Portugal Pops the Cork

  NOTE: This was imported from the older format and looks really bad. Sorry. We’ve had buses stop to get gas a few times, randomly stop for cigarette/bathroom breaks or to drop off or pick up someone in the middle of nowhere, but our trip out of Santiago de Compostela to Porto had a first – a stop for the bus to get an automated bus wash while we sat in the bus, waiting.


The  upside and downside of traveling is obviously the unknown. You get to experience the surprise bus wash, but everyday is a crap shoot.  Simple actions usually done without consideration can turn into a hurdle.  Making the mistake of drinking lots of tea in the morning then going on our usual walking tour of the area can be painful when you can’t find a restroom.  (The joys of owning a 1958 model bladder.)

We usually don\’t know the language, how to get around, what’s safe to eat, when we can do laundry or how our lodging will be.   We have to blindly book, days to weeks in advance.  We have learned that the pictures online aren’t always representative of the area or the quality of the apartment.  

Bookings.com listings have a number of \”bait and switch\” listings (more so then Air B&B or Hotels.com).  In Porto, we had our third experience (the first two in Cyprus). We met our host at the apartment we chose on a very picturesque street across from a Bingo hall only to be driven to a a street across from a highway over-pass.  The apartment was not bad except that the shower flooded the entire tiny apartment each time you showered (cork pipes? yes, the apartment was that small), requiring a 10:30 pm visit from a plumber. While this did not need to color our time in Porto, it did.  Since  in our present homeless state, where we stay is our \”home\”  so our lodging seems to have a greater influence perhaps then it should (especially for Patricia).

 
But we did recover and walked out to where the Douro river meets the Atlantic, wandering through big squares bordered by grand buildings, large parks with wild chickens and splendid tile buildings.  




Walking through any Portuguese town feels like entering a magnificent tile showroom. Many of the old tile houses are  being re-tiled with subway tiles.

Amazing tile inside some of the buildings as well, this is one of the train stations.

We ended our walk with  our first Portuguese meal; legendary sardines, sautéed mushrooms and black risotto with squid which we finished before the ink dried.
One thing we have noticed everywhere we have gone, is the themed souvenir.  In Santiago de Compostela, it was a seashell everything since the shell is the symbol of the Camino.  Ireland has it\’s sheep and Guinness, Cyprus had Aphrodite and Portugal has everything made of cork
and … Sardines.
On to Lisbon we were finally able to complete our quest to finish the Game Of Thrones final season.  Our viewing sites covered most of the Westeros Hemisphere, as we watched the first episode in Portland, the second in New York, the third (amazon prime online) and forth in Saarbrucken, and finally the last two on itunes in Lisbon staying up until 2 am to finish.  The most memorable viewing was number 4 as we watched it on the University of Saarland campus in the computer science department with 15-20 computer science international students/fans.  We thoroughly enjoyed that the feed kept needing computer attention and that no one interacted with each other. 
This time we took another risk on our accommodations in Lisbon, no reviews, we were the first guests and although the front did not look promising, it was one of the nicest we had stayed in. A day and a half of a broken refrigerator (thermostat) requiring yet another repairman visit did not diminish our enthusiasm and it got points for good internet to finish GOT.
 
 
Lisbon looked like San Francisco but with Los Angeles\’s foliage. There is almost an exact replica of the Golden Gate Bridge (actually built by the company that constructed  the Oakland Bay Bridge-so even they liked GG Bridge better than their own) spanning the Tagus river just before it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
There were cable cars and a MUNI like tram line (probably also locally hated).   Lisbon also has steep hills and we traversed every hill without seemingly the corresponding downhill.  Lisbon however (sorry BART) had an excellent, clean, easy-to-use (even for non-native speakers), and very extensive subway system.  


In Lisbon, the city felt vibrant just like San Francisco. We started to see the summer tourist season crowds form, but it was worth it, plus the neighborhood we stayed in was just outside of the tourist area. While at some level it is convenient to stay in the thick of things, but that can limit how you experience the city. If you have to get somewhere, you have to walk through somewhere.  Walking different routes to see the sites led us past  big, glorious buildings around open squares, side streets  lined with buildings ranging from shabby chic (a generous description sometimes) to breath-taking beauties.  Buildings from almost every century, within blocks of each other.

We marveled at Lisbon\’s sidewalks, along busy streets and serene urban pathways.

and continued viewing of spectacular tile.

We wandered through very distinct neighborhoods

Called the Brooklyn of Lisboa

    
In the Alfama section, old women selling cherry liqueur shots for 1 Euro just like a lemonade stand (disclosure, took pic from internet, did not want to ask an old lady if we could take her picture).

and found the square in our neighborhood where we stumbled on a poetry reading followed by first an elderly couple dancing, who were joined by others in the audience and then joined by a bunch of graduates dancing in their graduation gowns.

Ubiquitous old men at tables in the park
Dancing after poetry reading
A poem we were given

Usually, we find, that a lot of the standard tourist attractions are over-hyped which often leaves us underwhelmed after visiting but not so in Lisbon. The tourist attractions were actually attractions. Tomb of Vasco de Gamma! Monasteries! Churches! Museums!

                                                                                
If Lisbon was not special enough, so were the surrounding areas. We first went to Sintra, a town with medieval ruins and 19th century vacation estates and palaces built by the Royals, each with their own hunting grounds and gardens.   It really felt like a magical place.

We also went to nearby Cascais, a touristy beach town but with a very dramatic shoreline.

