Today was unfortunately our last full day in Cyprus. We started off by going to the Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Training Center (BSM). At BSM they showed us their extensive simulation rooms. Each room was surrounded by monitors making it feel like you were in the control room on a real ship. Each room also had a realistic control panel and a bunch of information regarding the ships. Something funny that happened during our visit there was that the ship that was being run by the group of trainees practicing actually hit a sandbar while we were there. We heard the crash and the guys practicing let me phone in a call for help. BSM also had plenty of classrooms. We saw each one and in one of them class was actually in session. Something I found interesting was the fact that in BSM, they have “dorms” that represent what you’d be living in on board of a ship. Some of these dorms are actually in use by trainees there.

After our trip to BSM, we drove to the Troodos Mountains to the village of Omodos where we got a nice meze lunch. During our trip to Omodos, we visited the Timios Stavros Monastery. The monastery itself was beautiful and it also housed a vast variety of historical artifacts. While at the village of Omodos, I along with a couple friends decided to walk up the mountain a bit to see the breathtaking view that the Troodos has to offer.

Finally, we ended our Cyprus trip with another meze dinner at Dionysus Mansion. This dinner was especially special as it was our last time together as a group. The meze was delicious along with the beauty of the venue. We also spoke with some Cypriot Pitt alumni who had good insight on certain topics that we were learning about like AI and more.