This is our first full day in Cyprus. Wendy and I arrived in Larnaca yesterday afternoon after a long day of flying. George and Rico picked us up from the airport. What service! It took us about an hour to drive from Larnaca to Limosal. Here they spell it Lemesos. The weather today is lovely…70s and sunny. The apartment were staying in is Ricos and Veras. Its 3 stories tall, quite modern, and beautiful. Their son Michael, his wife Maria and their child Vera live on the third floor, they rent out the first floor and we get second floor all to ourselves. It has 3 bedrooms so Wendy and I were quite surprised not to be staying in the same room together. Then we went to Rico’s and Vera’s for a visit and dinner. Their house is right next door. It’s quite common here for families to live together, next door, or on another floor. On the top floor of many of the houses there’s rebar, so if they want to build another floor for a child on top, it’s easier. I just can’t see that happening in the states.

You’ll get tired of me blogging about what we had to eat, but I love exploring local cuisine. Last night web had olive pie, stuffed tomatoes and zucchini, salad, and chicken burgers with tomatoes and hallumi roasted on top. Vera is a marvelous cook. Then for dessert there was apple pie, Greek pastries and this fun sueshuko (nuts wrapped in fermented grape juice ends being firm like gelatin, and then cut into pieces). I’m already asking for recipes.

Afterwards, Carol, George and Wendy went to Leah’s house for a visit, but I was exhausted and went home to bed (my new temporary Cyprus home in Lemesos).

Today, Wendy and I were the first ones up and decided to walk around the neighborhood to find her coffee, but no luck. We then had some difficulty with hot water in one of the bathrooms. Maria (Vera and Ricos daughter) uses this apartment when she’s on Cyprus, but lives in Greece. Since the building is new the shower had not been used before. Got it working, went over to the other house for breakfast -cheeses, pumpkin stuffed pie (like an empanadas, but not fried). We changed and headed to St Nicholas cemetery with Iris for the prayers. Carol and Vera went over first to clean the grave. The rest of us followed. On the drive there we drove by the two main Cypriot banks and saw the cues for the bank. Today was the first day banks were open. There were limitations on what people could withdraw…300 euros per day for some banks and up to 1000 euros per day for others. One of the problems is people cannot cash a a check from another bank. So it means a lot of unnecessary running to other banks to even cash a check.

The cemetery where Iris was buried was huge and completely full. She was placed in the same grave with her brother and sister, and her parents were also buried right next to them. There were about thirteen of us there. A very young Romanian Greek Orthodox, priest with an accent, came to the grave, lit incense and waved it over the grave, said a few prayers in Greek, sung a prayer and then we gave him some bread and a little cash. And that was it. It was quite nice. I took a bunch of photos, but they’re on my camera. One of the Greek Orthodox traditions is to eat kollyva together. It consists of 4 sections divided by sesame seeds and the bottom has wheat. The two pomegranate seeds and almonds. Wheat which is planted in the earth and rises in new life is symbolic of those beloved departed who have died in the hope of resurrection.Since Carol bought a red rosé bush for the grave, we had someone help dig a hole and so she could plant it and two other plants.

We all went to lunch at a local restaurant and ate too much (zucchini, salad, peas, chicken, okra, and a buffet with 35 items). We had Carols favorite dessert, lokomades, a fried donut like ball that had been soaked in a honey syrup. Then we went to Leah’s house. They have such a beautiful home filled with art. Stella, Leah’s sister used to be an artist, and was just amazing. We talked to Vivian, and met her year old son Maximos. Vivian is an actor in a soap/mini daily series called Van 12 Goddesses (or something like that). We’re going to try at catch it tonight at 9ish. She also owns two clothing stores that carry her brand. It’s like Juicy Couture, but cheaper. Then Leah gave us a dessert she made called Ekmet Kaitefi, that was a custard on the bottom and shredded phyllo on top.

We took a brief driving tour along the Mediterranean coast through the touristy section and saw Gaston’s apartment (iris’s brother),the apartment building where Iris had a place, and three places named George (antiques, cafe, pub), one Jacky’s cafe, one Tiffany’s(and not the regular one) and a Pete’s art supply. We’re now on a hunt for a Wendy and Carol store.

We came back to the apartment, and will close out the day with dinner at Rico’s and Vera’s with a sandwich that looks like a cake but had egg and tuna in it, and dessert. Check out the photo tab for pictures.

Has anyone seen any sheets…Wendy can’t find them anywhere.