This week\’s photo of  topless old man looking out window contemplating his life …\”Damn, the pavement is always grayer on the other side of the fence.\”


 


Walk This Way

(Old Word-Press format so it looks pretty bad, sorry)

We left Saarbrucken, not via Luxembourg City but out of the smaller of Frankfurt’s two airports, Frankfurt Hahn.  Took a mini-bus from Saarbrucken through acres of mustard fields.  Of course, Frankfurt was surrounded by mustard.  We started our Iberian Peninsula trip at the finish line-Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.  It is the famous endpoint city of millions of pilgrims since the 814 AD. The Camino de Santiago or the Way of Saint James http://santiago-compostela.net/ is a network of hiking trails covering hundreds of miles through Portugal, Spain and France.  The goal for pilgrims, once the city is reached is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where the remains of apostle Saint James are kept.  Once inside the traveler gives the statue of St. James a sweaty hug from behind.  We entered the church walked up the altar steps allowing access to St. James from behind, then walked down the other side.  Not knowing the tradition, we gave him a pat on the back “good job Jimmy, time to hit the showers.”







The streets are packed with pilgrims, almost all with walking sticks clanging the cobblestone sidewalks (Compostela may mean walking sticks in Spanish, but our Spanish isn’t as good as we had hoped, as everyone responded to our Spanish with perfect English.  Our Spanish was better understood in Portugal). 
Anyone with a backpack and/or walking sticks was warmly greeted with a “bien camino”.  We got a few.  People with Chopsticks got a “bien comido”. 
 

The Cathedral was spectacular as was the town.   


There was a charming old town with staggeringly beautiful buildings, 

fresh meat-fish-vegetable-fruit-flower market,

 

plus a nice “new” town as well.

asked the hard questions.

We enjoyed local cuisine (avoiding the fresh fish) particularly the tortillas, which are a kind of baked omelette, but the one with tuna was weird. The area is also famous for it’s breast shaped cheese (Tetilla). We bought one and nursed it for a few days.

 



Our religious themed visit was capped by staying at a former convent.  “Bien hermana”.


The convent was located on the USC campus (Fight on Pilgrims?), this USC had a very nice chemistry building. 


The convent was close to one of the camino paths so we decided to earn our \”bien camino\” by walking a bit on the path south towards Porto, Portugal.  After about 200 meters, a Toto-like dog randomly darted in front of us and urged us to follow which we did for another couple 100 meters.  Not sure if the dog made it to Porto but we did, by bus the next day.

 
 

There is more then one city in Germany?

Saarbrucken is in the middle of nowhere, which means, in Europe,  it’s only 1-2 hours from everything  This gives us multiple airport and airline options to get back to it.  We recently have been using Ryan Air the super discount airlines that we love and hate.  Their slogan should be “you pay literally nothing so we treat you  like nothing”. Ryan Air is like if the 99 cents store had wings.  But they do have vegan Prosecco.
Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Basel and Luxembourg City are all close options, somehow though we almost always land or need to pass through Luxembourg City on our way from anywhere to Saarbrucken.  We’ve gone through it 4 times, and even though Luxembourg is famously small, we have somehow only managed to see about 2 of it’s 10 blocks.  Our plan this trip was to get in earlier to Luxembourg wander around a few hours until we caught the one hour afternoon bus to Saarbrucken.  However, Luxembourg City greeted us with a biting wind, so eager to return to Saarbrucken with our suitcase packed with grandchild toys we opted for an earlier bus.
We have been basically homeless for 7 months.  Going to Saarbrucken almost felt like going home since we’ve spent so much time there, but we have done so at the expense of  seeing more of Germany.  We decided to try to squeeze in 3 other German cities in one day-Heidelberg, Mainz and Worms.

Heidelberg lies in a narrow valley with the lovely named Neckar River splitting the picturesque city like opening a ripe fruit. Lush green forested hills holding the old city of half timbered buildings, a castle ruin on the sloping hill overlooking the idyllic town, a world class university; history with every step including a lovely statue of Robert Bunsen, creator of the Bunsen burner. Almost overlooked amongst all this beauty were some particularly disturbing Stolpersteins .(https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2019/01/they-do-make-you-stumble.html

Emigrated to Palestine
 
Jehovah’s Witness executed for refusing to fight
  
Parents died in Auschwitz, children went to UK in Kinder Transport

We crossed the Nektar river and climbed up the hill along a very steep, old cobblestone trail to reach  the Philosopher’s Path, named after the many poets and academics inspired by walking along the path.  
 We were treated to a great view of Heidelburg, and then went in search of Thingstatte, an open air amphitheater which was inaugurated with a Nazi propaganda speech by Joseph Goebbels at its opening in 1935.
We followed signs, used Google maps, and walked in multiple Philosophical circles looking for the Thingstatte for 90 minutes, finally asking someone and 30 minutes later finding it.
Origin of the expression “I can’t find the thingamajig”?
frighteningly, not unrealistic to envision a Trunp rally here.

As we wandered back to the town, this time in just 20 minutes rather then 90 minutes, you

could feel the ghosts in the forest stillness.
Heidelberg was stunning, but after seeing the numerous Stopelsteins, the Thingstatte and then later reading that the area was a stronghold of the Nazi party with a third of the teaching staff at the university forced out for political or racial reasons immediately after Hitler came to power, Heidelberg felt somewhat uncomfortable.  It is hard to align the beautiful, serene present with the tainted past in Germany (as well as many other locations in Europe).
Our navigation skills continued to mirror our struggle to find the Thingstatte, as we left Heidelburg hoping to continue our explorations.  Our anticipated 30 minute tram ride back to the main train station required two bus transfers due to construction on the tram tracks.  We made it to Mainz long enough to meander for an hour, but ended up on the wrong train thwarting our chance to catch Worms. We will eventually make it to Worms, most likely via Luxembourg City.    
 
