Today, being the start of the weekend, we did a full day of site visits. First, Demitra showed us around the Kolossi Castle in Limassol. (You can see our fearless leader guiding us into the rich history of Cyprus in the picture.) It is a relatively small castle compared to others around the world and even around Cyprus. We learned that it was built during the Crusader period and built during the 13th century. I can’t even begin to imagine how different life was back then. Standing in this building, I could not help but admire the feat of engineering that is constructing a structure that still stands 700 years later. I cannot even comprehend the amount of weather, human traffic, and force that this castle has withstood, mind you with no reinforcements added later if I am not mistaken. The main floor of the castle is an arch shape, constructed solely of stone. I think we often underestimate how intelligent people were in ancient times. The fact that these Crusaders found a way to construct this with the very basic and elementary technology they had is amazing to me. With all the technology we have today, this would be a difficult task.
We also visited Limassol Castle today. Demitra explained to us how this castle made it on the itinerary of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Cyprus in 1993. For such a small island that most Americans, including myself, have never even heard of, there is such dense and important history here.
On the bus to these castles, Demitra talked to us about other aspects of Cypriot culture and history. We passed by one of the largest shopping malls in the country, and she told us that while shopping malls have been popular in America for decades (and are even becoming obsolete), this is a new and up and coming idea in Cyprus. It is so interesting how the culture of a country so heavily impacts the trends it has. Shopping malls became huge in the 1980s, over 40 years ago. This type of commercial business dominated the market up until about 10 years ago when online shopping took over. While Cyrpus has all of the technology we have, the fact that the culture is so different has led to malls becoming popular now.
I would also like to add that I take back my comment about Greek being “easy” that I made in one of my first blog posts. I was gravely mistaken. It is in fact VERY hard to learn, and I have just about given up on Duolingo.