The taxi driver was probably relieved to drop us off, since Nabil had spent most of the drive speaking in code to his phantom CIA associates. I couldnt wait to get out of the car so i could preview the hotel. This aas the make or break moment. Fortunately, the hotel was lovely. Small, new, and spotlessly clean, and manned by an English speaking night receptionist, the hotel redeemed me for all my other travel planning sins. Of course we arrived wired, and Nabil spent an hour interrogating the kind man at the desk about border procedures, taxi rates, drive times and a host of other inquiries aimed at proving we had been scammed. Finally satisfied that we had not paid usury rates, we shuffled to our room and collapsed, wondering what new surprises lay around the corner.
The morning was brilliantly sunny and hot as hell. Breakfast was served by the pool and it was delicious. I felt the clench in my gut slightly release. The hotel folks were extremely helpful and encouraged us to take a tour and just hang out , but we of course, don't know how to simply relax, so pressed him to help us look for a rental car and map out our day. We were told there were ncarted available to rent. Disappointed, we headed to the beach to reconsider the plan. Unfortunately, as we hit the street my gut tightened again. Larnaca is a seaside city in need of a facelift and the beach while well attended,was not the white sand beach we were hoping for. The sand was dark and where the sea crept in to meet the shore, it had turned a murky muddy color that made the thought of lounging on the beach seem akin to taking a mud bath. Not good.
We decided to head back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and to regroup there. On our way we stumbled upon a rent-a-car agency and lucked into a car that was both reasonable and comfortable. We snatched it up and felt pleased with ourselves as we returned to the hotel for directions to some of the Cyprus sites. And here's where things got interesting again.
For many years Cyprus was a British colony and one of the traditions they passed along to the Cypriots was the habit of driving on the right side of the road...not a small adjustment, especially when road signs are written in Greek and highway engineers have committed to the liberal use of "roundabouts" to control traffic flow.
So now Lucy and Desi are hurtling through the hills and byways of Cyprus in the desert sun, while Nabil tries to master the art of driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car, with the exit and entrance ramps coming all tool quickly on the wrong side of the highway. Gail tries to decipher the Greek/English maps and road signs, an orie ting herself to directional signs on the wrong side of the car. You discover a lot about yourself and your partner when you are forced to change a habit. I never knew that Nabil's depth perception on the left is impaired. I did however know that he had reached his threshold of stress tolerance. I also learned that my own stress level are exponentially increased when tree branches scrape my side of the car. I gently tried to persuade Nabil that we would quickly adjust to this newest challenge. His white knuckle grip on the steering wheel said otherwise.
Still, we managed to find a lovely seaside restaraunt recommended by the hotel cook, and then explored a neotholithic site on the south side of the island that was nearly 12,000years old. Then we headed infortune mountains for a look at a village known for its lace making, traditional architecture and spectacular views. We wandered the village, spoke with the locals, drank cappuccino under a grapevine trellis and applauded ourselves for our navigational skills. We rested. Then we decided to head back to the hotel.
We should have held the applause. While we did a great job getting to our destinations, the return to the hotel was not as smooth. What should have been a 45 minute drive, turned into a 2 hour nightmare, driving on mountain roads in the dark on the wrong side of the road. When we finally pulled into the hotel, we were too exhausted to eat, barely talking and I was fairly sure I was for g to lose my travel planning privileges!
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