 
 
 

Iberian Groundhog’s Days

It\’s embarrassing how we sound like a drunken Rick Steves in our praise of this peninsula, but every morning we saw our shadow and it was another day of blissful experiences in Spain and Portugal, earlier posts here https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2019/06/walk-this-way.html and  https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Lisbon

We rolled into Madrid early with the sunrise on a red eye bus from Lisbon surprisingly refreshed (Nick) and not cranky (Patricia) and ready to explore. We popped on the incredible subway system-clean, efficient, extensive, self explanatory with detailed maps, upcoming trains/stations announced in digital displays.  All wonderful, just like Lisbon.  Madrid made an immediate impact and we tried to hit the ground running.
Our airbnb loft had complimentary red wine and ham, our first time receiving wine despite often seeing people reporting receiving it in Air B&B review (but, at the price range we hunt for with our lodging, even a bottle of Ripple would be unexpected). We left the ham. 
Unknowingly, we were situated in the hip area of town or do we just bring it with us?
But, every neighborhood that we walked through in Madrid was vibrant, bubbling with activity. As in almost every other city- fabulous varied architecture but this city just felt even grander; Royal Palace, Retiro Park, all  just very pleasing, but more noticeable was just the general feel of the city was electric with a positive energy;

 
except maybe the bullfighting ring which although visually attractive, was still kind of creepy. 
We may have suffered slight museum overdose cramming 3 impressive, massive  museums (Prado, Reina  Sofia, and Thyssen) into two days. The Madrid museums had broad collections from all eras-ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern and contemporary plus from all of Europe (and US) but they really showcased  Spanish artists. We left with a far richer appreciation of El Greco, Goya, Velasquez, Picasso (in particular, his Spain’s national tragic treasure wall sized painting “Guernica”), Gris, Miro, etc. but we were a little numb and nauseous at the end, there’s only so many paintings of St. Sebastian with arrows in his side over the centuries that you can take in two days .  
We successfully weaned ourselves from the museum art with park sculptures and street art.
 
 
 
Madrid was clean, well cared for and just stunning. Walking through the many museums and neighborhoods made you think about the historic wealth of Spain, the building up and then falling down of empires (starting to hit too close to home). We felt like we just skimmed the surface and we will be back. 
Atocha- Bus-Train Station
Our bus ride to San Sebastian (Donostia to the Basque) may have been our most memorable. The foothills along the edge of the Pyrenees was the most stunning scenery from a bus or train, yet.  Landscape intense enough to have us look up from our bus tv’s. Our bizarre media options included episodes of “House” and Power Puff Girls in Spanish, as well as dubbed Woody Allen’s Coney Island movie “Wonder Wheel” (bad in any language).
San Sebastian was probably our most highly anticipated site, as we consistently heard it was the most beautiful place in the world from a number of people with distinctly different tastes.  It  had everything we usually like; a Victorian seaside resort (our favorite kind), beach, medieval churches (combined with contemporary art), 

 




plus beautiful buildings and bridges



San Sebastian/Donostia is in the Basque Region of Spain, with a mix of both French and Spanish influence, the end result is it’s own unique flavor.
Unfortunately, it also had it’s fair share of tragic history, old and recent-burned down in 1489, 1839 and the Basque area was a frequent target of long time Spanish ruler Generalisimo Franco-e.g. bombing of Guernica.  BTW Generalisimo Franco is still dead!

 

 
We enjoyed the local museum detailing Basque history that included a special exhibit (an entire floor) on a local chef and restaurant. 
 
Our high expectations may have influenced our impression, while it was extremely nice, it was not unforgettable, jaw dropping or breathtaking as say Dubrovnik, Croatia or Trier, Germany or even Zagreb, Croatia (which was former Soviet sexy ugly). It didn’t have the historically /ancient fascination of Paphos, Crete, or the great personality of Bristol, England but it wasn\’t just another very pretty city on the coast. 
It was really pleasant, just, maybe slightly overhyped. What\’s the expression?- date San Sebastian, marry Madrid, actually would date and marry Madrid, and be good friends with San Sebastian.
 
In San Sebastian though, the true highlight was discovering  Supermarket Gazpacho in a box or bottle.  It became our major sustenance through the rest of our Spanish travels.
 
Barcelona was similar to Madrid with distinct, nice neighborhoods to walk around, but while Madrid was consistently beautiful, Barcelona’s neighborhoods were more inconsistent. The Plaza Catylonia, Piesag Gracia and Gotic areas were impressive, but they definitely were more touristy feeling and crowded.

 

Can’t talk about Barcelona without talking about Gaudi and perhaps his influence and uniqueness contributes to the appeal of Barcelona.  We went to Park Guell, famed as the park with the tiled salamander benches and fountains, but which actually was a planned development similar to Los Angeles\’s Valencia, San Francisco\’s Park Merced or Portland\’s Ladd’s Addition. It  was pretty amazing and original especially when you consider that it was  devised in 1900, but ultimately it was a commercial failure and only two of the planned 60 residences were ever built.  Today, the park is one of Spain\’s most visited tourist sites.  Note: the word gaudy is not derived from Gaudi despite what some may have expressed (but not us, we loved it!)

We,  along with countless other tourists, stared in awe at Gaudi’s masterwork- Sagrada Familia with the backdrop of Taco Bell/KFC/Burger King and McDonalds.

