Exhausted, I did not go out last night with my roommates and other GLS students. I stayed in the apartments with a few others who were jet-lagged as well. We just talked the night away until I went back to my apartment to unpack and go to sleep.
It took me about five minutes to get into my apartment though (which is better than the first time when I actually had to ask for help!). Now I understand how to open the door!
Anyway, today is the second day here in Cyprus.
This morning we went for a tour of downtown Nicosia and to a Nicosia museum. In the museum, we were not allowed to take photographs but I’m going to explain some interesting facts that I learned.
- Back in the day, copper was more valuable than gold because copper had more use for making tools, etc, than gold. Gold was only good for making jewelery, which was not a necessity.
- Many monuments were excavated in Cyprus. The ones that stood out the most to me were the lions and the sphinx found in Cyprus. There are two large lions which represent the tomb of the King. The two sphynx represent the tomb of the Queen. The smaller lions represent the tomb of the prince.
I am going to try to put the correct facts with the pictures from our tour, but I may make a few mistakes. There was so much to take in all at once!
This is the museum we went to in downtown Cyprus. It is the oldest museum in Cyprus, and I must admit, it was absolutely beautiful. The museum was erected in memory of Queen Victoria. We could not take pictures inside.
This is the front of a theatre in downtown Cyprus. It is no longer used because the roof collapsed.
A tree covered in yellow ribbons for those at war.
This is a Greek-Orthodox church, one of the oldest in Cyprus. Many of the churches and other buildings will have crests on them in the walls. This is because Cyprus reuses its building materials. When many buildings were torn down during rebellions and other reasons, the old building materials would be reused to make others, such as this church. See, even people back in the day recycled!
The “1894” above the door represents when the building was built. This is seen on many of the buildings in Cyprus.
This is the backside of one of the mosques in Cyprus. There is now only one active mosque in Cyprus.
Fruits and vegetable market in downtown Cyprus. Venders sell their fruits/vegetables on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Towards the end of the day, the venders do not want to bring their produce home with them, so they lower their prices. I guess sometimes it’s gets pretty nasty if two venders are selling the same produce. One vender will say 5 euros, and then the other will say, only 3,50 euros, and the two venders will compete back and forth for the lower price so that people will buy theirs.
This is an excavation site that was going to be turned into a parking plaza. When they started digging, they uncovered medieval Cyprus, so the original building plans were put on hold.
The glass atop this dome is to let the sun in. It is a traditional bath. Three days of the week is open for women, three for men, and then every Monday for tours.
This, as said above, is a museum, although it was not always. The man above used to own the house and charged too much for taxes. The people of the streets rioted, and he and his family escaped to Constantinople via an underground tunnel in his house. He was eventually found, arrested, and later killed. The people never found his “treasure” (the excess of money he took from the people) because his family knew where it was and eventually went back and got it. The family then used the money to buy back the house from the government, etc etc, and now it is a museum, with a beautiful open coutyard and archways.
The Pope is visiting! We didn’t actually see him, but we did see the archbishop in his car. This is his place, it looks like royalty. The bishop also has a special place to sit in some of the churches, a throne basically.
This is the Pagkyprion Gymnasium, a high school founded in 1812 originally for boys. Our tour guide, who is female, attended this high school to study. It’s interesting because it is called a gymnasium, but there is no physical exercise. To the Greek, a gymnasium is a place where you exercise your mind. To exercise your body, you would go to a completely different called building, which I do not remember the name. So next time you go to the gym, think about what it was used for in the old days.
The entrance to the oldest Greek-Orthodox Church in Cyprus. Inside it is elaborately adorned, but no pictures were allowed. You could light a candle for someone during the day for 3 euros.
In addition, Greek-Orthodox church services range around 3 hours long. What is interesting is that the seats lift up (like in a theatre) and the arm rests are very high (about eye-level when sitting). This is because most of the service the people will be standing, and this way they can rest their arms.
That’s the end of the tour! Of course, there was much more that I didn’t write down – so much information to take in!
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