Waking up this morning it was disappointing having to leave Limassol. I quickly ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Limassol was really my introduction to Cyprus and is one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to. We headed off in the bus with all of our luggage for Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus and where we would be spending our last couple days in Cyprus but not before we headed to Phaphos.

Our first stop on the way was Aphrodites Rock. It was about 3/4th of the way to Paphos and on the way there Dimitra gave us some mythological history on Aphrodite and her birth. We learned that Aphrodite was the Ancient Greek goddess of love. She was believed to be born out of the the sea foam and Aphrodite rose at the site we visited. When we arrived at Aphrodite’s rock it was immediately one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in my life. The huge massive rock laid right on the edge of the sea and the entire expansive coastline was filled with beautiful rocks and clear blue water. We explored the area near the rock as we took pictures and skipped rocks into the ocean. Dimitra told us more about Aphrodite, she was compelled by Zeus to marry Hephaestus the god of fire. Aphrodite was unhappy in this marriage as she didn’t want to be with Hephaestus and cheated on him with Area, the god of war. This entire story of Aphrodite was super interesting. I’ve always been interested in Greek mythology and while I’m not always the best at remembering but it was really cool to visit this important monument in Greek mythology to take in all of its beauty and explore the area around it. It wasn’t the most sunny day today but even despite that this site is such a point of beauty in the world that even days like today make it one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. I was also able to climb on an adjacent rocks to get some pictures of myself to remember this. There were signs on Aphrodites rock saying we couldn’t climb it so we figured this was a good enough alternative. On our way out of the site of Aphrodites rock Dimitra told us about one last legend. If somebody finds the place Aphrodite comes out of the rock they will either get Aphrodites beauty or eternal youth depending on if you are a man or woman. There’s one twist to this though, it had to be midnight and you needed to be naked.

After Aphrodites rock we drove to Phaphos, a western city in Cyprus which housed archeological sites which we would be visiting. Dimitra took us to the sites and walked us through an entire building filled with ancient tiles from many different ages of history. The archeological site was home to mosaics from different ages of history starting with the Hellenistic period and all the way up until the Roman times. The specific site we visited was called the House of Dionysus and the first mosaic we saw was the Scylla monster. Its appearance was the torso and head of a woman and 5 dog heads. She was also carrying the mast of a ship which at first glance looks like a cross, however, this was made before the creation of Christianity. The entire mosaic was made of black and white stones. We moved on and enclosed the Roman age mosaics. All of these mosaics had much more advanced scenes of mythology and more advanced patterns. There were also much more variety in the colors used in the mosaics, one of them of an eagle using over 30 shades of different glass.5)3 coolest Roman age mosaic we saw was Narcissus who was a man consumed by his own image. He would look at himself in the water and eventually drowned himself. This archeological site was actually named after a wealthy man who had mosaics in his own home, he also produced wine.

After visiting this we went to lunch in Paphos. There were many different options of outdoor restaurants and we eventually decided on one that had a mixture of breakfast and lunch options. I saw a crepe on the menu and instantly wanted to get it. There have been many opportunities for me to get crepes here in Cyprus but I ignored it until now. I got a Nutella crepe and a glass of milk and enjoyed my brunch meal while watching a pelican roam the port area of Paphos. After brunch we walked around enjoying the nice port area and watching the beautiful water. I bought a (supposedly) real bottle of cologne which was suspiciously cheap and enjoyed going in each shop and looking at all of the tourist items each shop had for sale. All in all our day in Paphos was filled with excitement and adventure exploring the eastern part of Cyprus. We drove to Nicosia where we spent the evening checking into our new hotel and getting a mezeh dinner and exploring the city where we will be spending the last couple of days here in Cyprus.

Thanks for listening and reading and I will see you tomorrow

Will