This entry is brought to you by Barry.
You may not have asked for it, you may not want it and it might even give you some memories you’d rather forget. But just like David Cameron, the blog is back, baby!
England in November. Damp. Cold. Dark. Any excuse to escape to a location where the sun doesn’t set before 4pm would surely be welcomed…
And so it proved for your intrepid authors. With our original plans for this week falling through we had a spare week free, and the temptation of a trip to sunnier climes proved far too tempting. Thanks to some cheap flights from everyone’s ‘favourite’ Irish budget airline and an excellent off-season hotel deal, we were heading all the way to Cyprus. A brand new country for me but somewhere Ellie had a great trip to six years ago. So she’s in charge when it comes to directions over here - may god have mercy on our souls.
Unlike pretty much every other flight I’ve ever taken from Stansted we actually had a sociable flight time of 1:40pm - usually I only seem to see that airport at 5am or late at night. So after a leisurely start we were on the road shortly before 9:30am, with it being a Sunday morning there was very little traffic about so the journey was a breeze. We parked up at the newish multi-storey car park a short walk from the terminal and had our suitcase dropped off and security completed in no time.
The area after security was the usual heaving mass of humanity so we sought sanctuary in the familiar surroundings of Stansted’s Wetherspoons. The upstairs seating area was mercifully unpopulated and much less oven-like than the rest of building. Starting the holiday with our usual sense of wild abandon we hit the hard stuff straight away, Mocha Coffee for Ellie and Pepsi Max for me. With caffeine searing through our veins we calmed ourselves with some of the finest cuisine the Spoons microwaves can provide before our gate was called.
Sadly the gate was walkable so no Stansted People Mover for us (is it just me that enjoys novelty airport transit systems?). After reaching the gate area using nothing more exciting than my boring feet I noticed another busy flight boarding next to ours to a destination I’d never heard of, Carcassone. I consider myself quite geographically knowledgeable but I’d never heard it. Where was it and why were so many people heading there? Turns out it’s in France and has a population of 45,000 so not exactly a major destination. All suggestions welcome.
Thanks to Ryanair’s seating algorithm, Ellie and I were on the same row but separated by the aisle and another seat. Luckily a very kind man offered to switch places so I could join Ellie and her Australian new best friend who were happily chatting away - making pals wherever she goes! The flight was pretty uneventful although four hours is about long enough to be crammed into those lovely blue plastic seats. I had a couple of podcast episodes downloaded to listen to while Ellie kept herself amused with the episodes of Friends she had available to view on her phone.
After a smooth flight we descended down towards Paphos airport. Sadly we had to use our imaginations as to what lay beneath us as we had the classic Ryanair windowless row. Probably a good thing too as the captain proceeded to carry out an experiment on how aggressively you could smash a plane’s tyres into Cypriot tarmac without rendering his passengers unconscious. Despite the bumpy landing (and miserable border guard) the rest of the airport experience was very easy and we soon had our suitcase back in our hands and rental car keys in our possession.
On the other hand, the car park proved quite the challenge. The ‘Exit’ signs just took you in a circle (we saw other cars trapped in the same loop) and it turned out the way out was to take an unsigned exit hidden behind a row of cars and then out through an unmarked barrier. Of course. Luckily the rest of the 20 minute journey to the hotel was much easier, we couldn’t see much of the country as it was very dark outside and my main impression of Cyprus thus far was that they love a speed limit change, seemingly every minute on the same road it would change from 80km/h to 30, then to 65, then 40 and probably a few others as well. Kept me on my toes at least.
The hotel was easy enough to find but in keeping with the newfound Cypriot tradition the hotel seemed to be lacking any kind of signs for the customer car park, lifts, reception etc. Luckily we successfully followed our noses and managed to get ourselves checked in. The hotel itself looks lovely with a pool and sauna to check out tomorrow and the room is spacious with large balcony overlooking the sea. We’d packed ourselves some sandwiches and crisps earlier to avoid having to locate food after a long travel day so tucked into our hotel room feast before a quick nighttime explore of the hotel grounds and ocean views. One-word review of the current weather conditions = Breezes.
And that’s it for tonight. We’ll see you tomorrow for our first day of Cypriot exploration!
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