Omodos Square, Limassol, Cyprus
As I had no meetings today until 5, we are off to tour Omodos. Omodos is a small village (about 300 people actually live there) on the edge of the Troodos mountains. We love visiting there--and buying lace and jewelry. Omodos is built around a monastery which is supposedly very unique as monasteries are not usually built in or near villages. This monastery is known as Moni Timiou Stavrou or Monastery of the Holy Cross. The monastery was built about 1150 A.D. and is known for a relic there that is said to be a piece of the Holy Cross.
Anyway Costas drove us up to the village. We shopped around chatting with people, buying jewellery, lace, etc. Then we decided to have some lunch on the square so we stopped at Themelio where we had sandwiches--halloumi and tomato pita for me, halloumi and bacon for Tammy, and halloumi and lountza for Mike. Lountza is a type of ham that looks like Canadian bacon. Halloumi is a special Cypriot cheese that has a high melting point so can be grilled and we think it is really delicious. We of course had to share a plate of chips, also known as french fries. We also stopped at a wonderful bakery there--wow! Lovely cookies, meringues, etc. What's not to like!!!
Back to Limassol we went so that I could Skype with a student. Tammy wanted to walk over to the Dasoudi beach and step in the sea so that she could say that she had waded in the Mediterranean. Once that was done it was time to walk over to Socrates and Xenia's house.
Tonight they took us to a new taverna in Limassol. A friend of Socrates had opened a taverna in a former lemon orchard behind a new hotel that is along the main street in Limassol. (I never did find out the name of the restaurant which is why I can't list it here.) We walked from their house to the hotel--we tried to enter by the back door but they are redoing the street so we had to find our way around to the front. We of course teased Xenia who was leading that we were wondering where she was taking us!!!
The evening was amazing!!! As usually there was an astounding amount of food and wine: grilled zucchini, Cypriot macaroni, chips, vegetarian moussaka (real this time, not moussaka with meat and vegetables like we had in Kykkos, Sandy), grilled chicken, grilled pork, olives, wine, limoncello, and commandaria! Oh my are we full! While savouring the last of the food, Xenia and Christos and then Socrates danced to the Cypriot music. What a beautiful evening.
We walked back to their house about midnight, then we went down the street and made a quick stop at the all night mini-mart, and then on to our room at the Lobelia. We are going to be exhausted tomorrow for sure!
2025-05-23