Day 11: Final Cyprus Goodbyes

Here we are, the final day of an amazingly educational and culturally rich study abroad program. Today, at St. Mina’s Monestary, we observed the way a major Orthodox Monestary from the Ottoman period is decorated. Some items I found particularly interesting were the portraits of saints hung on the walls that were painted in the traditional Orthodox style. One thing that is unique about these portraits is that they are painted and donated by the nuns who live near the monestary. These nuns also create their own honey and jams, and sell them in the courtyard just outside. After our visit through the monestary, we had some free time to roam the streets of Lefkara village, packed with local lace shops, fruit stands, jewlery stores, and candy shops. While visiting the largest and most famous lace shop in the villiage, we learned that Lefkara Lace actually made an appearance in DaVinci’s depiction of the last supper. Appearantly, DaVinci visited Cyprus and loved the lace so much that he decided to include it in many of his works. I thought it was interesting and sad how the tradition is dying out since the younger generation does not want to learn these ancient techniques.