The Labyrinthine Wedding – Day 15

Tomorrow, we head back to Athens, which greatly annoys me. I wish we were headed back today, so that we could have flown back to the United States tomorrow. Then, I’d have a day to recover before going back to work on Monday. This is what my wife always likes to do as well. But my mother-in-law, ever one to only think about what’s best for her instead of what’s best for everyone else, decided to book flights from Cyprus to Athens on Saturday instead. Which forced us to delay our tickets by a day and means we won’t be getting home until around 11:00 pm at night on Sunday. So, with that and potential jet lag, I’m going to be exhausted by Monday. Now, I have to try to move the five meetings I have on Monday morning…all because of one thoughtless decision by my mother-in-law. Anyway…

I got up pretty early this morning and decided to take a walk around the village. I’d really only seen a few blocks right around my mother-in-law’s house, so I wanted to check out the rest of it. It’s a pretty small village, and I was able to walk the entire thing in about an hour.

The “main road” if you will is actually near my mother-in-law. That’s where you’ll find the supermarket, the church, and most of the tavernas. The rest of the winding roads just had houses. Some of the houses were well-kept with modern conveniences and beautiful flowers all along the road. Some were old and rundown. My mother-in-law told me that when the old generation died that their children didn’t want to move back to the village, but they also didn’t want to sell their family homes. So, some were converted to rent houses, and some were completely abandoned. I imagine that there is a small population that lives here full-time, maybe half of the homes. It’s sad really. It really is a cute village.

Since my wife and son are still sunburned, we figured that we’re pretty much done with the beach and swimming. So, we decided to do something different today, and we headed to the Baths of Aphrodite, which according to my mother-in-law is on land that her family used to own before it was given to the government (it was hard to understand if it was given, sold, or just taken, but it’s not theirs anymore). As we walked along the trail, she pointed out several giant and very old eucalyptus trees that she said her grandfather planted. She and my wife also told stories of swimming in the baths as children before it was turned into a national park.

The Baths themselves consist of a trickling waterfall flowing down the walls of a small, natural grotto into a serene pool. An old fig tree shades the entire grotto with its large green leaves and the smell of figs permeates the air. Off to one side is a little pool that is believed to take 10 years off your skin just by washing it into the cool, mountain spring. Troy doused himself three times just to be sure! So, I guess we’ll see tomorrow what he looks like.

Legend says that Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, would come to this grotto and bathe, which is what gives the water its miraculous and transformative power. It is said that it was at this pool that she met her lover, Adonis, when he stopped to take a drink while hunting.

After visiting the baths, we stopped for lunch at a place near the village. Even though the restaurant was situated in an ideal location to catch the breeze, the heat was still overwhelming. I was starting to feel ill. But I powered through before going home to sleep off my headache.

We’d eaten at this restaurant before, and I had a chicken souvlaki pita (or I assume so, since my mother-in-law ordered for me), which I didn’t particularly like. So, this time, I ordered a μπιφτέκα κοτόπουλου, which was a chicken hamburger. It had halloumi cheese, which is apparently famously-made in Cyprus, and it was actually very good. The seasoning was herbal with a variety of flavors, rather than just the salt and pepper flavor you get in the United States.

As a side note: I realize that my relatively pale complexion immediately identifies me as non-Greek. But it’s sort of irritating to make an attempt to speak Greek to people, like when ordering food, only to have them repeat what you ordered in English. I ordered the μπιφτέκα κοτόπουλου, perfectly pronouncing the words, and the waitress replied back, “So, you want the chicken hamburger?” I assumed that coming to a Greek-speaking country and attempting to speak Greek every chance I could would show honor and respect to the people that live here. But instead of being happy that I’m trying, they just can’t be bothered with “the English” as we are all collectively known.

Since Cyprus used to be an English colony, there are a lot of English inhabitants and even more English tourists. So, anyone that speaks English is lumped together regardless of their place of birth. My mother-in-law hasn’t stopped bashing the “English invasion” since we’ve been here, saying that they’re taking over everything and ruining the culture of the island.

Rant over…

After naps all around, my mother-in-law offered to take Troy and I to see the Paphos Harbour Castle. The small castle located at the end of the harbor boardwalk was originally a fort that was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt bigger and stronger into a castle in the 13th century. My mother-in-law tells the proud history of how the Cypriots defended the castle against the Turkish invasion in the 1500s. When in actuality, it was a Spanish mercenary and his guard who refused to leave the castle when the Turks invaded. After 16 days of fierce fighting, the brave defenders were eventually overwhelmed and the castle was destroyed. The Turks then supposedly repaired the castle to its original construction. Sounds like yet another example of a much smaller force holding off a larger force before eventually falling, like Thermopylae or the Alamo.

The boardwalk by the harbor was very busy with a steady stream of tourists eating at the variety of seafood restaurants. Boats of all kinds were lined up along the wharfs, musicians were playing music for money, vendors were selling balloons, and artists were doing caricatures with exaggerated features. We opted for ice cream cones as we enjoyed the life and lights. Paphos in general seemed very alive.