Day 9 we took on the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. We visited the small town of Kakopetria which was super beautiful. We did a walking tour of the old town and learned about the architecture of the homes and buildings. Since the mountains usually get a lot of rain and snow almost all the roofs have orange tile roofs which pop out against the gorgeous green scenery. The houses further up in the town Dimitra explained usually were two stories. The first or ground floor was typically made of stone and was where the animals would be kept. The second floor is where the owners would live and their walls were made out of mud bricks. We learned yesterday during our tour of old town Nicosia that mud bricks are made out of mud and straw and are 1 foot or 12 inches wide and 5 inches tall. Most of the houses also had balcony’s with lot of flowers and vines growing around them making it a beautiful scene. There were also lots of plants that we saw on our walk including grape vines, olive trees, and pomegranate trees. The streets were also very narrow and made of stone. I loved the aesthetic of the area and how quiet and beautiful the scenery was in the town.

We also visited the St. Nicholas of the Roof church which dates back to the 11th century. It has five domes on the ceiling to make it a cross which was very rare for this time since it was so expensive to do especially in the mountains. The church is known as of the roof because it has a second roof on top of the 5 domes because the mountains get a lot of rain and snow. The water from the precipitation would drip down and ruin the paintings on the walls in the church. These paintings were known as fresco paintings because of the way they were made. One way to paint a wall would to paint a dry one and then when the paint on top dries it will begin to crack and then peel off. Fresco means fresh, so the walls were painted while they were wet. When the paint was drying it would be absorbed into the walls and would not crack and as we saw would be preserved for years. The paintings all along the walls were used to tell bible stories so that visitors could understand even if they couldn’t read the actual bible. We sadly could not take pictures of the paintings inside, but they were very pretty and it was crazy to think some of them dated back to the 11th century. I found the one very interesting because Dimitra said it was very rare for there to be a picture of the virgin Mary breast feeding since nudity was frowned upon in religion. Another interesting feature of the church was the four holes they made and put clay vases in to make perfect acoustics in and there was no echo. There were so many interesting facts about the church to learn about that we would not have known if we had gone on our own without Dimitra. Today was sadly our last day with her and I will truly miss her and her amazing personality and knowledge. She taught us so much and I am so thankful to have met her.