Today was a bit of a transitional day for our time here, as we have just finished up our first week in Limassol, and traveled to our new home for this week, Nicosia. In between though, we had a fun and very educational day with stops at Aphrodite’s Rock and the mosaics of the old city of Paphos. We began our day at Aphrodite’s Rock, a significant place in Greek mythology that is believed too be the birthplace of the god of love, Aphrodite. According to legend, she was born out of the form of the sea between the cost and rock, and immediately climbed up onto the rock. As the god of love, Aphrodite spent her life having many lovers, despite being married to an old, crippled man. This place was full of beautiful scenery, from the turquoise waters to the great rock structures, and it was a great experience to stand on the coast and take it all in. This experience was also a good reminder about the expensive stories of Greek mythology and the enjoyment I found learning them for the first time several years ago.

Next, we traveled to the city of Paphos, where our tour guide Dimitra guided us through the history and meanings behind the many mosaics that were on display. We began looking at the earliest one from the Hellenistic period, dated to about 300 BC, which was made of a collection of black and white sea pebbles. This was an artistic depiction of the legend of the sea monster Scylla, who had five dog heads and was believed to destroy and sink ships. Although this was just a legend, the existence of this mosaic shows that it was a very popular one, and those from this time period were still fearful of Scylla and what she could do to their ships. As we moved along the display, we began looking at mosaics from the Roman period. These and other newer mosaics were made mostly of geometric shapes, and stronger colors were added using different types of glass. Another reference to mythology in the mosaics that I found interesting was the depiction of a man staring at his reflection in water. As the story goes, this man by the name of Narcissus had fallen in love with himself and was extremely enamored in his own reflection on the water. Ultimately, this love for himself would lead to his demise, add he would fall in and drown while looking in the water, teaching about the downfalls of this arrogance and narcissism he displayed.

After this, we walked into the town of Paphos to enjoy a meal and free time. I was very glad that I got to have a great meal of pancakes here, because that is something I had been missing with the hotel breakfast in Limassol. We walked around shopping for the next hour before it started to rain, a blessing according to Dimitra, and we had to get back on the bus to go to Nicosia. Once we got to Nicosia, we settled into our new very nice hotel and found an excellent restaurant for a mezze dinner, the best meal experience I have had on the trip so far.