The day started off rough, with Lucy and I waking up at 8:06 to Dr. Sherwin knocking on our door. We had overslept. That was the quickest I had ever gotten ready in 10 minutes as we rushed downstairs. Oddly enough, the night before Lucy and I were tucked in and asleep before midnight. Then we started our long bus ride to the mountains. When we arrived in Troodos, I was amazed at the sights. It was a beautiful little town situated in the middle of the mountains. I walked along the trails and got to see some beautiful sights of the valley below. The lush green trees were so dense and in full bloom. Apparently during the summer months, this spot is a popular skiing and winter sport area. Compared to all the other places we had been before that, it was much chillier up on the mountain.

After that, we headed back on the bus to our next stop, Omodos. On the way there we passed many valleys and the hills were littered with wineries and little farms. From afar, Omodos looked like it could be a part of Greece or Croatia. All the little houses were white with little red roofs and they all matched. It looked very cohesive and nice. The town itself was very calm and cute. There were a few people out in the streets and when I walked down the roads with houses I saw a lot of families inside getting ready for their days or women gardening. I saw this one old lady who was watering the plants outside her house and stopped to say Hi. Although I do not know greek I told her I liked her plants and I think she said thank you but I am unsure. In all the houses, there were these big clay pots that were covered with huge cloths. When I asked Andreas, he said that the pots are used to keep wine for a long period of time. The church there was very pretty and there were a lot of good photo spots. The food that we had for lunch in the mezze style was amazing. I didn’t think I would like Haloumi but it is actually really good.

The meeting in the afternoon with the Cyprus Port Authority and Cyprus Shipping Association was very enlightening and I got to learn so much. It was interesting to hear about the Commercialization of the Limassol port from the point of view of the government agency since we had heard from the companies the day before. I think that it was cool to meet people who were so high up in the agency and do a lot of the management. Those men were very cool and chill when they were making jokes with us and trying to help us understand how the shipping industry works.