Bog update our second month on the Ille of Love
28 March 2018
The island of love as this is where the Greek God Aphrodite was born! The legend says she was made from her fathers testicles after being cut off by his son and thrown into the sea and then she rose up on this "Aphrodites Rock"
We have now been in Cyprus for two months. Our second month we decided to rent a car so we could travel around and see more of the island (only 320 Euro for a month!). We have traveled now to a 10th century monastery which has an icon (religious painting usually small but can be larger) painting by St. Luke. The monastery sits high on the mountain top at 6,000ft (yes they have some major mountains on this island). There are several monasteries here all up in the mountains to try and protect them and for the seclusion. Several of the ruin sites we have visited predate the Greeks by several hundred years. At the temple of Aphrodite we touched a water vase that was four feet high by three foot wide and is dated to 1200 BC, that would put it before King David and King Solomon's time! The oldest ruins here are 7 thousand years old, that would be a thousand years before Biblical time of aprox six thousand. We have visited and explored many underground tombs dug right into the sand stone thousands of years ago. I know I know enough with the history lesson. So we have driven around and done quite a bit of exploring but the island is large and we are content to go slow so have mainly explored the west side where we live. We will be heading over to the Northeast (Turkish) side before long. We have met several English expats here and frequent a couple of their hang outs. At one of these, a small resturant I play and sing at their open mic night (first time I have performed, scary). We are enjoying riding our bikes a lot and often ride down to the beach and ride along the walking path that goes for a few miles. There are also several bike trials that we ride, as well as just going and getting lost in neighborhoods and meeting some of the locals. We have a visitor coming on April 11 (Gina) and she will be staying with us for ten days. We met Gina in Colombia where we shared a five bedroom hostel (apartment). Funny she is from Wa. State, our home state and not far from where we come from. We have met back up with people we have met in other countries again after parting each others company never expecting to see each other again, small world some times. We have been living in the same apartment for two months but now we have to move over to another one that our land lord found for us as this one is not available for April. The new apartment is even bigger, still a two bedroom but with two pools. It has not been warm enough to go swimming yet but hopefully it will be warm enough in April. It has been pretty cool here (60's) but compared to home hard to complain. There are still some ruin sites, castles, the ghost town, and old forts to explore. Often we just enjoy finding a little out of the way, open air cafe to enjoy a Cyprian style meal. We have began to start looking forward and looking at housing and sites to see in Athens Greece. We will have couple of friends come and visit us there. It's always fun to show friends around and share our experiences with others. We love to bring you along with us on our adventures so tay tuned for more Chrysalis Adventures and be sure to check the gallery for pictures of our travels.