Heart Cyprus

They love their country and people, and willing to share them with the world.
Stores, restaurants, young and old, all do Facebook to show/promote what they've got :)

キプロスの人たちは自分の国と人々を心から愛しているのが、いろんなところから伝わってきます。お店やレストラン、老若男女問わず、ソーシャルネットワークを使って魅力を発信しています。

This is one of my favorite. Their Facebook & instagram are good too. Great photos!
http://www.heartcyprus.com/

Larnaca Airport ラルナカ空港

 Larnaca Airport was simple and nice. Nothing complicated. 
空港はコンパクトで分かりやすいです。

 

Arrival　到着ロビー

Departure　出発ロビー

Nicosia (Lefkosia) 首都ニコシア

Larnaca to Nicosia is about an hour by green bus.
ラルナカからニコシアは緑のバスで１時間。
I didn't have enough time to go around this capital city of Cyprus, but only walk around the old town a bit.

It was a hot day which was normal summer day there. 36c. The sun beaming down on me/us.
週末バススケジュールの関係で旧市街を散策する時間しかありませんでした・・・。海風の吹かない首都は３６℃越えの猛暑日。

This capital is more than 1000 years old!
１０００年の古都

http://www.heartcyprus.com/nicosia

When I heard/read that old town is inside the old wall, I imagined it's surrounded by the walls (you do too, no?) However, its like this.
旧市街は城壁に囲まれている、と聞いて想像していたのとはちょっと違いましたが、確かに壁の内側です。

Main streets are full of tourists. Nice.
メインストリートは観光客でいっぱい。

And popular old back streets. Pretty area is not that big though. 
歴史ある裏通り。広範囲ではありませんが、とても雰囲気があります。

More than enough good interesting buildings/churches to see were there... but I got lost as well as didn't have time. Too bad (sigh, weekend bus schedule...) 

Hopefully, next time! 
教会、博物館と見どころはたくさんあったのですが、迷子になってたどり着けず時間切れ・・・残念。

 An Old office building at the border
(No not the other side of this is it)
北とのボーダーラインにある旧役所跡

I accidentally almost crossed the border, and stopped by crossing point police. ha.
気づかないうちに境界線を越えそうになり、国境警備に止められました。（汗）

Foods! フード!

It was a short trip so I didn't have so many meals... too bad, because they were SO good!
Cyprus has meat, fish, veggies, fruits, cheese and wine, coffee...everything!

(I didn't take many photo of them though.)

短期滞在だったので、食事の回数は限られていたのですが、噂通り、食事は本当においしかったです！肉、魚、野菜、果物、チーズ、コーヒーにワイン、何でもあり!

Day or night, everyone prefers to eat outside, with friends, take time, enjoy meals :)

Restaurants owners are nice uncles/grandpas and waiters/waitresses are sweet.
暑い日でも、皆さん風を感じながら外で食べます。レストランのオーナーやサービスの人たちもハッピーで笑顔の人が多いです。

 

 My favorite-Moussaka!(8 euro)
ムサカ。なすとポテトとひき肉にチーズ。間違いないです！

Potato, eggplant & other veggies with ground beef AND cheese... can't go wrong!

I fell in love with Cyprus original cheese- Halloumi! (Mixture of goat's & sheep's milk) 

I heard about it, and tried it, and looooved it!

This sandwich was just one of the many menu with halloumi. So yum!
キプロスチーズ、ハルーミ！超美味です。食べ方はいろいろ。

 

 This is not that good photo however, they take Salad very seriously! 

I was thinking Japanese way; kinda small side dish, but oh dear, they can be main dish!
日本のサイドディッシュの感覚でサラダを注文すると後悔します。種類も豊富。サラダも本気の料理です。

 

Greek Yogurt is AWESOME! I want to eat them everyday. 

Different from Japanese, not sour very mild and rich!

(this one was my last meal in Cyprus at the airport)
最近は日本にもありますが、ギリシャヨーグルト。酸味がなくマイルドリッチで毎日食べたくなります。 はちみつと一緒が主流みたいです。

Larnaca Castle ラルナカ要塞・城

This castle was later used as a prison, artillery and an outpost.

