Carnival Weekend

What a busy weekend we had!  Saturday morning we left for the village, Salamiou. It is always a bit of a long process packing for the village since the closest grocery store is thirty minutes away and we try to take enough food to last us.  Plus, it is much cooler in the mountains so we all need to take heavy coats as well.  We left with a trunk packed full for a two day trip.  Grandma Electra went with us as she always like to check on the house and make sure everything is alright.  Once we were settled in we took a drive to a beach in the Paphos area.  It was quite windy, making the water rough.  We found a place where there some waves crashing against the rocks and the kids thought that was pretty cool. 
Sunday was the big carnival parade in Limassol.  We left early in the morning to first go to the zoo there.  It is a small zoo, but there were some fun animals like monkeys, alligators, and otters.  The monkeys put on quite a show for us.  They had been given a coconut and one spent a bit of time trying to crack it open.  Once he got it open and the meat out, another monkey took it away.  The first monkey was pretty clever and not only got it back but then put the coconut in a hole in the wall to hide it and only took it out when he wanted some.  Alex was interested in the alligators, but disappointed they weren't moving.  Sofia loved the monkeys and also a cute, little baby bunny.  After a picnic lunch, we headed to the parade.  It is a lively parade with very neat costumes, plenty of confetti, silly string, spray foam and whistles.  It gets a little overstimulating after a while.  Alex was happy to see his teacher dressed as a leopard in one of the groups.  Many of the floats this year had a political theme protesting the spending cuts due to the economic crisis in Cyprus.  Following the parade, we stopped at a store to pick up ice cream to eat along the beach.  I was pretty excited to find one of my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors, the first time I had seen it in Cyprus.  We headed  back to the village for the night.
Monday was a public holiday in Cyprus, "Green Monday."  Tradition is that you are to go to a field to fly a kite and eat vegetables.  I believe it marks the beginning of the fasting season before Easter.  (Greek Easter is much later than the Easter celebrated in the States this year.)  The local resort, Aphrodite Hills, was having a celebration for the day so we decided to head there instead of a field.  The real highlight of going there is the playground area.  They open up trampolines, a bounce castle, and the camp playground along with the usual play area.  The plan was that after a bit, Demetris would return to the village (about thirty minutes away), pick up grandma, pack everything up and come back to get us.  That way the kids wouldn't have to spend as much time in the car and instead could have fun playing.  For some reason Sofia decided she wanted to ride back with daddy, which left me and Alex to stay and play.  He had a great time.  I think he did the zip line at least 50 times, managed to climb up a really tall slide, and learned how to balance himself on a revolving disc that moved up and down.  In total, he and I spent over four hours at the playground and were the last ones to leave.  He kept busy the whole time and didn't even fall asleep on the trip home to Nicosia.

Carnival masks made at home and by Alex and school

Alex and the alligator

The clever monkey with his coconut

Love these palm trees at the zoo

Neat popcorn costumes at the parade

Carrying large scissors with Euros in them to represent the spending cuts

The Las Vegas themed float

German Chancellor Merkel as the puppeteer

With the parade route in the background

Sofia giving the thumbs up for the ice cream

Sleeping beauty

A butterfly and Spiderman with daddy at the Aphrodite Hills playground

Carnival Festivities Have Begun

We got into the spirit of carnival this weekend.  Nicosia had a small carnival parade on Sunday. It was filled with many children marching in costumes with a group.  Each group dresses according to a theme and they looked real cute.  The large parade will be next weekend in Limassol.  After the parade we drove into downtown Nicosia to have some yummy lunch at an Armenian place that sells traditional Middle Eastern foods primarily based around fresh baked bread doughs (things like pizza and bread stuffed with cheese) and flat bread with kebabs.  Alex and Sofia enjoyed the bus ride last weekend so much that they convinced us to let them ride home on a bus.  Demetris followed us in the car and picked us up at the bus stop closest to home.  In the evening, the school that our nieces attend sponsored a carnival party.  All of the children wear costumes to this event. It was held at a place that is basically a function hall.  There was a large turnout and very little organization which resulted in a slightly crazy atmosphere.  Many of the older kids in attendance spent the night chasing each other around the tables where we were seated.  Alex and Sofia had a great time anyway and we were some of the last to leave.  They both spent a lot of time dancing, and Sofia especially showed off all of her moves.  Alex preferred sliding on his knees across the dance floor. 

A Pac-Man group.  Do kids still know Pac-Man?

Children in costume lined the parade route

Some young chefs

Cute witches

Showing off her dance moves

Superman!

Evelina

Two happy kids

Bus Ride

The highlight of our weekend was a bus ride!  The kids had never been on a bus before and they have been wanting to go for a ride.  There is a bus stop less than a half mile from where we live that ends in downtown Nicosia.  It wasn't too long of a ride, maybe because of the speed that the driver was going.  They both thought it was quite fun.  While downtown we walked around for a bit and then stopped for some ice cream.  Also this weekend, we celebrated our niece Evelina's third birthday with a party at their house.  There was a carnival theme so all of the children were in costume.  Earlier in the week Demetris and I actually got to go out for a movie.  The Fulbright Commission along with the US Embassy sponsored a special showing of the movie Lincoln.  We enjoyed it very much. 

