A national hobby?

One of the favorite hobbies in Cyprus goes like that:

You sit in a restaurant/ bar/ cafe/ club, drinking, eating, socializing. When a person or a couple enters the establishment you stop WHATEVER you are doing, you stare at them - not even a little bit discreetly - and then after the one minute of staring you continue what you were doing.

For God's sake people can you just please do your own F******* job and stop staring! Because I swear, the next time somebody stares at me and Molly, I will personally go on their table, STAND in front of them, STARE at them, BENT DOWN check their legs and shoes, MAKE A RUDE COMMENT, SMILE and LEAVE. Maybe that will teach a lesson to Cypriot girls!

The end of another week

Another week gone..a new week has started. Here are some of the things that annoyed me last week.

• The receptionist at the Imperial Hotel in Pafos who insisted on me giving them my phone number and address.
• The receptionist at check-out at the Imperial Hotel in Pafos who after I gave her my credit card, asked for my PIN number.
  
• The staff at the Imperial Hotel in Pafos who were not trained to say “Thank you” or smile.
  
• The 4 stars at the Imperial Hotel in Pafos. How, do they get them?
  
• The fact that Cypriot citizens pay more for accommodation in Pafos than tourists do
  
• The people who park on the sidewalks throughout Cyprus
  
• The streets in Pafos which are separated in the middle so if you take a wrong turn..you are screwed
  
• The KFC girl who did not give us drinks and insisted that we did not order them
  
• The KFC girl who after I ordered the drinks for the second time told me that I owe 2.95 Euros where as the receipt clearly showed 2.85. When I showed it to her and told her you mean “2.85” she replied “2.95”. I gave her 2.90 and I never got any change back
  
• The Seven Lounge bar which did not give us a table for 2 for dinner because they were all reserved. At the time 90% of the tables were empty. We ate at another restaurant walked for 30 minutes and the tables at Seven were still empty.
  
• The arsons in Greece – save the last tree so we can hang them
  
• The know-it-all sports journalists
  

Things that made me smile last week:

• The purchase of Salamina season tickets
• The unexpectedly good service at Brewery pub
• The second place of Kyriakos Ioannou and Eleni’s Artymata competition at the 200m final in the Track & Field World Championship
  

Stay tuned for next week’s little annoyances and pleasant surprisesJ

35 years ago

Close your eyes for a minute. Imagine that somebody with the use of force, guns, invades your house. You leave without taking anything, because you think that you will go back the next day.

35 years later you see your house again....through photos that you have found on the Internet...and it is just how you left it 35 years ago. The true story of a Greek-Cypriot who through the lens of the camera of a Slovakian tourist has been able to see his house...online. This is how it looks: www.flickr.com/photos/34033431@N02/show/

A.

Back to reality

Back from Protaras today. I can't remember the last time I had such a relaxing holiday. For 6 days this is how our days went.

Wake up at 9.30, put on our swimsuits and get on the beach by 10-10.30.
Drink our frappes and read the newspapers as soon as we got to the sunbeds.
Swim a little bit and then my family would come.
Eat at the snack bar, restaurant for lunch. The guy knew our drinks and the village salad and puth them without even asking.
Swim a little bit more - maybe do some watersports.
Get back home by 7pm.
Have dinner with my parents, my brother and his wife and the kids.
Go to sleep by 12.30am.
Wake up at 9.30...

I have a great tan. Molly is still working on hers but I am sure by the end of the summer she will have hers too.

For all those who haven't had their vacation yet, have a great one.

Hello again!

I am sure you all missed me writing on this blog.

Don't worry though, it is just a dead period now, with not much going on. I am planning to go on a week vacation next week by the beach and relax, enjoy the sun and the beach. The weather here in Nicosia is almost unbearable but I am surviving through it.

I also started writing a new blog about footbal. If you do not know the Cypriot dialect there is no reason to click on the link. If you want to kill some time, here you go: www.cyprusfootballer.blogspot.com

I promise that after this short break I will be back with more stories to follow.

Until then, take care