Athens, Greece
Today I was leaving Greece after six nights and moving to Cyprus for the second week of my trip. To be honest I was glad to be leaving Athens as I'd had enough, it was dirty, and the grime everywhere was making me sick with a cough and runny nose. I was looking forward to Cyprus as somewhere more exciting as its an overlooked location with lots of undiscovered potential.
Still not sleeping property I'd set my alarm for 5.50am, woke around 4, dozed off again and was out cold. Had I not set my alarm I would have slept in and missed my early flight.
I left the hotel by 7am and made my way to Monastiraki metro for the 734am airport train, which runs every 30 minutes.
The airport train ticket is 10 Eu ($15) but I didnt now how I was supposed to validate it. The punch machines were for smaller sized tickets. I tapped one of the electronic meters and took my chances.
On the platform you have to check for the airport train as only certain ones goto the airport while others are regular metro trains. It was a 40 min ride to the airport and I printed my boarding pass once inside the terminal.
On the flight I sat in the wrong row for the second time. On take off we go away from Athens so no city views. We passed over the coastline and saw Greek islands.
On arrival over Cyprus you see how barren and dry the surface is like the rest of the Middle East. It was almost desert in places and seemed strange how people can live and grow food is such barren conditions.
For our descent we went over the southern coastline and circled back to Larnaca airport.
On arrival I went thru the EU line using my British Passport but it was still moving slow. In the terminal I got a ticket for the bus to Nicosia for 8 Eu ($12) leaving at 1.15pm.
From the airport you get the immediate feel this is a resort destination. Holiday reps were on hand and with information counters. They would then assemble groups and lead them to waiting buses outside.
The heat was stronger than in Greece and it was actually a 16 seater minibus to Nicosia. With little sleep I keep dozing off in bus rides.
I expected the bus to goto the central terminal in Nicosia. Instead I dont know where it let us off throwing off my bearings.
Some people took taxis and I asked in the office to show me where on my map I was. They said I wasnt on the town centre map but further out. They gave me another map of greater Nicosia and said I could wait for another taxi.
I signed into their wifi and found where I was on google maps. I could walk to the centre but that would be at least 45 mins and the midday heat was too much. I walked back to the main trunk road to find a bus stop to try to get to the centre and accidently dropped and lost the map I was given.
A bus came and fare was 1.50 Eu ($2.25). I was following our route on my phone and was suprised GPS still works even though I'm not signed into any wifi. Traffic moved very slow the closer we got to the centre.
At the bus terminal I was noticing Pakistanis and other immigrants. I walked up Ledras St the main pedestrian street to my apartment almost at the UN crossing. Nobody was there and the door was locked. I tried to message but it failed, so I had to call.
The apartment was quite large but needs more attention. The couch was dirty and not something I would sit on. The bedroom was ok. The bathroom had a tiny sink you could hardly use with a giant overhead cabinet. AC was an extra 5 Eu per nite which I ended up paying for. It would be my home base for the next two nites.
Wendy
2017-10-23
Interesting your phone GPS worked without WiFi - satellite I guess. Our best kept "secret" before we went to Far Eastern Russia this year was to download a Google Translate app which didn't need WiFi. It was not simply a dictionary and was able to create sentences which we used successfully (or I think we did!) "conversing" with people who spoke no English at all. I have no idea how it worked but it was brilliant!