First taste of Cyprus

For what it's worth, this was what I saw of the Roman
Temple in Silifke

Things seem to be straightening out again. The ferry ran on time and without a hitch, and I seem to be more or less over my stomach bug. And you wouldn't believe how relieved I was about that on the rocking and lurching ferry over the choppy Mediterranean to Cyprus. I'm not usually prone to sea sickness, but there was more than one person on the boat with their head in a bag by the end, and with a stomach bug I'm not certain how well I would have held out. But that wasn't even my main worry on the trip. In the back of my travel guide to Cyprus which I was reading on the way I discovered some worrying news.
Now, let me give you a bit of an idea of the political situation of Cyprus if you don't know - it is a country divided. For many years it's had two populations - Greek and Turkish - and in the 1970s the tensions between them resulted in the country being split into two. The Greek half in the south is in fact an independent republic, and the northern half belongs to Turkey, although it's not recognized by most of the rest of the world. Tensions are still there, but the UN manages to keep the peace.
My problem was not with this political situation - I knew all this beforehand, and besides if anybody tried to shoot me their bullets would simply be caught by my manly yet elegant beard and converted into attractive paperweights. My problem, as the travel guide suggested, would be getting into the Republic from the Turkish side. Apparently travel the other way is supposed to be not a problem, but for some unexplained reason north to south is out. At least that's what the book said. I spent a lot of the trip across working out what I would see and do, and how I would get the hell out of there, instead of visiting the south. But I was pretty suss about the whole thing - I'm an EU citizen, and the Republic of Cyprus is a member of the EU. How can they even keep me out? Well, beard aside, guns would be the answer, but I mean it can't be legal.
As it turned out I got across no problem. The guard at the very Checkpoint Charlie crossing did look at my passport with something approaching surprise, and I was afraid for a moment he wouldn't let me through, but I assume he was just humbled by beard, being forced to look at it in facsimile as to look at it directly would bring him to tears, because I got through no problem.
This was in Nicosia, known to the Turks as Lefkosia, the island's capital and now the only divided city in the world. A walk around the city is testament to the checkered  history of the country. Imagine a Souvlaki shop with a yellow English post box standing out front with a mosque converted into a church across the street on top of a bastion built by the Venetians towering above excavations of Byzantine and Hellenistic ruins. Yes, it seems everyone has taken over Cyprus at one point or another. The English, who were in charge from 1878 until 1960, have added a very welcome character for an English speaking traveler such as me. I can see why the Brits love to visit this place so much. They drive on the left hand side of the road and everybody speaks English. It's a nice change of pace for me after one and a half months traveling.
As I've mentioned earlier, I don't have much time here. In Nicosia I only had enough time to walk around the city center a bit and go to the Archaeological museum. That was yesterday, and today I had to leave for Paphos.

A mosaic featuring the Minoan Labyrinth

Paphos and Salamis, which is on the Turkish side, were at different times in the ancient world the capital. Paphos was it from Hellenistic times to early Roman times. The archaeological site, however, is quite different to all the others that I have seen. I expected to see a jumble of broken blocks and a handful of columns re-erected in recent years. I saw nothing of the sort, but I saw enough mosaics to make your eyes bleed. A large part of the excavation area encompass rich villas, and it's very clear that at the time rich people liked decorate their houses with little pieces of colourful rock stuck to the floor.

Yet another tomb that could be lifted from an Indiana
Jones movie.

The other interesting thing to see in Paphos is the so-called "Tomb of Kings". If I didn't know any better, I would have thought Schliemann or Evans had excavated this place - the complex was simply called that because many of the tombs were large and opulent. As it turns out they were mostly just for rich citizens.
All day dark clouds had been gathering, and finally my luck with the weather broke - since Florence I only got a little bit of rain on Santorini (and of course my ferry was canceled because of it), but today the heavens really opened up. Thunder, lightning - the works. But I managed to stay relatively dry, happening to be inside when most of the rain was happening. Isn't that lucky?