On our first full day in Cyprus, we visited the Kourion ruins and kolossi castle! Kourion is thousands of years old dating in ancient Roman times. The first part we learned about was a bath house comprised of multiple different rooms each serving its own purpose. The order of the rooms are as follows: main lounge room, changing(undressing) room, foot wash, cold bath, warm bath, hot bath, warm bath, cold bath, and exit back to changing room. Near this public bath, was an amphitheater, originally Greek, but altered by romans to fit their architectural patterns. Roman culture was heavily built on from the former Greek rule. One specific different trait was that Greeks included nature into their architecture by building structures according to the terrain and keeping from obstructing natural scenery. As seen in the panorama picture, the Greek theater is built on the side of a mountain with stairs inclining up the hill. Furthermore, the theater faces the picturesque view of the Mediterranean Sea from atop the hill. This design would have been Greek because of its semicircular design. The amphitheater was first used by the Greeks for theater and orchestra, then romans took control and used it as a gladiator ring until they converted it back to a theater hundreds of years later.

Our second location was Kolossi Castle, built during the third round of crusades to operate as a church and house both monks and soldiers. As such, it has the rare qualities of being a religious cite which can also operate as a stronghold to resist invasion. In order to enter, you have to climb a staircase and cross a drawbridge, and the building opens to 2 main rooms facing north and south. In the first room, there is a beautiful mural of Jesus on the cross which has lasted the passed the of time. To get upstairs, there is a single spiral staircase in the corner which opens to 2 similar rooms but facing east to west. Further up the staircase, the roof opens up and has slits for archers to fire at any potential enemies.

Something I found value in from the tour guide was her advice about career choice l. She discussed how important to do what you’re passionate in for a job. She empowered the point by using her own life as an example in how life happens and things change. She described how it’s normal to have a career change later in life. While money is important, if you’re not interested in what you do, it is so much harder than doing a job that you just enjoy. In her case, she started guiding tours later in life and found passion in it, so it doesn’t even feel like work. She embodies the phrase: If you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life