Never too old for a Carnival!

So Cyprus has been great! Two weekends ago we went to the city of Limassol for Carnival. (pictures below) Our program took us and we stayed in a pretty nice hotel. It's the off season here, so hotels are a really good deal. We got two days to walk around and see the town, and then went to the parade. It was so cool--people really go all out as you will see in the pictures.
This last weekend we went to Agia Napa, which we had walked through a few weeks ago, but this weekend was gorgeous and we went to the beach both days and went swimming. The water is so clear. The town is still a ghost town for the most part, except for all of the old people that vacation there from the UK. We were the youngest in that town by at least 40-50 years. It was pretty funny.


Liz and I.

Toga day!

The view from our room at our hotel in Limassol.
The Carnival Parade! So many people--probably most of the island.






The kids that were dressed up were so cute. This guy farted out steam--haha!
We danced with some of the dancers.
Group shot inside an old castle.

Some of our group at a really old amphitheater where they still do shows today. The view of the water was amazing from there as well.

The goddess Aphrodite's Birthplace. It is the middle rock of the 3 that are in a row.Group shot. That's not all of us though.


City of Paphos --on the western side of the island. I got this care package in the mail from my parents--I won't have to go to the grocery store for a least a month! :-)
Agia Napa. Nissi Beach.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Jumping at the beach!

We got up at 5 am, the morning of the lunar eclipse, and watched it from our roof. I was really surprised that we all got out of bed because before we got up all of us were yelling at each other from our beds saying, "there is no way we are getting up!" But we did, and it was cool.

Flintstones, have a yabadaba doo time! This was in Agia Napa, the biggest tourist city in Cyprus. It is a ghost town right now because everything starts to open up at the end of April, but we walked through the town had dinner at one restaurant that was open right on the water. Every place is themed, so when you are walking around, it kind of reminds you of Disney Land or Universal Studios. Can't wait for it to open!
In the town of Protaras, we took a lot of pictures!! But you can sure get a good idea of how beautiful it is!


When we (Liz, Madge and I) went to Protaras we stayed at our friend David's (seen above, and the only boy in our pictures) beach house. (his parent's house of course) He is from Austria and went back there this week for school. His parents live here, and we got to meet them and his dogs. He lived in the same apartment complex as one of the ladies that works for our program, so she introduced us to him. A group of us might go to Vienna, Austria for part of our spring break now!
This is the beach house--really cute!

A view of the town of Protaras.
This tree, as you can see, has a lot of things tied to it. People put up things on it when their loved ones die. It was really cool to look at. It is located right next to a little church.

Jumping on the beach!

Totally went swimming and the water was not bad. Probably what the Pacific would be in the summer. But this water gets to be bath water by summer time!

I started using the black and white setting on my camera, which I forgot I had.
Here we were on the south eastern most tip of the island. We could see water on both sides of us. We stayed and watched the sun go down. It was gorgeous.

We started taking pictures while we were jumping, because they look so cool! Especially with this background.

Timer shot.

Another timer shot.

David had a guitar, so we played songs while watching the sunset. What a photo shoot!

The colors.

Living on island time, or should I say, what time?

So I am a few weeks into classes now. Basically have been here a month--nuts!! It is going by really fast. The weather is getting warmer, and it is especially looking nicer in the 10 day forecast! However, it did snow here two nights ago for like 15 minutes and the locals were going crazy because I guess it hasn't snowed here in like 50 years! whoa! But today it was back to being nice and a few of us tanned on the roof. Everything is so laid back here. People really are on island time. Like you think Europe is laid back, Cyprus is way more! (say the other international students from Euro countries) I guess you are supposed to show up 45 minutes later than you are told when making plans with someone! haha. And in our 3 hour classes people will walk in 25 minutes late and the teacher just smiles! Don't worry though, I have still been on time....at least for now!!
Any ways, here are some more pictures!


Us at the 24 hour bakery--Zorbas. The bakeries are the only places that are open 24 hours and Sundays here! Thank God!
View from our apt. top. The mountains in the back are on the Turkish side. If you look closely you can see their white flag that is on the mountains--it flashes at night.
A view of the University of Nicosia from the rooftop of our apt. (It's the big white buildings in the back) Long walk, huh?
Above:Outside of Bennigans, like an Irish form of Red Robin. HA!
And below: is us at a food festival called Gastronomia. We got so much free food, it was ridiculous! We ended up staying there for 4 hours and wandering around to all of our favorite places--shoving our faces! We got a free ticket into this place from a chef that teaches at our school. He gave us recipes and cooked for us during orientation. I kind of cook Greek food now.
Me enjoying the free food!
A really cool shot of me in mid air. We were being creative picture takers while waiting for a taxi to take us to dinner!
Miss Everyone!