We got on a bus Saturday morning, heading this time to Paphos, which has become the main tourist city of Cyprus since Famagusta was occupied by the Turkish.

Throughout our bus ride there, our lovely guide provided us information about everything that we were seeing from the buildings to the history and even to the plants. She is so knowledgeable about literally everything that has to do with Cyprus.

Our first stop was the Kourian archaeological site. Here, we were able to see the restoration of the amphitheater that was once here, and we were even able to test out the acoustics for ourselves. In addition, the view here was very nice. I felt like I could see so far. We also were able to see some of the mosaics and ruins of the house. This was a quick stop and then we were back on our way.

On our bus ride, we passed through the British occupied part of the island. I was fascinated to hear how it operates under British laws rather than Cypriot law.

Our next stop was Aphrodite’s Rock. The water was so clear, which still amazes me even after experiencing it a few times now. I was initially very confused because there were a lot of rocks in the area, and I had no idea which one it was, but our guide clarified that for us. I then thought that it would be a good idea to climb to the top of the large rock that was there to experience the view. The view was in fact stunning and was completely worth the struggle, but it definitely a bit tricky coming down, especially wearing sandals.

After that, we went to visit the tomb of the kings, though no actual kings were buried there. Instead, it was the burial site for people of various religions.

After this, we went to lunch at a place called the Pelican, and despite the name, I was still surprised when a real pelican walked by our table. I have a few questions about that one. Like how did they train it? And where does it live at night? Anyhow, it was entertaining to watch it walk around throughout our meal.

After lunch, we had some time to explore the area. There was a nice boardwalk with a variety of stores and restaurants. We then went to Paphos mosaics, which is the archaeological site that is the remains of the House of Dionysos. The mosaics were very intricate, and I cannot imagine how long each of these would have taken to construct. I thought that it was interesting to see the differences in the style between the Greek and the British mosaics. Also, our tour guide was able to give us the meaning and history that went along with each one of these individual mosaics.

After this, we went to check into our hotel. We thought that it was a smart idea to go for a little swim in the hotel pool before we went to dinner. As it turns out, it was not heated, so that did not last for long. We then went for a little walk, and we saw the beach, which was super pretty but was a little smaller than expected. A lot of the beaches here are rocky rather than sandy. We then went to get some pizza for dinner, which was a nice break from all the Greek food that we had been having, and we finished off our night by watching a movie in our hotel room.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed right to the beach. It was back to being sunny (Saturday was cloudy and a little rainy which was shocking), so it was a perfect day for the beach. We swam a bit and otherwise, I just relaxed. We then grabbed some lunch before our bus ride back to our hotel in Nicosia.