At the bus stop

All smiles on the bus

Alex was very curious about the emergency latch for the windows

Our bus at the final destination

Downtown Nicosia

Camel Park

Our destination yesterday was the Camel Park, located just outside of Larnaca.  As soon as we walked through the entrance and spotted some camels, Sofia decided she did not want to be there.  We convinced her to stay and in the beginning she kept a safe distance from the camels, meaning about ten feet away.  The park sold bags of food for the camels so you can feed them yourself.  Alex really wanted to, but was a bit nervous about it at first and ended up throwing it over the fence instead of feeding them from his hand.  I don't really blame him.  They are pretty large animals and their head and necks could reach pretty far outside of the fence.  He grew braver as the day went on and was letting them take the food from his hand by the end of the day.  Sofia also grew more accustomed to them, and agreed to get within a couple of feet of them without freaking out.  She loved a pony that was there and wanted to spend most of her time there feeding it some barley.  Alex also enjoyed the pony, as well as the donkeys who were in the same pen.  Besides the animals, there was a bounce house and some small rides for the kids.  Alex was excited to drive a Batman motorcycle and a police car.  Sofia loved the bounce house.  We had a nice picnic lunch there and ended up staying longer than expected.  The weather was beautiful so once we left the camel park, we took a short drive to a local off the beaten path type of beach.  The sand there reminded us of Hilton Head, very compact.  There were also many rocks and we added to our ever growing rock collection as we took a nice, long walk.  Of all the millions of rocks there, Sofia can walk along and find the exact one she was looking for.  Alex prefers the orange colored rocks.  Bags of rocks get heavy after a bit.  Glad to have Demetris along to help out.  (He's good for other reasons, too.)

Reluctant at first to feed the camel

Scared of camels, but happy to dance to Gangnam Style

Checking each other out.  These camels are about one year old.

A three week old baby

Typical goofy camel

Now he's got the hang of it.

Sofia is pulling me back trying to make sure we don't go too close.

Not taking any chances.  He made the camel stretch as far as possible for the food.

I should get one of these for home.

Sofia's favorite pony

Alex was fierce on his Batman motorcylce

Collecting rocks at the beach

Beautiful afternoon at the beach in Larnaca

Some Big News

We are excited to announce that I am pregnant!  We are eagerly awaiting the birth of our baby girl whose due date is July 8.  Sofia and Alex have been helping us with baby names and so far the lead contenders are Barbie, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Rihanna.  Good thing Demetris and I have veto power.  The kids seem excited to be having a baby sister.  Alex has been telling us everything that he plans on teaching her and Sofia is more concerned about things like buying diapers and what towel she will use.  The baby will be born in Cyprus and we will return to Boston shortly thereafter.

Showing the baby bump

Some Little News

This past weekend we paid a second visit to the Melios Zoo located just outside of Nicosia.  The majority of animals are different variety of birds but they also have farm animals, kangaroos, and some deer.  We had let the kids pick the activity for the day and this is what they chose.  Last spring when we were there the kids spent a long time at the playground, but it had some major safety issues in my opinion.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that a brand new playground is now there and it seems perfectly safe.
In local news, Cyprus is currently in the process of electing a new president.  With the current financial crisis, Cypriots are just happy to have someone new coming in.  The current president did not bother to run for reelection.  He is hugely unpopular at this point.  Last Sunday was election day.  Since there is more than two dominant parties here (there were five candidates, three with a significant number of votes), there is a law that says a candidate must receive 50% plus one vote to be elected president.  Since that did not happen on Sunday, part two of the election will be held this weekend with the top two candidates being the only ones on the ballot.  They have a great voter turnout here, around 86%.
The weather here has continued to be very mild.  During the day the temperatures are in the 60's and it gets down into the 40's at night.  We arrived in Cyprus in the middle of last winter, and when we got here all the locals kept telling us what a harsh winter it was.  To us it didn't seem bad, but now I know what they meant.  Last year daytime temps were closer to 40-50 degrees and there was quite a bit of rain.  Still not that bad.  On most days I am fine with just a light jacket (and I am always cold) and when in the car we usually have the windows partially down.  All the plants are green right now and there are many flowers blooming.  Not too bad for February, but I still missed not being around for the big blizzard in Boston!

Alex with his buddy the ostrich

Shetland ponies

Teeny tiny baby goats

Sofia liked the deer

Sofia and her yiayia

She is very serious about her coloring

Alex and yiayia

My handsome boy

Searching for Snow

While our friends and family in the United States have been enduring some recent bitter cold temperatures, we decided to seek out cold and snow in Cyprus.  It really only snows in the mountains here, so we headed to Troodos.  On our way, we stopped for a chilly picnic lunch at a nice picnic site with a playground.  The kids had a good time running around and then we continued on up the mountain.  We found some patches of snow, but nothing too significant.  Alex and Sofia were still excited and attempted a snowball fight, snow angels, and a small snowman.  The fresh mountain air must have worn us out because everyone but Demetris, the driver, fell asleep on the way home.

Mommy and Sofia at the picnic site

Alex gives his approval to the playground

Snowball fight

A very tiny snowman