from last year’s carnival parade.

Enjoy the carnival atmosphere in Cyprus!

Technorati tags: cyprus carnival limassol carnival brazil carnival limassol downtown

written by Rajaram S

Ayios Neophytos Monastery was supposedly found by a Cypriot Saint in the late 1100s. The monastery and its room were carved out of the mountain by the Saint and hence is also known as the cave monastery. It is just under a 20 minute drive from Paphos and is on top of a 900 m hill. The drive up to this hill is excellent offering good views of Paphos and its surroundings.

There is a chapel right across this monastery. There are many beautiful frescoes found here. If you are interested in mosaic work, you will find many of them (like the one below) in this monastery

To locate this monastery on the map, look to the north of Pafos and find a village named Tala. This monastery can be seen to the north-east of this village. If you want more details of this monastery and its history, you can check this page.

Technorati Tags: ayios neophytos monastery cyprus cave monastery paphos

written by Rajaram S