Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
It’s a natural wonder, a nice hike, and the chance to climb through a deep gorge: the Avakas gorge on the Akámas peninsula. The small river Avgás has cut deep into the mountain and the gorge is only four meters wide while the rocks above you are thirty meters high. It’s an absolute pleasure to walk through this area but you need good footwear, and you need to be ready to jump over water and to climb over rocks.
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Cyprus is the country of the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. The inhabitants use this to market their country and you’ll find her name everywhere on the island. According to mythology, Cronus had cut off the genitals of his father Uranus (yes, a weird story) and thrown them into the water. And out of the foam of the waves came Aphrodite.
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You might be a bit disappointed when you search for the castle of Λεμεσός: it is in the harbor area and three hundred meters away from the shore. And it looks just like a rectangular building without further fortifications. But inside you can visit the medieval museum of the city and the building itself is very well preserved. It was built in 1590 CE under Ottoman rule.
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If I would search for a place to create a city on Cyprus, I would probably decide for the area of Kourion, in the west of Λεμεσός: the views on the Mediterranean Sea are just breathtaking. Maybe that was also the reason why the city-state of Kourion was created here in the 13th century BCE. Today you can discover manyfold Roman traces here: beautiful mosaics, an ancient theatre und Roman baths that have been heated by fire.
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Πάνω Λεύκαρα is a picturesque village in the mountains known for the craftwork and especially lace produced here. It also offers nice views on the mountains and a beautiful ancient church, the church of the Holy Cross. Strolling through the narrow streets of this village is nice, but the marketing of the community is so strong that sometimes large crowds of tourists are dropped off by buses. Just get a coffee somewhere and let them pass by.
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Exploring Cyprus means looking at many old stones. The climate of the island and the rough, mountainous landscape made it possible. Halfway between Λάρνακα and Λεμεσός you can discover settlement structures used 8,000 years ago. In the Neolithic period people created the settlement Χοιροκoιτία with small round houses next to a river.
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Close to Λάρνακα you can find a large salt lake. During some months it is completely empty and you can walk on the salt (which was exported in former times) like in a moon-like landscape. In other times the lake is filled with water and gives a home to pink flamingos. You can walk around the lake on a nice path with many picnic areas.
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War and remembering the victims of war is still today a controversial topic at Kassel. The city was in the past and is still today a center of weaponry production. In World War II it was therefore a target of massive attacks. Even today you can find the traces in vast air-raid shelters and in the face of the city: the historic city center never returned to its former beauty after it was completely burned down in the last world war. In different areas memorials can be found for the victims of war and especially the victims of fascism. The memorial for soldiers which died in both world wars was closed for renovations for many years and vandalized directly after reopening: the Ehrenmal at the Karlsaue.
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In the past the main market of București was located on Piața Unirii and attracting the farmers of the region to sell their products. If you want to find something similar today, you need to get to Obor, an area in the northeast of the city (belonging to sector two). There you’ll find a vast area with indoor and outdoor market stalls selling vegetables, fruit, meat, and every kind of goods.
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Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Turkey surround the Black Sea. For the Romanians it is the Marea Neagră, for the Turkish the Karadeniz – all meaning the same. It is suspected that the name refers to earlier ideas of connecting colors to the cardinal direction: green = east, white = west, red = south and black = north. That also explains why the red sea received its name.
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