Today is day 9 of my trip in Cyprus and we visited the village of Kakopetria and St. Nicolas of the Roof church. After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at St. Nicolas of the Roof church and it was a stunning sight to see. The church was located in the middle of the mountains and the setting was so serene. We learned from Demetra that the paintings inside the church were fresco and it was a technique that involved painting on top of the paint before it was completely dry. One thing that I was really surprised to see when entering the church was how vibrant and well preserved the paintings were. The paintings were all over the walls and even on the dome ceiling essentially covering the whole church. These paintings were around a thousand years old but it was also interesting to learn that the paintings from within the church were also from different time periods. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the paintings from inside the church but there were so many different stories about the life of Jesus along the walls. I found it interesting to learn that there was a hierarchical system for the paintings. For example, Jesus was at the top of the dome at the highest most point as it represented His presence in heaven. On the next tier, it was the angels and then the saints and then normal people. It was really fascinating to also learn about the acoustics sounds and the echos that came from inside the church. They enforced the acoustics by inserting clay pots in the corner of the church to emphasize the sound of voices from within the church. Seeing how many other tourists came to this church also made me realize how significant this church was.

After the church, we drove a little distance to Kakopetria. This town was located in the mountains with cobblestone streets and many cute buildings. There were cats roaming around everywhere with beautiful and vibrant colored flowers. The roofs of some of the houses and restaurants were made with bamboo cane and some buildings were also made of mud brick. Many of the streets were hilly and it was serene. There were many little shops such as jewelry stores and boutiques. It was so fun to walk around the town and have free time going to different shops. Kakopetria was like a village out of Disneys Repunzel movie. It was so quaint, but I was also impressed with the amount of locals that lived in these mountains. Some of us even saw a little boy coming back from school. Everyone was super nice and hospitable and Kakopetria was a gorgeous town.