In May we decided to take a mini vacation to Cyprus because neither of us had been there before and lots of Israelis travel there because it is so close and reasonably priced. Also, we needed our visas extended and had heard that when you fly back to Israel, and put your passport through the machine, that you get a whole new three months. And you will see at the end of this post that we found this to be true!
Our weekend getaway to Cyprus started on a Friday and began with a Gett (taxi) ride to the train station, taking the train to the airport, and getting on a flight to Cyprus! We left two hours later than we were supposed to take off. When we arrived there, we took a Bolt (another taxi/Uber/Lyft type thing) from the airport to our hotel. I stayed in while Mark walked around exploring. Later we both went out to find dinner. After dinner we came back to the small boutique hotel and watched episode 8 of the final season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Shabbat shalom!
Shabbat morning services at the Chabad synagogue started at 10 am but we didn't know that so we arrived at 9:15 am. They had tea, coffee, cheesecake, and other cakes available for anyone who wanted them. Mark had some tea but I had already eaten breakfast and stuck with my water bottle. The very Orthodox services were enthusiastic and spirited. They auctioned off the aliyot, a practice I had heard about but never seen in person before. There were a handful of women then davening, and a couple others managing children and babies. There was a luncheon afterwards; we had not made a reservation so we had to pay for our portions after Shabbat ended. We did so at the website after sundown. The lunch featured many salads and dips as a first course. Then the rabbi gave a drash in Hebrew. After that, lunch continued with meat, potatoes, and two kinds of kugel. We met some lovely couples and young single people with whom we tried to speak Hebrew but were not too successful. Overall, it was a great experience!
We walked back to our hotel and got ready for a trip to the beach. We enjoyed the free lounge chairs and umbrellas at the beach. It was lovely. Mark got ice cream, and then we got drinks at Habibi 2, two mocktails. They were a bit too sweet but nice and cold. Finally we went to Ocean Breeze for dinner. I got delicious sushi and Mark chose a salmon salad but there was too much chili powder on it. We walked back to the hotel with Mark looking for a decaf coffee on the way, but no luck. After we got back to our room, Mark went back out in search of coffee. I enjoyed some reading and podcast listening.
On Sunday we flew home, taking a taxi to the airport and getting there just in time for our flight due to some confusion about what time it was happening. It was a lovely little getaway. Very relaxing, perhaps a little boring, but we chose to just experience what was around us without looking for anything special. And we never had any uncomfortable feelings like we did while visiting Jordan. Larnaca was very welcoming and Cyprus was lovely.
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