There's Something about Cyprus

A divided island

After British colonial rule, the island has been invaded and fought over ever since.

Nicosia is a divided capital and I believe the last in the world. I was thinking that maybe Jerusalem but maybe its not divided. I could do some research into this but Im sure someone out there will correct me on this.

Since it's been approximately 50 years since the islands been in some kinda conflict, it will take a miracle for the two sides to come to a compromise. Greek families who were pushed out of their homes to the south, want reimbursement or their homes back. Some kinda payback for their loss.

Wikipedia- Cyprus

I visited Cyprus approximately 6 years ago after I graduated from Uni. Acctually, miscalculating when my final exams would be, I booked my ticket the week OF my final exams. Luckily I had a real good relationship with my professors at the time and they were willing to give me my exams the week before.

Me at the Tomb of the Kings, 2006

Excepts from my 2006 travel diary: Next stop was the church in Mautoullas. The ride down to the village was stressful. The villlage was on the side of a hill. It went up in a way that reminded me of Lord of the Rings.
      But that is the view once you get out. While you're in, its narrow roads and scarey turns. We get to the church that is on an outcrop looking over the village. The church was locked and we were told to go to Cafe Neo and ask for Kostas. The same as yesterday. We thought it was ironic. Well we go down a couple of streets. And this is not just walking a couple of blocks. I literally mean we had to walk down, down steps, down slopes.
     Kostas finds what I suppose is suppose to be a cafe but was a dump with 3 surly people init. They said Kosta was in Limassol and told us to go to the Father's house. We both had to pee in the most extreme way. I have Kostas ask about a toilet and the direct us to the back of the building. So, we go back there and it is more disgusting then what I percieve Krys's hatchet bathroom was like. We didnt go there.
    So, in search of the Father. We eventually find him but I guess he didnt have the key. He also confirmed that Kostas was not around. OK, so we gave this church up for a loss. So far, this day is not shaping up to be much. We found someone who will let us follow them to the next church which was in the next town over and somehow connected to the other village. January 2, 2007

Some of this makes no sense to me. Or:

Koutrafas was the village and church name. The village was obviously poor and had probably suffered from the occupation.  (Im guessing this town is on the border of the green line)
Panayiota had lived on the other side of the green line pre-invasion. (Who is Panayiota?) December 29-2006

Next came Theodokus, just up the road from our hotel in Kakopetria. We had to get the key from the guy at the butcher shop across from the street. Thank goodness I had Kostas with me otherwise my poor Greek would have been put to the ultimate test. He gave us the key and we got to enjoy the icons and frescos.Some were badly damaged but now they keep a good eye on it.
   It was a cute quant church in a green yard surrounded by modern civilization.

Im hoping that on this trip I'll get to revisit some of these mysterious churches and ancient sites.

Top 10 Places:
1.Temple of Apollo- Limassol
2. The churches of the Troodos Mountains

3. Haloumi
4. Petra tou Romiou
5. Paphos mosaics and the Tombs of the Kings
6. Panagia tis Podythou & Panagia Theotokou
7. Ancient Kourion
8. Kition
9. Ancient Amathous
10. Buying spanikopita at any time of the night :)

Hopefully, this trip will include a lot of laying in the sun and going to the beach. Its summertime and I plan to get a lot of sun this year. :-)

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Pre-leaving, Ive decided to do some travelling.
It seems almost cliche or a neccesity to travel around Europe. Americans generally dont travel. And thats a stereotype that I truely believe (I dont believe though that its a bad thing or good thing).

Anyways, my first stop is Cyprus. When I was in Uni I made a friend of a dude from Limassol and we've managed to stay friends ever since. With time and distance, we're not as close as we once were but there is our shared past that keeps us close.

I leave on June 25th from Vienna to Larnaca. I will spend 10 days there. Im so excited. I was in Cyprus in 2006 for a month and I loved it. The island is plethora of ancient sites, Greek food and beautiful beaches. Some of my favorite things all in one place.

When I get back from Cyprus, I'll meet my friend from Florida at the Vienna airport. We'll travel from there to Brno where we will hopefully do some partying with some friends.

We will travel from there to Poland, hopefully with some friends. I visited Cracow a month ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. Unfortunately, I didnt get to see much of the city. It was raining cats and dogs and I had a hangover to inspire alkies. Nevertheless, the city looked magical to my rain-soaked, Jager fogged mind.

Next stop will be the impossible to pronounce, Warclaw...I pronounce it Wahr-klau but apparently its something along the lines of Bwatzwav.....who woulda guessed?

Then onto the ever compelling Germany where I will hopefully get to revisit Dresden and Berlin before heading back to Prague to be picked up by my friends on their way to Gondrin, France.

Last year I had the fortunate opportunity to travel to France with my friend and stay with his family. I love travelling this way. You get to see how life really is. Not just some tourist version of events. (more on this at another time)

From there, I will fly back to Prague, travel to Brno, go on to Vienna, catch an early flight. Travel the long ass way to Miami where I will meet my Sis and we will have a mini-vacation there. Ive never actually been to Miami, so that should be an interesting adventure. I'll probably have sensory overload. Vibrant colors from latin style clothes and too much sun, the noise of latin music, spanish and the many cars may just make me wanna hop back on the plane. Then again, it may be one of those things that Ive missed but didnt know it.

Hopefully, when that is all done, Im still alive, I dont hate my friends, and I have some money left.

Keep your fingers crossed.

“I have been very happy with my homes, but homes really are no more than the people who live in them.”- Nancy Reagan

3 yrs ago, I moved to Brno, Czech Republic from my native Tampa Bay area, Florida. I've repeatedly gotten the question 'Why the Czech Republic?' 'Why Brno?' or the most exasperated of people ask 'Why'd you leave FLORIDA?' Wondering how I could leave my sunny homeland for the dirty, cold ex-communist CZ.

The long and short of it is, there is no clear answer. I wanted some adventure. I wanted a new life. I wanted to try something new. Make something of myself. Do something fun and cool. I wanted to live in Europe and the CZ seemed like as good a place as any.

And Brno has been a great place. I couldnt have picked a better place or time to move here.

It seemed like it was fortuitous. I met great people. Jobs were a plenty.

Friends: I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a website called Couch Surfing where people request to stay at your place while they are traveling. The site also has city forums where people in the same city can communicate different things about travelling or events in the city. This is where/how I met the majority of my friends here in Brno. And some of my best friends have come from here. I always say my first year here was a drunken miasma of choas. I barely ever taught sober and I went wild and crazy.

Job: I came here with the intention of getting some experience teaching. I had thought that I wanted to be a professor. Now, Im not so sure. Im not really sure I will ever know what I want to do but right now, I dont wanna teach.

So, I got my TEFL cert and started teaching all over Brno. Maybe describing how teaching english in the CZ works should go into a seperate post. Its a complicated story but well worth the info for future teachers.

My original plan was to stay 1 year, if I could. I didnt have much faith in my abilities to survive away from my family. Im kinda irresponsible or something like that. Maybe distracted and careless is a better description.

But 3 years later, Im still here and thriving.
I realized though that I need to go home and see whats what.
I tell people all the time that I can do what I want, go where I want. I have no kids, no house, nothing holding me to any particular place. So, I will go back to the one place where I do have family and see if I can still call it home.

This is my journey back.