Many resources and research carried around the castle suggest that initial construction started in late 12th century.
１２世紀ごろに建造が始まったラルナカ城。お城、軍事施設、一時は刑務所、刑執行所・・・今は景色の素晴らしい観光スポットです。
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnaca_Castle

Iced Tea アイスティー

Everywhere you go, if you order "Iced tea, please" 

They would ask you "Peach or Lemon?" and wherever you order it (as far as I saw) it's the same one Lipton.
キプロスでは知る限り、どこでアイスティーを注文しても、ピーチがいいかレモンがいいか聞かれます。そして、どこもかしこも同じ、リプトンです！
 

They bring an empty glass with ice and the can.

My hotel restaurant, other restaurants and cafes, they were always the same, this Lipton peach or lemon. They are in every stores/shops too! What a great business to Lipton!
たいてい缶と氷入りグラスを持ってきてくれて、自分で注ぎます。お店に行っても並んでいるのは同じ…リプトン!

New/ Old & Pretty/ Old & abandoned 古くて美しいものと古くて放棄されるもの

These photos are not all from the same city but three, yet what I saw each town was quite similar.
下の写真は３つの市街からですが、どの市にも共通していたのは、メインストリートと観光スポットの華やかさ・すばらしさと、今にも崩れそうな建物、忘れ去られたシャッター街が隣りあわせなことです。もう少し、個々（自分の建物さえ良ければ）ではなく、町全体の景観を気にする考え方があったら違ってくるのかなーと思いました。お国柄なので良し悪しではありませんが。
 

Classy pretty buildings and abandoned nearly collapsing building close to each other. 

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Just thinking if authority/cities take care of their town as a whole package, and not maintaining only certain popular buildings or streets, it would be prettier.

However, I understand that's not that easy.    

  

 

Some new places have people. and other places are empty.

 

 

Main streets are attractive and modern. 

 

 And one street behind it, things look different.

 Again, I'm not saying it's bad or anything, I thought it was interesting.

Church of Saint Lazarus (in Larnaca) 聖ラザロ教会

It's a main sightseeing spot as well as very important Greek Orthodox church of the area.

ラルナカで一番有名な、メインの観光スポットですが、ギリシャ正教会の重要な教会です。

"St. Lazarus, sometime after the Resurrection, he was forced to flee and came to Cyprus. He is said to have lived for thirty more years and on his death was buried there for the second and last time."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Lazarus

聖ラザロが最後の３０年を過ごして、埋葬された、歴史ある場所です。

It founded late 9th century and went through histories... 

destroyed, rebuilt, changed to Roman catholic then mosque and sold it back to Orthodox.
９世紀には存在が確認され、破壊されたり、カトリック教会やモスク寺院に替えられたりした歴史もあるそうです。

 

What they have is not only golden icons, but the tomb of St. Lazarus.  

聖ラザロの墓、が地下にあります。

 

 They say this underground tomb area has been remain the same since Roman era. 

この地下部分はローマ時代から変わらず保存されてきたということでかなり違う空気が漂っていました。写真を撮るなとは言われていなかったのですが、何とも言えず、撮ろうという気分になる雰囲気ではありませんでした。神聖さと重い空気と静けさと…。

And oh god, it had definitely absolutely completely different air/atmosphere/feeling down there.

No one was stopping me(us) but for me, no way to take pictures or stay there any longer than a minute. 

Something was so heavy and holy and old and cold and everything...

However I found some photos on google image so I post them.  

 (No, nothing in there)
グーグル画像から。中は空です。

"During the subsequent renovations of the church, on November 2, 1972, human remains were discovered in a marble sarcophagus under the altar, and were identified as part of the saint's relics"  

His relics/some bones are in a silver box upstairs, which we actually could see.  

聖遺骨の一部は公開されていて、見られます。

There is a small museum next to the church. It had books and icons etc... 

隣に歴史資料館があります。１ユーロ。

 

As soon as I took a photo of this ancient floor, I leaned "No camera" in there. oops.

昔の床。この後、写真撮影禁止だと言われました・・・。（ごめんなさい）