The weekend

Good times come from spontaneous decisions. This could have been the conclusion of our weekend in Paphos. A late night Friday decision to spend the weekend in Paphos, an early morning trip and a full Saturday day.
Taking things from the beginning, the idea came up around 11pm on Friday night and thumbs went up instantly. Departure time was set for Saturday at 10am. On our way we booked the hotel rooms and we were ready to rock.
Upon arriving and checking in we went down to the pool where we spent most of the day. After 7 hours at the pool, a beer, some late lunch, a lot of volleyball, some pilota we went up to the rooms to relax and get ready for going out.
Fashion cafe was our first destination. A really nice cafe in terms of decoration, but lacked in quality of service and food. And I really could not understand their promotion of bringing Star Hellas to sit in the corner table as a way to attract customers. We were really the only ones who could see her.
Next destination was the club upstairs. If I am not mistaken I think it was called Cartel. It was on the third floor, it was open, there were fans and we were still sweating. Welcome to Cyprus. Sometimes, I wish I was a woman so I could wear the minimum amount of clothing that the girls in that club were wearing. The club was really good. Excellent music, really nice atmosphere, excellent service, it was one of the best clubs I have been to. The price we paid? 270 Euros for a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Smirnoff. That is about 1000% profit for the club...
I haven't stayed out until 3.30am since I can remember. Even though I was tired physically, the 5 Vodka Red Bulls kept me awake until 5am, reading magazines in bed.
Alarm was set for 10.30 in the morning, check-out and frappe by the pool, followed by lunch. Soon we were on the way back to Nicosia. Relaxing and pilota concluded a really nice weekend.

You know you are in Cyprus when...

Stolen from around the internet, I found the most interesting, true and funny ones. Enjoy. (in brackets my comments).

You know you are in Cyprus when:

• A mercedes is not a personal car, it's a Taxi (so true a few years back).
• Talking sounds just like arguing.
• Not smoking is considered 'weird' (another one of Cypriots bad habits)
• Everybody has an opinion about everything
• Not eating meat is unthinkable (UNTHINKABLE)
• You take a generator when camping (to supply your fridge, micro, TV!)
• Police park on the sidewalk to give you a ticket for parking on the sidewalk..
• The translation of 'thank you' is......... "thank you".
• The translation of 'sorry' is......."sorry
• Your next door neighbour cooks "souvla" all 52 Sundays of the year.
• You call everyone "koumbare"('best man') malaka (asshole)
• we are facing a drought problem but people insist on washing their cars and the road in front of their house (and if you tell them something be prepared to hear everything about your family)
• everybody thinks they are the best driver in the world..and everybody else is the worst.
• drunk people insist "I can drive..I am fine"
• people who drive $100,000 cars are not willing to give $2 to park their car in a parking lot, leave them on the sidewalk with the risk of being hit and go pay $8 for a frappe (coffee).
• people are not willing to walk. They have to park right outside of their destination (it does not matter if that means leaving the car in the middle of the street..as long as you put the parking lights on, you are OK).
• you see women talking on their cellphone having it on speakerphone while driving using their one hand, because speaking on the phone while driving is prohibited
• the no-smoking sign in cafes is just indicative. For the majority it means "who cares, I will smoke"
• if you are a beautiful foreing blonde girl you are automatically associated with girls working at cabarets
• grandmas and old ladies consider it weird and rude that you haven't eaten all your food..(that is the 8 different plates that can feed about 5 people).
• when people eat karpouzi (watermelon) with halloumi every night for dinner in the summer.

Disclaimer: This post is supposed to be funny, and many of the above instances are things that we have learned to live with. Cyprus has its many advantages too, like the good weather, the nice beaches, the (usually) hospitable and friendly people.

Welcome to Cyprus driving...

where...

• people usually drive in the middle of the street. Why do we need left and right lanes anyway?
• people park on the street. A two lane street becomes one..A one lane street means that you have to get in the opposite lane.
• people park on the sidewalk/ pavements. What? You thought that those are made for pedestrians? Not in Cyprus where anyone has the right to park their car on the sidewalk. Fortunately our government has a solution for that. They will put poles on the sidewalks to prevent cars from parking there..which will probably increase people parking ON the street but who the hell cares? One problem at a time.
• even though we say we drive on the left side of the road, it is not true..we drive in the middle most of the time
• drivers will keep the maximum half a foot distance from the car in front of them.
• if you are late for about 2 seconds when the light turns green you will probably hear about 200 horns, you will see a lot of middle fingers and probably hear something about your family.
• if you are driving with a speed of less than 20km/h MORE than the speed limit you will get the same reactions as above.
• Orange light means speed up so you can pass the traffic lights. Usually the first 2 seconds of red mean the same too.
• there are traffic lights almost every 100 meters.
• the concept of carpooling is so hard to understand.
• it is considered normal to speak on your phone, do your makeup, eat breakfast/lunch/dinner, drink coffee, smoke a cigarette WHILE driving, ALL at the same time.

A.