My Time in Paphos Continues

 

Christmas morning started out bright and sunny, but it didn’t last long.  Before 11 am it began to get rainy and rumbly.  Bummer.  I really wanted to go outside for a walk by the sea. 

Fortunately, the weather did clear up enough later in the afternoon for me to take that walk.  The picture up top was taken on 12/25/24 as I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to miss the opportunity to walk along the Mediterranean on Christmas. 

It is deathly quiet in Paphos.  Unless you’re walking along the main street, you would think the place is almost deserted.  I don’t know if that’s because it’s the off season or what, but it’s a little strange.

The sun also sets early on the island.  I’ll barely be finished with lunch and it’s already getting dark. 

I’ve expressed numerous times on the blog how it fascinates me to see so many living malls across Europe.  Cyprus is no exception.  The King’s Avenue Mall in about a mile away from the apartment and is amazingly vibrant.  I don’t think I even spotted a dead store anywhere in it and the grocery store on the bottom floor is always hopping.  Even when I visited just after Christmas, the place was crowded. 

Again, America, because everything is in walking distance, because there is a grocery store, and because this third place (a meeting place that isn’t school/work or home) is vital to the community, these malls manage to survive.  They continue to thrive even after the pandemic, even with the rise of Amazon and food/grocery delivery services.  When it’s easy to access a place, even for kids and teens, people will go to that place.  It’s not rocket science. 

As much as I like the apartment, there were some issues I could do without.  I’ve mentioned multiple times that I hate corner showers.  Not only is there one in the apartment, but the hot water is solar powered.  And we’ve had some rain, as I mentioned.  The shower was never cold, but it didn’t always get as hot as I would have liked.  I couldn’t even take a shower on my last night there because the water never heated up and I was too tired to fuss with it.

Then, there’s the bed.  It’s thin mattresses like this one that really make me long for my own familiar bed.  That thing and I were fighting every night as it ended up bothering my lower back, my left shoulder, and my right hip.

Oy.  I’m getting old.

After two weeks, it was time to move on.  I wasn’t ready to board another bus, so I found another place in Paphos, about 2 miles from the first place.  There is no Uber on the island, so I decided to haul all my crap to the diner for breakfast and hope to catch a cab on the main street afterwards.

Well, that plan was a bust.  I didn’t spot a single cab as I ate breakfast so I had to trudge up the road a bit to get to a taxi stand.  The man who picked me up kept calling me “My Lovely” in a British accent, making me think he was British.  Then he spoke Greek to the other guy in the car, so I was confused.  Was he a Brit who learned Greek or a Greek who learn English from a Brit?  Just part of the swirly culture on Cyprus.

While the new host sent me pictures to enter the building, it was still confusing.  And dark.  And wet.  Yes, the day was mercifully sunny, but there were still puddles everywhere from the rainy day before.  The asphalt around the building isn’t in great shape and the building could really use some more lighting, especially for newbies like me. 

I finally got to the floor … and it was still dark.  I couldn’t find the light switch …  because it was dark!  I turned on the flashlight on my phone, but couldn’t figure out which door I needed.  There was a woman sitting in the hall who helped me tremendously by hitting the light switch and guiding me to the right door.  Thank you, mysterious lady hanging out in the hall.

The new place is … fine.  I liked the old place more, but it was booked up.  The place uses its space well, is simply decorated, and, like a lot of places I’ve encountered on this journey, a lot nicer on the inside than you would guess from the outside.

But, alas, there were some issues.

The apartment is cold.  I don’t know if it’s because it’s an older building or what, but I know that the temp didn’t drop that dramatically from the day before.  It’s still around the low to mid 60’s on the days it’s not raining, but inside … yeesh.  I was in the place only a couple of hours before my hands started to freeze. 

It didn’t help that I couldn’t figure out the A/C.  There is a wall mounted unit in the living room and another in the bedroom, both run by remote control.  I’ve grown accustomed to that.  But when I tried the remote on either unit, I got nothing.  The remote would light up, but the units would not respond. 

I also couldn’t get the oven to work.  Cyprus is big on switches to turn off the fuses and individual outlets.  I was used to that as well.  I switched on the one for the cooker, getting power to yet another induction cooktop, but the oven would not work.  I spent the first night in the place freezing and starving with a plan to contact the host in the morning.

Remember that ‘deathly quiet’ I mentioned earlier?  Well, apparently that only applied to the old neighborhood.  The new place is much noisier.  That’s to be expected since the windows face the street as opposed to my last view of the deserted pools and the occasional cat striding by. The neighbors are way too loud as well, providing yet another reason for me to miss the last place. 

After a decent night’s sleep, I was determined to figure out the appliances and stave off contacting the host.  Morning is wiser than the evening, I always remind myself.  And Eureka!  I realized that, yes, even the power for the A/C units need to be switched on before you even get to the remote.  Once I found the one in the bedroom, I knew to search for the one in the living room.  And … heat!  Glorious heat!

I would really need a warm apartment because it was time again for my hair-washing ritual.  Already a time-consuming effort was made even more of a challenge thanks to Cyprus power again.  Like the last apartment, the water heater runs on solar power.  I was last in Cyprus in May, so sunshine was not a problem then.  But now it’s December.  And, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve had a lot of rain.  This will be fun.

There is a boost on the water heater on the chance that there is not enough hot water.  Didn’t help much.  I have a lot of hair, it takes a lot of water to wash, and when the water barely gets lukewarm, I’m not happy.  I did manage to get my hair clean, but did not look forward to battle with the hot water again.

As I was stuck inside with wet hair, I was again determined to figure out the oven.  I had already bought groceries with plans to use it and that frozen pizza I’d bought for lunch was not going to fit in the microwave (not that I’d try).  After scouring the entire kitchen, making sure every power switch was turned on, I focused on the oven itself.  I starting pressing some buttons and Voila!  Yet another cooking device made way more complicated than it needed to be.

I ate my pizza nice and hot from the oven.