Today is "Green Monday", a national holiday in Cyprus.  The day marks the beginning of the 50 day countdown before Easter (Greek Easter is a week after the Easter in the US this year) and the start of the fasting period.  No meat, other than fish, is to be eaten on this day.  We went to Themis (Demetris' brother) and Maria's house for the afternoon meal.  They grilled squid and octopus.  I said "no thank you" to that.  As Alex often says to me after I cook, "that looks really good but I'm not going to eat it."  Sorry, but squid and octopus don't even look good to me.  But, I'm not a fish/seafood eater anyway.  We also had lots of vegetables.  It is after all Green Monday.  The tradition for this day is that the kids go to fields and fly kites.  It was a cloudy, windy day with occasional showers but Themis and Michalis (Demetris' brother-in-law) did manage to each get a kite flying. 

I finally have a blonde child.  Electra, Alex, and Nayia in carnival wigs

Tatiana with her kite.  It says "Apoel", their favorite soccer team from Nicosia.

Sofia in the field with her kitty

Uncle Michalis flying the kite.

Carnival Parade

A beautiful day for the Carnival parade.  We drove to the seaside town of Limassol, about 40 miles from Nicosia where we are, for the Carnival celebration.  The parade was really fabulous.  There were 109 groups that marched in the parade.  Most groups had a float with people riding on it and then also had up to 100 people marching around the float.  All of the people in the group were in matching costumes and some of them were pretty elaborate.  Confetti was thrown from all of the floats as well as  from the bystanders in the crowd.  The parade lasted over two hours and it was moving at a pretty good pace.  We stayed until the end because two or our nieces, Nayia and Electra, were on float number 107.  They must have been on the opposite side of the street because we didn't see them.  It was very festive and the weather was warm and sunny.  This marks the end of the Carnival festivities.  I think most of Cyprus was there!  Here's a sampling of pictures but they don't really do it justice since you don't get the effect of the mass of people marching down the street.

Traditional Greek costumes

The top of the head opened and closed with grass inside.

"Kate and William" were riding on the front.

The huge carousel in the back actually did revolve.

One of my favorite groups

Spent a lot of time outside today on a warm, sunny day. Took a short walk through a park and then found a playground for the kids.  Thought I would share some random information I have learned about Cyprus in the last few weeks.

• Citrus trees are everywhere and are full of fruit at this time of the year.  Most of it does not seem to be used.  I guess because of the abundance.  There are primarily different varieties of oranges and lemons.
• Good luck getting paperwork notarized.  I needed something done for my extended stay papers and it was a wild goose chase.  There is no list from the government, can't be found on google, but is all word of mouth.  Demetris' family thought the priest at the local church could do it.  We finally tracked him down.  He told us to go down the street to house number 52 to find a man there.  There was no 52.  We stopped to ask some ladies having coffee on their front porch.  Lucky for us one of them said her husband went to school with the man we needed and he was in house number 25!  Went to this guy's living room where he stamped our papers, gave the kids Kit Kats and sent us on our way.  
• Stores close early on Wednesdays. Not sure why, but I mean early.  We got to the grocery store last week at 3:15 and found out it had closed at 3:00.  Government workers all finish work at 3:00 everyday.  Not bad.
• Food and toiletry items are really expensive.  A box of taco shells costs $6.00, the cheapest contact cleaner I could find was $12.00 a bottle (the one I wanted was almost $20), eggs are about $3.00 a dozen.  We spent almost $200 yesterday and didn't even fill a cart.
• Traffic lights turn yellow before they turn green so you know it is time to go.

An orange variety that is bitter

Eucalyptus trees

Flowers blooming in February

View of the mountains on the Turkish side

Alex on the teeter totter

Sofia loves slides

Carnival Party

The school that our nieces Nayia, Electra, and Tatiana go to sponsored a carnival party today.  Imagine a hotel ballroom filled with costumed kids running around, loud music, and dancing.  I'm not sure Demetris was too sorry he missed it.  Sofia and Alex were completely overwhelmed at first. After we ate lunch there was a costume contest for each grade level.  Then the dancing resumed and Alex and Sofia got totally into it.  They both love to dance and they joined their cousins out on the dance floor.  At one point someone started a Congo line and the next thing I knew Sofia was in the middle of it with her cousin Electra helping her along.  Sofia had refused to wear her costume (or any costume really) but I had taken her "ballerina skirt" and Minnie Mouse ears headband with me and she actually asked to put the skirt on and agreed to wear the ears eventually.  It was so great to see them have such a good time with their cousins.  Thank you Auntie Diana for taking us!

Aunt Maria and our youngest niece, Evelina

Electra

E

Indifference at the beginning

I got into it a bit, too

Minnie Mouse

Angry pirate face

Sofia and Electra burning up the dance floor

Alex was thrilled to dance with Nayia

Cutie pie