We met new and old friends and visited Famagusta on the north side of Cyprus.

Protaras/Fig Tree Bay

Without a car you can take the bus from Konnos Bay, twice pr hour, either to Ayia Napa, or to Protaras/Paralimni. But you can also walk the distance like we did this day.

This morning a group of kayakers where practice rolling.

Our plan was to walk to Lidl to buy bread and then take the bus back from there. We started the trail from the bay, like we did the first night here. The distance from Konnos Bay to Lidl is 5 km. No way I would have walked 5 km to buy a bread back home in Norway…

A gravel road north along the coast

Beautiful colours!

A calm beach along the trail

Chapel of St. Andreas Paramount Protaras is a newbuild church.

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On the way we met a nice cat family, mother and 3-4 kittens.

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The walkway around Fig Tree Bay

From I was a kid I have heard about Cyprus because my aunt was travelling there. They stayed here at Nausicaa Beach here in Fig Tree Bay. I have also sent many Star Tour/Tui-guests here over the years when I was working in the travel agency.

On the north side of Fig Tree Bay you will find a long beach with many hotels and restaurants. They were cleaning up here after a big storm earlier the same month.

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The walkway continues!

We had a small snack break and this cat found me. He didn`t wanna leave…

We walked all the way to Profitis Ilias church were you have an amazing view over Protaras.

Profiti Ilias Church

And outside the church, another cat.

At the end we bought the bread at Lidl and found the bus to take back to Konnos Bay.

A video from this hike.

Birthdayparty in Ayia Napa

Wednesday that week we took the bus to Ayia Napa for a surprice party. Actually not a surprice party, but it was a surprice that we were coming. We wanted to walk the promenade from Ayia Napa old harbour to Nissi Beach. In the beginning it was nice weather.

And we had time to take som nice photos before the rain sat in. We had to find somewhere to hide while it was raining.

After a while of waiting we manage to walk on and it stopped raining.

It could have been a nice sunset.

The surprise was for Hilde, Sigrun and Alf`s daughter, who I worked with 25 years ago. She and her boyfriend Roger came to Cyprus to visit her parents, and Sigrun invited us to join them for Hilde`s birthdayparty. We went to Taverna Napa and had Meze. Meze is a selection of hot and cold small dishes, like tapas in Spain. I didn`t count all the dishes but it was many, too many. We were so full at the end we couldn`t manage to eat more. But it was delicious and this restaurant is amazing! And it was so nice to meet Hilde again after all this years!

Cape Greco

We still stayed in Konnos Bay and after a couple of days with bad weather we had a new hike around Cape Greco. The trails are going in all direction so you don`t have to walk the same way twice.

I really love all this flowers!

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Yes, I love theese flowers!

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Iris, like the one I have in my garden in Norway.

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If you like to see more of Cape Greco you can check out our previous post:

We sailed west to Ayia Napa and Cape Greco

Famagusta/Ghost Town of Varosha

Randi (the woman from Sandnes with the brown cheese) and her friend invited us to join them for a trip to Famagusta/Varosha. This is on the Turkish-Cypriotic side and we had to take the bus to the border, go through the passport control, walk through the UN-zone, into the other side. It is quite long to walk, so we asked some men, working along the road, if they could call for a taxi. Be aware if you do the same; they said the driver wanted 10 Euro, but when we arrived in Famagusta he wanted 50 Euro!! Astor was sitting in front so he could see the taximeter said 6 Eur… We never paid more than 10.

Famagusta/Varosha is the city with the most special history on Cyprus. The history is complicated and long, but I will take it short here. In the end of the 60`s and beginning of the 70`s Famagusta/Varosha was one of the most popular beach destination, not only in Europe, but also in the world! A lot of famous actors found their way here. And Famagusta had the main port of Cyprus.

The people who lived in Varosha, most of them Greek-Cypriot manage to escape before the Turkish invasion 14.august 1974, but many of them had to leave everything, there are stories about how they left the dinner on the oven.

St. Peter Ve St. Paul katedral build in 13th century. Now it is closed and you can only see it from outside.

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Some leftovers from the invasion?

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Randi, Helga, Astor and me having lunch at Petek in Famagusta. If you are here and want something to eat, you will find everything here. And all the sweets and cakes… wow…

When we were here the restaurant filled up with pupils from the local school. From a quiet restaurant to a more lively one…

It is easy to find the restaurant

The view from the top of the citywall. It started to rain so I didn` t take much photo here.

You can climb on the stairs to come to the top of the wall which surrounds Famagusta.

A lot of old buildings in Famagusta

A part of the wall

How would this be if it was not for the Turkish invasion in 1974? Today there is no one at the beach.

Varosha has been closed for “normal” people until 2020, when they opened some of the streets for tourists.

The people who lived in Varosha hoped they could come back to their houses after everything settled down. But now, after almost 50 years, it still hasn’t happend.

The Turkish-Cypriot side wants to reopen Varosha, but they also want the people who owns a property here to come back. Because of the situation in Cyprus, this is not easy.

Randi and Helga walking on the beach in front of Varosha

A fence divides Varosha from Famagusta. All the hotels on the beachfront is empty and some of them bombed.

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Astor and me wanted to have a look inside Varosha. We should maybe have had more time here, but for a reason we had to leave (I had to find a toilet… 🙂 )

What is it for the property owner to come back to??

Toyota dealer had cars inside for many years. The building is now empty.

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If you like to read more about what happend in Famagusta/Varosha there is plenty of information on internet, like wikipedia.

After visiting Varosha we took the bus to Nicosia. It was an adventure unto itself… Small Dolmus-buses, with two seats on one side and one on the other. On top of that there was folding seats between the other seets, and after a short distance the bus was more than full. I should have taken photos here, but I didn`t.

Arriving Nicosia we crossed the border and went to the market where I could buy more kiloes with this amazing Turkish pears!

We had a stop at a restaurant eating dinner/dessert before we crossed the border again and went to the bus-station.

Right beside the bus-station they have build a beautiful park. Someone was going to have a consert there that evening. We could here they warming up.

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The bus from Nicosia to Ayia Napa was totally full, and 90 % of the passangers was Norwegians…. It took us 1,5 hours to get to Ayia Napa, and then we took a new bus to Konnos Bay.

It is time to leave Konnos Bay, because we have to go west to leave Cyprus in near future. So we are just waiting for the perfect wind condition!