Gaudi\’s park, church and few buildings scattered through the city were wonderful to see,  kind of Flintstones meets Candyland, but again big crowds diluted the ability to relax and enjoy.

Greets you right when you get off the subway
Fortunately (because it was so expensive to stay in Barcelona) we actually stayed about 30 miles south of Barcelona  in Sitges easily accessed by commuter train (again great public transit system).  We  blindly chose to stay at a hotel, a rarity for us,  but it was a great find, right on the beach, nice pedestrian old town center, and most importantly the best breakfast buffet ever! It even had gazpacho.

This was just one table, there were 4 more plus 3 different coffee machines and unlimited Mimosas

The town was hopping because it was the start of almost 2 weeks of Pride Festivities and Sitges is apparently the gay capitol of Spain so everyone was in a party mood. The beaches filled up with international partiers,  and way too many pale skinned Brits turning gazpacho colored, (painful to see as a dermatologist).

It’s hard not to compare cities, especially in the same country.  The  cities we saw in Spain, were each uniquely wonderful.


Like meeting people, when coming to a new city you get a gut feeling and a first impression. What creates the feeling of a city? The old monuments? The stately buildings? The peeling paint? The crowded cafes?  How does entering at a nondescript bus station on the edge of town compare to arriving at a fin-de-siecle elegant train station in the heart of the city influence your view? 

Some of Spain\’s cities were love at first sight while we left others with an emerging appreciation. Unfortunately because of the Schengen Visa rules  https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Schengen, we could only stay long enough to just have a Spain appetizer.  Looking forward to coming back for a full Spanish meal. 

This week\’s photo of  topless old man looking out window contemplating his life \”I just finished off a whole carton of regret.\” 

 

Dog-Days of Winter

Spring is here and flowers are everywhere.
Beverly Hills
Mendocino
Eugene
Portland
 New York
Bray, Ireland
Mainz, Germany
Saarbrucken, Germany
We spent most of the winter hibernating in the U.S..  We left Europe to escape the cold only to fall into a foot and a half of snow in Eugene with the worst storm in 100 yrs, snowing us in for 4 days.
We spent 60 non-Schengen days in the US, driving over three thousand miles (from Portland to Pasadena and back amongst other parts of CA), doing our taxes-no tax break for us either, and shopping for shoes.  Driving, taxes and shopping-the classic American vacation.  Along the way we saw friends, family, a roaming herd of elk (near Eureka),

and millions of migrating painted lady butterflies (in LA) https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/photos-swarm-of-painted-lady-butterflies-fill-the-sky-in-california-during-migration/70007734, plus millions of shoe stores (but only got one pair),
and many Trader Joe’s but only TJ disappointed, which was somewhat unsettling.  After 6 months on the road, speaking to maybe only 10 other people, 4 of which were German supermarket checkers who did not understand us…it was wonderful to see and share stories with family and friends. Added bonus was much needed pet therapy.

 
The weather in California agreed with us.  Oh, Golden State!  But our stops in NYC and Ireland (like Eugene) suffered from lingering winter chill which continued on with our return to Saarbrucken.
Despite the wind, rain and cold we still enjoyed Ireland.  We started with hiking in Glendalough in the southeast Wicklow mountains to regain our walking legs and then went on to Bray to regain our affinity for the freezing North Sea and Irish sea beach boardwalks.  
 
Glendalough was a place of iconic Irish beauty; ruins, lakes, forests, sheep, horses, goats and green fields.

Dublin-adjacent Bray also delivered a solid, Irish experience with their own urban charm-a gorgeous McDonald\’s (no we did not eat there),

and seaside walks with  more ridiculously perfect landscape.

 

 
We were somewhat preoccupied during the Ireland trip as our main focus was transporting luggage, then getting our luggage under the Ryanair weight limits. This  required us, in 3 days, to eat over a kilo and a half (3 lbs) of the 6 kilos (13 lbs) of peanut butter we had “muled” over from the U.S. to bring to Germany for our Canadian-made-organic-peanut-butter loving ex-pat daughter.  Tired of peanut butter, Patricia really just wanted a jacket potato, but we never found one.  Apparently, Ireland was in the midst of the Jacket Potato Famine of 2019. 





The view from our 4-star McDonald\’s booth


After frantically shedding items in our bags at the Dublin airport,  we just barely passed the weight requirements (actually to the exact allowable 20.6 kg) by wearing multiple layers of clothes, but the layers came in handy as the extra clothing kept us warm as we slept at the cold airport (in a food court McDonalds restaurant booth) to catch our 6 am flight.  

The remaining 10 pounds of organic peanut butter, as well as clothes, “heirloom” toys, books, and dolls for the almost 24 month old and a tortilla press (seriously) were greatly appreciated.
After two weeks in Saarbrucken to catch up with the granddaughter, neighborhood dog walkers, grocery clerks and again get denied visa extension by the German government  (had they heard about our peanut butter smuggling?), we hit the road for the Iberian peninsula.This week’s picture of topless old man’s best friend looking out the window contemplating his life.

 
 

Birds and the Bees

Birds and the Bees

One thing we have been pretty surprised with are the animals, or lack of,  that we have seen. Even though most of our travels so far have been during fall and winter, we figured we would still see plenty of birds and bugs but that has not consistently been the case.   Surprisingly, the  fewest animals/birds/bugs have been in the warmer areas- Croatia and Cyprus.  Although, the day we were commenting on how few bugs we had been seeing,  a spider the size of a Yorkshire Terrier’s head showed up on Nick’s shoulder https://www.whatsthatbug.com/2010/10/30/wolf-spider-from-cyprus/

Despite the lack of insects, Europe in general seemed to be very hospitable to bugs as indicated by the bee houses we saw just about everywhere, from the Hague to Saarbrücken to Luxembourg  to Trogir, Croatia to Bristol & Oxford UK to Limassol, Cyprus.

