[CYPRUS] Sea caves, Greek church and taking the limousine! Morské útesy, grécky kostolík a limuzína!

When I hear Cyprus, I imagine overcrowded beaches and huge hotel resorts. Not appealing at all. But as an aspiring vanlifer I also imagine a place that’s going to be hard to reach in caravan. So as it was getting colder and colder in Czech republic, I decided to give Cyprus a try and at least warm up a bit.

And it was definitely worth it! After our arrival, we spent two cool, but just normal days in Larnaca, but then... well, it was an awesome day.

Our first hitch in the morning was this suupercute couple, who took us to Ayia Napa. But first, they showed us this beautiful traditional Greek-style church on the shore.

loved it

Ayia Napa seemed kinda touristy also in winter. But we still managed to take a nice walk, ate pita with tzatziki and found this huge bush of basil. (it was 50 meters long)

we took some, of course 😄

Our real destination, though, wasn’t Ayia Napa. We planned to visit the sea caves at Cape Greco. Our plan to go there by bikes failed, when we got to know the bike-rentals were closing at 4pm. We definitely didn’t plan to be back by that time.. anyway, bus was fine 🙂
And the caves or cliffs or whatever it was were.. well, I’ll let the pictures speak for me.

By the time of the sunset, each one of us was itching terribly. At first we didn’t see any bites and even the itching was much more aggressive than normal mosquito bite.. We thought it’s just the salt, that was covering everything. But it wasn’t the salt. We quickly realised that after the red spots began to appear pretty much everywhere on our bodies. They were approximately 1 square inch big and a bit swollen. We literally ran away.

When we returned to Ayia Napa, it was already completely dark, therefore we couldn’t hitchhike back to Larnaca (where our accommodation was). We planned to take another bus. We just somehow assumed there must be a one going in the evening. Well, it wasn’t. SHIT.
We were standing near the bus stop, just looking at each other and freaking out(actually we were laughing hard at ourselves and our stupidity). After a few minutes a taxi stopped and asked us where do we want to go. And by taxi I mean an old white Mercedes limo. We knew we can’t afford it, but we still replied.

"Larnaca.."
"Larnaca? Great! 20 euro, 1 person - 5 euro. Okay?"

Turns out he had to go to Larnaca airport for some customers, so he just took us and kept the money 😃 So we had a nice night limousine drive for less than a bus ticket would cost. Satisfied!

Thanks for reading,
zzuzza

Slovak language version

Keď sa povie Cyprus, predstavím si preplnené pláže a obrovské hotelové rezorty. Nič príťažlívé. Ale ako budúca vanliferka si tiež predstavím miesto, kam sa karavanom dopravímlen ťažko. Keď sa teda v Česku ochladzovalo a ochladzovalo, rozhodla som sa dať Cypru šancu a aspoň sa trocha zohriať.

A úplne to stálo za to! Po príchode sme strávili dva super, ale celkom obyčajné dni v Larnake, ale potom... bol to fakt super deň.

Náš prvý stop bol supermilý párik, ktorý nás zviezol do Ayia Napa. Ale najskôr nás ukázali tento tradičný grécky kostolík na pobreží.

🙃

Ayia Napa pôsobila turisticky aj v zime. Ale aj tak sa nám podarilo spraviť si peknú prechádzku, dať si pitu s tzatziki a nájsť tento mega krík bazalky. (bol dlhý 50 metrov)

samoška sme si nejakú vzali 😄

Náš ozajstný cieľ ale nebola Ayia Napa. Cheli sme si pozrieť útesy a "morské jaskyne" v národnom parku Cabo Greco. Náš plán zviezť sa bicyklami zlyhal, keď sme zistili, že požičovňu zatvárajú už o 4. A my sme chceli určite ostať dlhšie. Každopádne, bus bol tiež fajn 🙂

A jaskyne či útesy či čo to vlastne bolo, boli... veď si radšej pozrite fotky.

Kým zapadlo slnko, všetkých nás všetko strašne svrbelo. Nevideli sme žiadne štípance a aj to svrbenie bolo akési agresívnejšie než od komára.. Mysleli sme si, že je to len soľ, ktorá tam všetko pokrývala. Ale soľ to nebola. Uvedomili sme si to hneď ako sa nám začali všade objavovať červené fľaky. Boli veľké asi ako bruško palca a trochu opuchnuté. Doslova sme odtiaľ utiekli.

Keď sme sa vrátili do Ayia Napa, už bola úplná tma a stop naspäť do Larnaky (kde sme mali ubytko) neprichádzal do úvahy. Znova sme teda chceli ísť busom. Akosi sme usúdili, že nejaký určite musí ísť. Ale nešiel. SAKRA.
Stáli sme na zastávke, pozerali sa na seba a trochu stresovali(a vlastne sme sa dosť zabávali na vlastnej hlúposti). Po pár minútach pri nás zastavil taxík a spýtal sa kam chceme ísť. A po pojmom taxík myslím starú bielu Mercedes limuzínu. Vedeli sme, že si ju nemôžme dovoliť, ale aj tak sme odpovedali.

"Larnaca.."
"Larnaca? Super! 20 euro, 1 človek - 5 euro. Okay?"

Vyšlo najavo, že musel ísť tak či tak na letisko do Larnaky pre nejakých zákazníkov, tak nás vzal a tie peniaze si jednoducho dal do vrecka. 😃 Tak sme sa pekne zviezli limuzínou za menej, než by nás stál autobus. Spokojnosť!

Vďaka za prečítanie,
zzuzza