American in Cyprus: Our Trip to Cyprus by Mike

The day after Christmas we spent traveling to Nissi beach in Ayia Napa. In the summer this beautiful piece of seashore is usually packed with the young hip tourist. There were signs of this in the form of advertisements for foam dance parties and lots of bar space, but in the winter all of that was closed. It was just us and maybe a few others on a sunny day in the high 70's. The central part of the beach is a large, volcanic rock which is connected to the rest of the beach by a tiny isthmus which is submerged at high tide. Demitris showed us how to navigate along the rocky, coastal edge of the rock. It was pretty treacherous because it was incredibly uneven and would have definitely scraped you if you fell. We made it to the top where we met Lori, my Mom, Alex, and Sofia who took the sandy path up to the top where you could see the whole cove and out towards the Mediterranean.
After coming down from the rock, we all had some leftover, American made, peanut blossoms as a snack before braving the "frigid" waters. I had read an article in the English language newspaper about a group of Cypriots who swam in the ocean the day after Christmas every year to raise money for charity, a feat thought of as crazy for the local population. However to us, coming from our chilly New England December the water was down right balmy and we played in it for a long time. The highlight of this part of the day however was burring Steve in the sand. Carrie, Alex, and Sofia pitched in big time in our effort to turn Steve into some vague resemblance of a sand mermaid complete with tail.
After washing up in the foot washing fountain instead of paying 1 Euro for 2 minuets of a real shower, we headed into the town to get some lunch. This was harder to find since, while there were tons of shops, nearly everything was closed. Eventually we found some very nice roast pork, halloumi, and cucumber paninis before heading out to a big cliff to watch the sunset. The cliff was very near the Turkish boarder and right next to the only remaining piece of British territory on the island, a small radio site. The sunset was beautiful and you could see for miles down to the coast line towards Ayia Napa. Lori said it was far more peaceful this time of year without the party cruises which normally populate the water below. The day finished up with Alex making some traditional Cypriot grass soup in a nearby puddle with California parsley, California lettuce, and California onions, all of which sorta looked like grass. True to form with almost every other day we had in Cyprus almost everyone fell asleep in the car on the way home.
Lots of thanks to Alex, Loria, Demetris, and especially Sofia, who was a real trooper on that day despite having an upset stomach in the morning.