We did see snails, although in places we typically do not see them in.  in the water in Cavtat, Croatia

In the produce section in the market in Paphos, Cyprus (no we did not buy them.)

Most of the animals we saw were domestic like sheep, goats or horses and birds.

The most birds we saw were ones we almost did not see, the pheasants, grouse and other game birds hidden in the fields in Yorkshire and the Cotswolds.  The other birds, were primarily ones on the water

We are eager to return to Strasbourg in the spring to see the storks who will return to these chimney top nests.

Although Cyprus did not have many birds, they did have the flamingos.

Continue reading “Birds and the Bees”

Ya-Sas Cyprus

This blog was imported from an old platform and looks bad, sorry.

 
Laundry room with a view @ Club Aphrodite

Our last stop in Cyprus included more ruins and our free timeshare resort week. Ancient buildings repurposed many times, now deserted; toppled stones; relics from previous eras; villas passed through many hands over the years; rudimentary plumbing; signs of a previous bathing pool- that was the resort.  Club Aphrodite!  Only difference from the local ruins was the resort villa had a bowling green next door.  The ruins, while seeming to be not as old or poorly constructed as our resort, were pretty spectacular.

Club Aphrodite was indeed the last resort as it was at the remote end of an 80\’s style housing development a good mile from anything.  It would not have looked out of place in most American suburbs with the exception of the ubiquitous (and still sour) citrus trees lining the streets plus severely pruned trees and, of course, cats.

Q-tip trees growing around Club Aphrodite

Our days in Limassol, continued our established Cypriot routine: staying at ruins, walking to ruins, wandering through ruins, walking along the coast and going to the market.  Due to Limassol\’s urban sprawl and the location of ruins, this also included a lot of bus rides (with a lot of unnecessary confusion).  Unfortunately, buses did not reach all of the ruins and required long walks on a thin ribbon of shoulder on very busy streets or freeways.

First stop was Kolossi castle where Richard the Lionhearted married Berengaria of Navarre  on May 12, 1191. Destination wedding!  Later in the year 1191, Richard sold Cyprus to Robert de Sable (the master of the Knights of Templar).  Robert then flipped it the next year to Guy of Lusignan beginning the three century reign of Cyprus by the Lusignans until the Ottomans began their three century reign in 1571. The country continues to be up for sale,  with housing construction all over every city with real estate billboards everywhere.  We just read that Cyprus is entangled in some of the Russian laundering which has surfaced in the Manafort conviction (Club Aphrodite time shares?).  A Russian oligarch whose name has surfaced in the case owns 9% of the Bank of Cyprus (should we have not used that ATM? )

Kolossi Castle

Second set of ruins  was Khourion, the remains of an entire city with more beautiful mosaics, striking still-in-use amphitheater- how could you pay attention to the the performance with this view?

Khourion was an early adopter of gentrification with new civilizations building on top of the previous because location , location, location.

View from Kourion
View from Khourion

Another day,  another bus ride and walk- this time to the Molos (the beach promenade). We wandered through  the city which like other Cypriot cities was a mix of eras, churches and/or mosques. A combination of improvement and decay.

The Molos

Our search for wildlife continued in Limassol when we went to another salt lake. This is where many of the migrating flamingos first stop to wait for sufficient November and December rains before going over to the Larnaca salt lake. We took two buses to get out to the Limassol lake. The area is actually part of British occupied land with a RAF military base.  There were still of few groups of wild flamingos, the lazier ones perhaps, that still hadn’t made the 40 mile flight over to Larnaca.

The area was very marshy so not walkable to the beach, but we were able to see the birds with the aid of telescopes at the environmental center.

We then walked 2 miles over to St Nicholas Monastery of the Cats, which was a functioning monastery with a small church and, well, lots of cats. No false advertising here.

Wolf spider aka Cyprus Tarantula

No other brushes with wild life in Limassol except what was encountered at Club Aphrodite.  Waiting for the bus with cats, black mold growing in the corner of our bedroom at the resort, (following our Cypriot traditions, they changed our room the next day) and a giant wolf spider the size of a mini tarantula that Nick noticed crawling on his shoulder toward his neck, but knocked off just in time (with a handy package of corn thins before smashing it on the kitchen floor).

Cyprus’s cities and towns began to merge together in our minds becoming almost indistinguishable  from each other.

“My Mall”, something for everyone?

Nondescript buildings, neglected old town squares, beautiful & simple churches and mosques, identical & ornate churches and mosques, massive beach front hotels and condos, souvenir shops, old and new plus big malls with the same unsavory American eyesores of Cinnabon, Taco Bell, KFC’s and Pizza Hut, more so than any other European area we’ve visited.

Coast with big hotels
Fusion

Not just American encroachment but there seemed to be as many Russian and British markets as Cypriot.  What was unique about Cyprus, other then halloumi cheese, was our inability to feel a concrete gestalt- there was this nebulous identify.  We never saw a Cyprus flag by itself, it was always accompanied by a Greek flag in the south, of course no Cyprus flags flew in the north instead a Turkish flag with a very similar looking Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus flag.

Our last day kind of sums up our Cyprus experience.  Breakfast of halvah and halloumi. Walking miles past new condos, old stone houses,  renovated tourist areas and vacant city center buildings to reach an oddly placed intercity bus stop. Bus ride past war-memorials and beautiful coastline.

