I’ve realised that the Law of Inevitable Disappointment applies to holidays. You go full of expectations and there’s always one that fails to deliver. Cue disappointment!
However there is a rider viz there’s always some unexpected experience which more than compensates.
And so it was to our week in Cyprus last month. Was it the food that disappointed or was it that nothing about the trip was exceptional? Nothing went wrong, the weather was good and there was no unpleasantness at any time. But we came home a little deflated.
And yet on our final day I came up with five highlights:
- Dr Fazil Kucuk’s museum in Nicosia. Nice to see someone who seems to have been a fundamentally good man remembered for what he’s achieved.
- Cypriot village food in Kathikas and Kakopetria. An unfortunate contrast to the free lunches on the first days and the dinner buffets in both hotels which really weren’t very good.
- Our room in the Mediterranean Beach Hotel. A sixth floor sea view, spacious room, UK plugs and USB sockets and decent lighting. Sadly no walk in shower!
- Turkish Delight in Bellapais. I’ve always imagined this to be a sickly jelly but the product we tasted here was anything but.
- Cypriot people everywhere, both north and south of the Green Line. People rarely disappoint me and in Cyprus they were unfailingly friendly. They spoke English willingly. Cypriots in the north have every justification to feel that they’ve not had a fair deal but they never let it interfere with their interactions with us.
And the lowlights? Sadly the food and perhaps our second guide who was from the ‘bore them silly with facts’ school. By contrast our first guide was more engaging although he did have a habit of going on about the injustices of the current situation.
As an island Cyprus has so much going for it: a fine climate, some scenic variety, a good state of repair, a well preserved history and a population that speaks English. And perhaps most important people with a pride in being Cypriot, on both sides of the Green Line. You’d just hope that politicians elsewhere would mind their own business and allow the Cypriots to choose their own destiny.
And by the way you’ve got to hope that the authorities get a grip on the proliferation of high rise developments along the sea front in Limassol. It really is not very pretty.
On reflection it was a good holiday, after all a change is as good as a rest, and it came at a time when it was still cold and wet in the UK. It was another exercise in understanding the history of the eastern Mediterranean and it was a lesson in the benefits of firstly its relationship with the UK and more recently its membership of the EU. There was good local wine and despite my disappointment with much of the food our last meal, at the Puesta Oyster Bar & Grill close to our hotel in Limassol, was exceptional.
As a postscript to our trip:
- I wore shorts every day although it was a little chilly in the Troodos mountains where I needed a sweater;
- I successfully completed Wordle every day;
- I took 534 photographs;
- I shared 3 bottles of local wine and enjoyed wine by the glass including a perfectly drinkable Turkish white;
- I had an omelette for breakfast every day although the fresh fruit offerings in both hotels were disappointing;
- Breakfast coffees were abysmal but I compensated with local coffees mid-morning most days; and
- I started to read Lawrence Durell’s Bitter Lemons of Cyprus but did not finish it. I am continuing!
And for a diary view:
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