Olepάdiko—I love you!

Our days have been full with explorations and the time just seems to be flying by though we certainly have been relaxing. We’ve had a few adventures, not gotten too lost and have found that with persistence there are tours and events open even though it is the low season. For one thing, January is the TIME of sales and I have found some great buys, even Dennis bought a new hat. For another there are few tourists and American tourists seem to be a most unusual species. Today we walked to the market. They had some lovely fruit and quite a few other goodies. I was gazing at a bakery's ware and wishing I could just have a bite of everything there.

We came home with grapes, olives, clementines, and a pumpkin empanada.

The history here goes back way beyond our two hundred years. The island has seen about 9,000 years of civilizations beginning around 7,000 BC. We got a small taste of it at the Pierides Museum, just a short walk away from here. Dennis spent time learning about the civilizations and I spent time getting ideas for paintings.

Everything is a work in progress and won't be finished until I am home and back in the studio.

The other day we walked down the Promenade to the medieval fort and castle. We spent some time walking around and again learning about how old everything is, making two 80 year old ones seem absolutely youthful.

The mosque behind the fort

The highlight of the last couple of days, has to be our dinner last night. We ate at Olepάdiko  or I love you if Google translate is accurate. It would seem an apt name as we certainly loved the food and the liveliness of the place. They served Meze, a meal of about 20 dishes beginning with a salad, fresh pita, dips, vegetables, French Fries, several types of kabobs as well as plates of lamb, pork and chicken, impossible to finish. I think pictures in this case are worth more than a thousand words.

And now from the guy who recently said, "I actually like writing the blog..." 

I have to laugh! To clarify, Cindy mentioned "sales, shopping and even Dennis bought a hat." As if I like shopping. Actually, I hate shopping. When I need underwear, I don't shop. I go in a store, buy the underwear, and leave. If that makes me a shopper, I stand corrected...😄

Waiting while someone is shopping!

But I did like walking the streets, taking in the sights, sounds and people. Does that make me a street walker? And that's what we've been doing. Not a lot of formal tours, just enjoying the city. It's been great! If I had more guts, I'd rent a car and drive around town (there's only about 150 K people in Larnaca but it's still bustling, streets don't run parallel, most road signs are in Greek and they drive on the left side of the street, like in England. Scares the B'Jesus out of me, to be honest. When Jerry and Marietta get here in a few days, maybe he'll prove to have bigger balls than me. I'll keep you posted, until then, I'll be bipedal unless I'm in a cab, bus or other vehicle that someone else is piloting.

Until later...

PS regarding the B'Jesus comment, we've taken in a number of old churches, Does that mean I'm religious? Ha, ha...