Appropriately, we ended our Cyprus experience at a beach side promenade eating an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet with American Style Philadelphia sushi rolls washed down with British beer.

This week’s photo of a topless old man looking out window contemplating his life… 6-9 months timeshare

Paphos: The Redemption of Cyprus

Although Britain left Cyprus in 1960 seems like Britain did not completely leave.  Cyprus appears to have inherited the English language (a fair amount of English speaking Cypriots), driving on the left side of the street and the distinct electrical plugs requiring bulky adapters.  Britain seems to have lingered on in the west Cyprus town of Paphos, as almost everyone we’ve heard on the street has an English accent.

The streets in Paphos are filled with English specialty shops, betting parlors, pubs and restaurants offering full English breakfasts.  The pubs show English football leagues on big screen TV’s.   Walking along the beach promenade almost felt like being on the North Sea coastline, again, but with a bit more sun; https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Scarborough , https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Eastbourne

While Kyrenia is in the Turkish North, it also seemed to be a haven for British ex-pats, but we did hear a lot of Russian mixed in with Turkish https://chosenfugue.xyz/2019/01/21/cyprus-the-good-the-bad-and-its-mostly-ugly-part-2/.  Cyprus gets about 3 million tourists a year. 1.2 million from the UK, then 800,000 from Russia, so 2/3’s of the tourists are from just these 2 countries.  Israel is third but with only a ¼ million visitors a year.  The US is not even in the top 10. Cyprus also seems to welcome ex-pats, with housing developers advertising that a condo purchase is enough to earn you Cypriot (and EU) citizenship.  

Paphos definitely tempts with its old downtown with renovated pedestrian area, ancient ruins with beautiful mosaics, and modern town with shopping mall (hello Taco Bell!-although it was very disappointing). The cheesy tourist area had a great mix of themed bars, including the second Flintstones bar we have seen in Cyprus, confirming that, yes, the Flintstones are from Cyprus.

Paphos kind of has a Disneyland of Ruins, the Archaeological Park and down the road from that the Knott’s Berry Farm of  Ruins, The Tomb of the King. Our first attempt to go to the Archaeological Park was rained out with a very painful hail storm but the next day the sun was back out.


The park was essentially ruins of the posh part of the original town, 2nd-4th AC; an amphitheater, palace and homes.   Striking ruins with beautiful mosaics although, many of the mosaics were unfortunately purposely covered with sand and tarps- they still had the educational placards describing them.   We figured it was to protect from winter rains, and asked but the visitor center guide was the least informed person at the Park that day,  shrugging her shoulders and saying “I don’t know” when we asked a question that’s surely been asked thousands of times. The mosaics that were exposed, roofs protected these, were enough, though. 

One of the great things about aimless wandering in Cyprus is stumbling across amazing places. This church  from the 2nd century AD. 

Not only were there  wonderful mosaics from the 4th Century but this church also had St. Paul’s pillar where he was apparently lashed 39 x’s,  impressing the King enough for the king to convert.  Apparently then they celebrated at St. Pauls’s Pillar Pub next door.  

Without drinking, we also (literally) fell into the St. Solominus Catacombs. Underground shrine with deep caverns with steps leading down into an unseen pool of water, baptizing Nick’s feet.  This may have been one of our favorite spots in Cyprus. Good story, Jewish/Catholic/Pagan history- this is thought to have been a synagogue, converted to a church in the 9th century. It is the burial cite of the  Jewish Maccabee brothers killed by the Romans for being Jewish.  One story says the king asked them to eat pork and they refused saying they would rather die. Another story says they refused to worship idols and were killed. Their mother, Solomini became a Christian and one story says she was locked up in the catacombs and two hundred years came out alive.  In addition to these stories, people tie ribbons and rags (Pagan ritual) to the tree growing out of the catacombs to be cured of ailments.  As we approached, we saw two young men in track suits, deep in discussion, pause, kiss the tree and then continue their discussion. 

We walked pathways along the beach, from one end of Paphos to the other as well as along the the beach in Polis a small town we also visited just north of Pathos in the Akamas pennisula.  On either side of the town of Pathos are massive hotels (south end) or housing and hotels (north end) .  The hotel and beach condo/resorts were mostly deserted for the off season with the exception of the contingent of zombie like British pensioner couples combing the beaches, Russians using the outdoor exercise equipments and the ubiquitous cats.

Polis is not as developed as Pathos, a lot of condos but not the big hotels.  The bus between Pathos and  Polis  went through winding narrow mountain roads thru small villages to the Akamas penisula where Polis is.  The villages looked like Hollywood back lots of mountain villages with the back drop of beautiful lush green fields on sloping foothills of the Troodos mountains. These towns are apparently almost as deserted as a Hollywood set after hours, natives have mainly left and the old houses are holiday homes. Polis in Greek means city, so the town of Polis is aptly named as it felt kind of like a generic Cyprus town with non-distinct small commercial area, an “authentic” 2 block tourist area (which was fairly nice, small restaurants, souvenir and clothing stores plus a 115 year old simple stone church).

The draw here is the Baths of Aphrodite-if you bathe in it, you receive everlasting beauty, just like Aphrodite.  However, to discourage this they have stocked the pond with creepy freshwater eels-which we saw.  Everlasting beauty comes with a risk of feeling eel.  After visiting the baths, we walked up the Aphrodite Trail, apparently as she did after her bath (early Spa treatment?). Looking down at her beach, we thought this was Aphrodite’s rock where she was born arising out of the sea, but apparently she had her water birth (sea section?) closer to Limassol, but we took lots of pictures of this rock so didn’t want to waste it.  

