I live in Cyprus for many years now. It is a beautiful little island in Mediterranean Sea. It features warm weather for most of the year, sea, very kind and hospital people, plenty of jobs in IT industry, good food and plenty of alcohol, stable currency, and more. It’s really a nice place to live if you can handle small towns and villages. It’s also a great place to raise the kids.
Not much happens here. It is a quiet and simple place. Yet, when something happens or when I write about it, I post it to Cyprus category.
With every day summer feels closer. It gets hotter and trees drop their blooming. Sometimes, these flowers work with environment to create really amazing pictures. Today I saw one of them. There were a bunch of treese with purple, magenta, and blue flowers along the road. When the colors hit the ground, they combined nicely with the yellow “Don’t park, don’t stop” lines of the road and the edge of the pedestrian area.
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-05-27_POTD
Olga and I went for some shopping in Woolworth Ermes Olympia yesterday. We started off with a lunch in the caffeteria upstairs, as we often do. At first we were suprised as to how empty it looked. Usually there are at least a few people in the smoking area and twice that much in the non-smoking area. But when we entered, smoking area was totally empty, and there were about 10 people in the non-smoking area.
But when we paid for our food, we realized what happenned. The prices went up. And they went up a great deal. Usually, Olga and I paid about 6-7 CYP for a couple of sandwiches, a couple of drinks and some dessert. This time we paid almost 11 CYP. I checked the receipt and was stunned. Consider 1 CYP for a can of coke, for example. I don’t have a problem to pay this money for a glass of coke, if a waiter brings it to me, while I am sitting on some remote beach in the middle of nowhere. That’s fair. But how am I supposed to react when they charge me 1 CYP for a can of coke which I have to go pick up myself, drink it from the can, and at the place where it costs about 40 cents two floors below? And I am not even talking about a cheese cake for 3.50 CYP!
I was trying to find a reason for the price change, but failed. Everything else from the personnel and services to decorations and food remained the same.
Needless to say, now we have one place less to enjoy…
While we around Dr.Simos Kitiris office, I noticed a small office with a strange sign above its doors. It said: “New York Language Center”. I giggled. I mean it’s really funny. In the country that inheritted English language from the British Empire, there is this little language center which teaches you, no, not English… not even American, but New Yorkish.
You’ll probably have to take a couple of weeks of courses, learn some brooklynisms, find out how they call places, and than have to pass an exam. Or I don’t know what they are doing…
30th Cyprus International Fair opened its doors for visitors on May 20th. About 280 companies from 25 countries will be displaying their products until May 29th. The range of goods is really impressive: furniture, building materials, plastic products, mattresses, solar energy systems, foodstuffs, pumps, travel goods, baby items, aluminum products, industrial machinery and equipment, electric domestic appliances, cars, telecommunication equipment, sanitary ware, tools, spare parts, kitchenware.
The Fair will take place at the usual location – Cyprus International Fair in Nicosia. Open hours are daily from 18:00 until 23:00. On Saturday the Fair is open from 18:00 until midnight. On Sunday – from 18:00 until 23:00 again. Tickets are very reasonable priced at 2.50 CYP for adults and 1.00 CYP for children and students.
You can find more information about the Fair at its official website.
Olga, Maxim and I went to see Cyprus Rally 2005 Finish ceremony today. We came a bit earlier in hope that I could find a better place for shooting pictures, but the area was pretty crowded already. Also, the cars were delayed for about half an hour, and that allowed for yet more people to come.
Anyway, thanks to my 75-300mm lens with Image Stabilizer I managed to get a few clear shots.
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-05_Cyprus_Rally/2005-05-15_Finish_ceremony