We took the only flight from Izmir to Nicosia, Cyprus on the Turkey side.  Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea.  Part of it is claimed by Turkey and the other by Greece.  There is a wall and border crossing to get from one side to the other.  After the constant go go go of our time in Turkey, it was really nice to slow down and actually relax.

We arrived in Cyprus at around 6 pm on the Turkish side.  We needed to get to the other side of the island to Paphos where our host lived.  Paphos does have an airport, but we thought it would be fun to see the Turkish side as well as the Greece side.  Our plan didn’t work out as well as we would have hoped.  We couldn’t arrive in Nicosia early because there is only 1 flight a day there.  Instead of actually seeing Nicosia, we had to head straight to the border and make our way to the bus station.  We arrived at the bus station to find out we missed the last bus to Paphos by 30 minutes.  Being on a tight budget, we didn’t want to find a hotel and stay the night.  We decided to hitch hike.  I know, I know!  Hitch hiking!!!  What?!?!  I hitch hike in Azerbaijan with no problem.  It is a common practice there.  I would never do it in America; it’s not safe in America.  Hitch hiking in Cyprus is not a common practice, and many locals did not believe we would make it to Paphos by hitch hiking. We did!  It took 3 rides from some very kind people for us to get to there.

Most of our time in Cyprus was spent at the beach and eating.  You would have thought I starve myself in Azerbaijan for how much I ate at each meal.  It was just a variety of food that I don’t get to eat in Azerbaijan; I gobbled up as much as possible.  We did take some time out from lying on the beach to see the ruins and have fish nipple the dead skin from our feet.  We had a great host who took us to some cool places and made sure we tasted the local cuisine.  They also bought me a cake to celebrate my 26th birthday!

There really isn’t too much more to say, so here are the pictures.

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