But the most exciting thing was seeing the wild goats climbing trees. 

Find the hiding goats

We generally have not seen many animals (other then cats).  but generally just crows, pigeons, doves and of course cranes

So Paphos and surroundings delivered. From the lovely place we stayed (and added on 3 days), the great supermarket with live snails in the produce department, to the really beautiful beaches. 

This week’s photo of a topless old man looking out window contemplating his life…
“just saw his shadow, which means another six weeks of Seasonal Affective Disorder”


















Cyprus: the good, the bad and the ugly part 2

This post was before the word press upgrade, sorry it does not look very good

Nicosia (Lefkosia in Turkish) is the last divided country capital in the world. The division is marked by the Green Line, named for the color of the ink on the map to draw the country boundaries in 1964.  The southern 2/3 of Cyprus is “Greek”, the northern 1/3 is Turkish although Turkish rule is not recognized by any country other than Turkey.  Technically, the island is just Cyprus with an occupied northern terriority. 

The history of Cyprus appears to be as convoluted as the Balkans. Like the Balkans, different groups, Turks (18% of the population) and Greek Cypriots have lived together contently, for centuries.  Most spoke some of each language.  Also like the Balkans, roots of conflict go deep, all the way back to Greek mythology where the island has a significant role. Aphrodite and Adonis were born here. This deep attachment to Greece has led to modern Cyprus longing for enosis-return to Greece.

Even though Cyprus is a tiny country it is the 3rd largest island in the Mediterranean, it has been geographically significant as a gateway to the east.  For centuries it has been the stopping point for merchants, crusaders and armies.  Like all areas with a long history, villages dating back to 8000BC, it has traded hands multiple times-the Greeks, Alexander the Great, Byzantines, Lusignans (wow, new players, they are from France), Venetians, Ottoman, British-only Napoleon seems to have been off the Cypriot dance card.

With the fall of the Ottomans, Britain picked up Cyprus in 1878 but was ready to offload Cyprus after WWI. Turkey and Greece declined. After WW2, turbulence between Great Britain, Greece, Turkey and the Cypriots led to Great Britain finally giving Cyprus its independence in 1960. The turbulence only increased.  Years of political manipulation and maneuvering between Greece and Turkey leading to increased tension, hostilities and violence.

July 15, 1974, the Greek majority staged an unsuccessful coup to unite with Greece (Enosis). In retaliation, Turkey invaded 5 days later resulting in thousands dying, hundreds still missing and many thousands displaced from their homes.  180,000 Greek Cypriots were forced out of Northern Cyprus and their property confiscated. 80,000 Turkish Cypriots, prodded by their own leaders, were similarly forced to desert their lives in the south and live in camps in the north.  An entire northern city, Famagusta, previously Greek Cypriot remains a ghost town.  It is now a tourist attraction. In an effort to bolster the Turkish population, Turks were encouraged to move from the mainland to the island and now 28% of the population is Turkish.

Much of the continued animosity is due to the forced relocation, on both sides, with generations still hurting.

How 
For the tourist, the biggest difference is that there are two names for many cities-Greek and Turkish. In the south, the Euro is used, in the north, the Turkish Lira. Prices are reportedly cheaper in the North.
The Greek side felt more economically stable. We saw multinational shops and restaurants, cleaner streets and more parks.  The south has a well developed public bus system, the north has few public buses and rather use a network off individually owned, small well worn buses that go between cities, stopping in neighborhoods along the way.
In the South, landscaped public buildings, monuments celebrating the British leaving.
The north also had a lot of tangerine trees, we tried them on both sides, they were horrible.
The most common monument on both sides seemed to be abandoned buildings- these are two pics from the North.- with a monument and concrete shell behind it.

Notable in the northern side, groups of young men wandering around

Urban renewal? A nylon facade wrapped around an empty building
You can travel between the two sides in Nicosia by going through a passport check then walking 15 feet and going through another passport check.  We did it several times during our week in Nicosia, it was a benign process. There are UN guarded barriers and a DMZ along the green line, we were not allowed to take pictures. Nick was only asked to move along twice while trying to get a closer look.

There is a slight undercurrent of tension or maybe it is just or imagination spurred by the occasional sightings of Turkish or Cypriot armed military but really minimal compared to what we felt in Belfast and Jerusalem.  Again, unfortunately and stupidly, religion plays a role as the north is Muslim and the south, Greek Orthodox but from vantage point the country seems pretty secular.  We were in the south for Epiphany and Greek Orthodox Christmas and most stores were open, although there was a police presence around the churches.

In the north, it also felt secular. We heard the call to pray multiple times, but nothing seemed to stop. There were women with head scarves but most were in western clothes, not covered up, and men and women holding hands. Although, we did see a lot of groups of young men in the North just walking around.

