Hole In One
Monday November 14th, 2022
Our last day in Paphos, Cyprus is already here... our flight isn't until 5pm but our car will pick us up at 2:25pm, so we have half a day to sort out. By the time we have breakfast, pack and store our luggage, it's about 10:30am and doesn't give us enough time to head back into town or further up the coast to Tomb of the Kings or other sites. However, there is a mini-golf just up the road!
I started off hot and was ahead in the front nine, but a few splooshes and some ridiculous misses in the back nine led to an embarrassing finish. Scott's hole in one definitely helped him out! Luck...pure luck. The course was cute and fun. Some obstacles and ponds to avoid and it was a fun way to spend an hour or so. Next door was a go-karting centre but it was a bit pricey so we opted to head back to the beach.
We spent the final hours walking the path in the same direction we did on day one, going past the church and the dig site which led to more municipal beaches and parks. Given we didn't get the chance to swim at all, I HAD to roll up my pants and at least go up to my knees. It was gorgeous! Well into the 70s and it would have been wonderful to go for a swim. But alas, we didn't have time and all of our stuff was packed. At least we got our feet wet! We did get to see a man randomly doing yoga poses on the beach though.
We headed back to Aliathon for 2:15pm to grab our bags and meet the car. What I was worried about was the mix up from day one when the car dropped us off at the Aegean entrance and was told to bring us to the Ionian entrance. The app and my booking said to pick us up at the Aegean but I had this feeling that maybe the original driver informed them we were at the Ionian and would send the car there. And the resort is so big you'd never know. But we did as the app said and walked down to the Aegean. 2:25pm came and went... 2:30...2:40...and now I'm getting worried that there was a mixup. Luckily I had the app and was able to chat with someone right away who sorted it out. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. So they dispatched a taxi to come get us right away and he was there in just a few minutes. (This is why it's always important to have enough time to get to the airport lol).
The driver was lovely. He gave us a good Cyprus history 101 lesson on the way back to the airport which was nice given we didn't do any guided tours or things like that to learn about the history of the country. There is a heavy British influence in Cyprus as they were once a British territory. They gained independence in the 60s but the influence remains (they drive on the left, the sockets are UK, not European, and almost everyone, at least in that part of Cyprus, speaks English). Due to the country's strategic location between the Middle East, Turkey and Greece, the history of other nations claiming Cyprus as their own is long. The largest British Naval port in the world is in Cyprus. Yet it is an independent country and part of the European Union. I would love to go back and see the rest of the island as we did only get to experience one very very small corner, but it was beautiful. (No filters were used on any of the photos... it really is that blue!)
We had to fly RyanAir to get to Paphos. Budget flying is always interesting. Checking in and getting through security went fast (except for I forgot I had bought a small jar of cyrpiot honey and put it in my carry on... so they had to take it. BOO!!!). Boarding though was an experience. We got called to board, priority first as usual, then everyone else. Except once you pass through the gate, everyone gets herded like cattle into this holding pen out in the airfield. So what's the point of priority? You get to be the first person to go out and stand there the longest? YAY! Then as we are huddled in there, we watch our plane completely de-board. WTF? So instead of waiting until the plane has de-boarded to call us up to board, we are now all standing outside with our stuff waiting and watching this for a good 20+ minutes. Then they have to clean the plane. At least half an hour or 40 minutes of just standing around in the airfield. Then we finally get to board and it's a free for all. Sooo weird. I thought for sure our plane would be late but the flight was only an hour and otherwise went off no problem. Got our stamps checking out of Cyprus and checking into Crete and the Chania airport is even smaller than Paphos so that was a real quick trip through. Our driver Andreas was there with a sign with my name on it (always wanted to have that happen) and we were on our way to the hotel. Oh and the Christmas decorations have started to come out...*eyeroll*
And let me tell you...no let me SHOW you the hotel...
It appears we are the only two in the entire hotel. And after meeting with the hotel manager and absorbing the awesomeness of this space we head out for food. Stefania, the hotel manager did provide some suggestions and so after a bit of wandering we landed on one she suggested called Oinopiio. What a meal! We are now 3 for 3. It was a winery and restaurant and so the wine list was extensive, luckily they have somaliers who assisted (I know my wines, but I can't read Greek HAHA). We had our first taste of authentic cretan cuisine and it did not dissapoint. After dinner they gave us dessert on the house and this clear liquid (not ouzo) and what we would later find out is called Raki. It smelled more like whiskey than anything boy oh boy did it go down strong. WOOOOOO. And 2 shots each! I'll explain more on the Raki in a future post but suffice it to say, we were initially confused by the dessert and the Raki both being provided for free. And as full as we were, we weren't going to turn down panna cotta!
Overall a very solid start to our Cretan leg of the trip. Tomorrow is the White Mountains jeep tour!
G.H. soooo beautiful, thx for sharing.
ReplyDelete