Over the weekend, we did an excursion to Paphos. On Saturday it was a bit cloudy. While we were going there, we had a tour guide (the same tour guide as the person who toured us around the Old City of Nicosia) giving us interesting tidbits about Cyprus. It was very interesting to listen to. Along our way, we stopped at the Kourion Amphitheater and the House of Eustolios. The amphitheater is pretty much what you would image a Greco-Roman amphitheater to look like. However there was a spot in the center of the stage where you could here an echo of yourself talking which was pretty cool. The House of Eustolios are ruins of a house that became a public space for the city after a big earthquake rocked the town of Kourion. It was quite interesting seeing the remaining mosaics as well as finding out how ancient plumbing worked. We then traveled to the Rock of Aphrodite, which is a rock where, in Greek mythology, Aphrodite emerged from the sea. Most of the people (including me) went up one of the rocks, which was way easier than going down. The view from the top wasn’t as cool as it should’ve been because it was cloudy that day.

We then travelled to the Tomb of Kings in Paphos where rich people from the island’s Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is also carved into the rock and was interesting to visit and be in. It was then time for lunch which we had at the Pelican on the Paphos Boardwalk, which had a pelican walking about its premises. The food was good. We then did a tour of the House of Dionysus, which was right next to the boardwalk. These ruins have mosaics that show the story of Narcissus, Zeus and Ganymede, and Apollo and Daphne among others. It was really cool to see and understand the art on the floor. For the rest of that day, we checked into our hotel and hung out around Paphos. Today, we had a lot of free time, during which a lot of us went to the beach. It was fun, but I did get scraped up a little bit because I hit some underwater rocks when swimming. So overall, it was a very fun weekend.