Cruise Recap, part 5: Port4 - Limassol, Cyprus

Next port was island of Cyprus. We had heard mixed reviews about the port so we were intrigued to check it out, but we decided to change things up and get some exercise with a hike instead of the typical ancient ruins excursion. Cyprus is strategically located at the crossroads of many different traderoutes, and thus is the soccerball of the Mediterranean. The country has seen so many different rulers, it was very hard to keep track. In fact, the country is sort of divided into 3 sections: the Turks invaded the northern section of Cyprus in the 1970’s and declared that part as the Turkish Republic of Cyprus. To keep the peace, the UN controls a small strip of land in between that northern territory and the southern half of the island. That southern half is where we were visiting. No country, aside from Turkey, recognizes the small country of Turkish Cyprus, but the UN remains there as a precaution.

The tour consisted of a bus ride for about an hour to the Troodos Mountain range in the middle of the island. Because of the strong Greek influence, many believe Troodos Mountain to be Cyprus' Mt. Olympus. The landscape going up was quite dry, and sadly, many of the homes had a considerably amount of trash on their land. We learned from our guide that the country is in the middle of a major water shortage and Cypriots are rationed 6 hours of water a day! At the top of the mountain, we stopped for a quick rest break where we picked up a bottle of red wine and other souvenirs before our trek.

We started at the top of the mountain and walked down, passing a stream and a picturesque, if puny, waterfall. Honestly though, the terrain and scenery didn’t look too different than Santa Barbara mountains. After the hike, we had a bite to each (tzakiki again, and dolmas – stuffed grape leaves) at a restaurant in Patres, an old resort town in the mountains. The town received a lot of hype from our tour guide but wasn’t very impressive.

We’re happy to scratch Cyprus off of our list of places to visit but have no intentions of going back. We didn’t hate it, but there wasn’t much there to recommend it either. The city looked like any other city, the resort town was not very appealing, and quite honestly, the people we encountered were not very warm. We’ve read from some posts that so many people complain about this port that many cruise ships are considering removing it from future itineraries. In fact, our same cruise next year has replaced Cyprus with Corfu, Greece!