PAPAIOANNOU COUNTRY HOUSE IN TROODOS

Monday, November 15, 2010

Troodos, Cyprus

On our way back from Trooditissa Monastery Dino and Agni suggest having our coffee at their cottage house

. What a brilliant idea this is!

We come to a halt where there is a long iron chain and a sign (Private Area) prohibiting others to pass through. Dino unlocks the locker and removes the chain. We pass through and then he locks again.

We drive for many kms through different hills. Dino claims that all these hills were full of cherry trees but there was nobody to pick the cherries so they let the trees die. The mountain scenery is so beautiful and every now and then I ask Dino to stop the car so I get pictures.

To be honest I want so much to step off the car and go to the cottage on foot. When however we reach the 300 metres from the cottage I tell my friends to leave me walk and I would meet them shortly.

Unbelievable colors

The Private road to the cottage

. I feel lucky for the nice weather and lucky for this perfect timing of my trip. I approach the house and I notice that it has a huge garden with a vine arbour.

Dino is already busy cutting some grapes for us, and Agni is making coffee.

The first thing I want is to wash my hands and wander around. My friend shows me around the house. It is really beautiful with many bedrooms, traditionally decorated, but my eyes set on a collection of some very old photos in frames hanging on the wall in the sitting room. The photos are really old showing how life in Cyprus was 50 or 60 years back.

Agni and Dino keep a room for the Superior of the Monastery of Kykkos because they are relatives. I am told that the Superior visits them quite often when he wants to rest.

I find a beautiful huge butterfly somewhere on the floor in the house which I pick up and take a picture of it

Nature and its beautiful colours

. I wander a bit around the garden until Agni calls me.

Coffee is ready now, the freshly cut grapes are washed and the three of us are sitting enjoying a friendly chat outside the huge veranda. I can hear the gurgling stream below, birds singing in the afternoon breeze making the leaves on the trees rustle.

When it is time for us to drive off, I leave the cottage some minutes earlier on foot to meet my friends a few metres away. What an ideal place to relax and enjoy nature! My friends assure me that they want me back soon, but this time they say I have to come with my husband. They are so kind and hospitable that I truly can't find words to thank them.