American in Cyprus: Lefkera

Lefkera is a small town about 25 miles from Nicosia. It is famous for its handmade lace and silver. We drove through Lefkera last weekend on the way home from our mountain trip and I wanted to go back today to explore. It is a quaint area with many nicely restored village style homes. But, it became evident quite quickly that this has become a popular tourist destination and the store owners can be a bit aggressive in trying to sell their wares. As we walked away from one store we were talking to each other about going to the museum down the street. The storekeeper followed us a bit and yelled "the museum is closed". We kept going and when we arrived at the museum and found it open we realized it had been an attempt to keep us in the store. Demetris also became annoyed when a store owner began speaking to him in French, since a bus with French tourists had just arrived, and when he realized Demetris was Cypriot didn't have much more to say. Guess he realized we wouldn't be buying anything. The museum turned out to be lovely. We were the only ones there and it was world museum day so admission was free. It was small, but replicated an old village house and brought back many memories to Demetris. We enjoyed walking down the narrow streets of the town and then took a short drive to the Church of the Holy Cross. It is known for having a piece of wood from the cross Christ was on. The wood is kept inside an elaborate silver cross. Demetris and I were both wearing shorts so we were required to wrap a cloth around our waists to cover our legs before entering. The church dates back to 1341 A.D. A man on the church council was there and told Demetris the long history of the church and also showed us around a bit. Alex spotted a painting of St. Giorgos on one of the walls. It was an interesting church with several very old pieces inside.