Despite the islamic ban on alcohol, there were plenty of bars in the north, including in the courtyard of the mosque. Gambling, illegal in other moslem countries is legal . Kyrenia (Greek)/Girne (Turkish), where we went, was kind of a mini-Las Vegas but with an ancient fort, Ottoman cemetery and beautiful coast line along with the multiple casinos

We have seen repurposing of buildings throughout Europe. Castles converted to shops and residences, forts to government buildings, palaces to hotels.  In Northern Cyprus, repurposing is commonplace. Almost all of the churches were converted to mosques or administration buildings during the Ottoman empire leading to fusion architecture with steeples side by side with minarets.
Our personal experience with repurposing was at our second accommodation in Nicosia. After our Northern Nicosia stay, we moved to the southern part of town. We went into the office of our little hotel to pay our bill and noticed medical diplomas on the wall, paintings of pregnant women and bookcase filled with gynecology books.  The owner explained that this had been her husbands OB/Gyn office which she converted.  That would explain our sterile room with paper sheets.
St Sophia minus  exterior gargoyles, angels and saints now Selimiye Mosque

 

Cyprus: the good, the bad and the ugly part 1

This post was done before WordPress upgraded so it looks really bad, sorry. 
“It’s the second half of the cruise and you know he hates to lose”  -Neil Young Cripple Creek Ferry
“Has your luck run out?” she laughed at him
Well, I guess you must have known it would someday”
-Bob Dylan Lily, RoseMary and the Jack of Hearts
Five months on the road, so we’ve definitely rounded the turn to the second half of our planned 9 month trip.  We celebrated Christmas and toasted the New Year with Sekt (German sparkling wine) in Saarbrucken, experiencing  many of the supposed local traditions for a lucky good year: although some locals we asked were apparently unaware of any these with the exception of drinking copious amounts of Sekt;

  • we ate lentil soup for prosperity because the lentils are shaped like coins,
  • ate tiny mushrooms (edible, non hallucinogenic variety, unfortunately) for luck – mushrooms are lucky in Germany,
  • we had a pig’s face shaped bread from the bakery also for luck (pigs are also good luck in Germany).
  • we bought napkins decorated with chimney sweeps and four-leaf clovers again for good luck
All together for Christmas in Saarbrucken

New Year’s Eve in Germany is also called Silvester, because St. Silvester’s feast day is December 31.   We were all in for Silvester 2019. The morning of New’s Year’s eve we spent in the supermarket buying all our lucky foods. Everyone else seemed to have a similar but slightly different idea, as the line to check out reached the back wall of the market and took us 45 minutes to check out. But while we were buying German lucky foods that no one in Germany knew about, they were buying Sekt and fireworks (yes, there were fireworks at the market).

And at midnight we saw and heard their investments; a constant barrage of fireworks.  Colorful explosions were visible from every window.  This went on for at least an hour.   On our New Year’s Day morning walk  we saw neighborhood streets littered with firework remains and one burned out apartment, they should have had the lentils (or they had the other kind of mushrooms).  

Despite all of our New Yea\’s efforts, we have been losing and our luck seems to have run out. In particular, we have lost most of our Schengen time   https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/search/label/Schengen and we were unable to get a visa extension to allow us more Schengen time.

We chose non-Schengen Cyprus as our first stop for the new year but thus far it has come up short. Why Cyprus? It is about 30 degrees warmer than our initial other non schengen choices of Bulgaria and Romania and a little drier than Ireland (we thought.)

We have been unlucky as Cyprus thus far has been disappointing. Part of what brought us to Cyprus was some “luck”  last year. Last June at a Minnesota Twins / Seattle Mariner’s baseball game  in Seattle, Nick played a promotional game in the concourse,  60 seconds grabbing twirling, fake money while enclosed in a booth.  He got the lucky bill to “win” a free week at a resort any where in the world .  Actually what was won was  the opportunity to  endure a grueling high pressured 5 hour sales pitch for timeshares worldwide.  After  turning down every onslaught from the increasingly angry and annoyed sales people we walked out with our free week almost anywhere in the world that the company offered.  Unfortunately, the “free” week was a bit hard to find as most places required a financial upgrade, even in Lebanon and Bulgaria,  but…..  a week in late January finally came up in Cyprus, so later this month we will cash in, if we can make it that long in the rest of Cyprus

Cyprus has been surprisingly green (it has rained quite a bit), but not very attractive so far, and  it compensates with a lack of charm. It most closely resembles tacky America  especially tourist resorts like Panama City, Fort Lauderdale, or even Niagra Falls with familiar chains (TGIF, KFC, Pizza Hut), seedy shopping strips and strip clubs. In the off season, parts look ghostly.

We have been in Cyprus 9 days and have had to change lodging 7 times.  This was not planned.  It was supposed to be twice.  Our first stop in Larnaca,  check in for our Airbnb was at a minimarket, where Nick almost knocked over a row of gin bottles with his backpack in the narrow aisles. We arrived at 1:45 to be told to wait 15 minutes until 2 pm before we could check in.  But within 15 minutes of checking in, we were ready to check out. The room was missing flooring, the internet did not work, and as a metaphor for our feeling of being trapped; the door had swelled from recent rains with no inner door knob so we couldn’t get out. It just was creepy.  Back to the minimarket. New room.  It had a stove that didn’t work,  internet that worked only when standing in one particular spot, a lot of twin beds and was equally creepy.  But we did learn something,  boiling eggs in the hot water kettle worked great, they were perfect. (that is not a puzzle, it is the floor)

Standing on the balcony, the Mediterranean to the right with passing oil tankers. Across the way a forlorn looking young man smoking a cigarette and staring at the same tankers, it felt like the middle of a bad short story, and it was Epiphany (January 6th) . Back to the minimarket and our four night stay lasted one.
We quickly found another place around the corner, across from the beach with a luxurious balcony! It  would be  closing the next morning for 2 months of  renovations.  We asked, but there was no going away party on this last open night.

Perfect view at our second place, only one day since it was being torn down!

Four nights in Larnaca quickly became two.  Larnaca did have migrating wild flamingos, which were pretty fantastic but otherwise our Epiphany was to get out of town. 

Continue reading “Cyprus: the good, the bad and the ugly part 1”