The Price of Cypriot Hospitality

The Cypriots are a very warm and welcoming people.  It's wonderful, but these relationships come with customary responsibilities . . . it's considered an obligation to sit. . . and eat. . . or drink when the offer is made—and we want to fit in as real Cypriots.

Our sweet little Opel Vita can navigate even the tiny Patroklos Street

It typically takes us up to an hour to get from our Opel to the front door.  Once we introduce ourselves, our neighbors are so friendly that from then on, we have to stop and sit for coffee, for wine, for some local fruit or homemade sweet (that we can sometimes identify!) or for Zivania (...the local version of Grappa).  Also, our neighborhood is very much like a small village— the locals want to check out the new couple and share gossip.  Our Greek is improving slowly (siga), but our conversations thus far are mostly limited to talking about food or how much we are enjoying Cyprus—although we mostly talk about food in English, too.

A woodworker named Savis is across the street in his shop (I have spent a little time helping him to put together some lattices).  The neighbor directly next to us is Gregory (Lori for short).  Lori's wife and children are in Greece for the summer, but his sweet old dog, Doxa, welcomes us home every day with big tail wags and adorable noises.

Savis and Lori, along with Nikolas, and a small group of men are fixtures at the corner "coffee shop" from six or seven until late into the evening.  The ladies around the corner, Andrulla and Elena in one direction, and Despo and Eva in the other direction, are on their stoops for most of this time as well, although they tend to turn in earlier.

When we last sat with Andrulla and Elena, they gave us this bottle of fresh lemonade concentrate, and some peach marmalade, both made from fruit grown at their family home in the mountains.

Fikardou

One quick note: For those of you receiving these posts in your email, we noticed that videos don't seem to come through that way.  There's a short clip at the end of this post, as well as our last post with our garden mantis.  You can click through to see the post on our blog to watch the videos.

Friday was an important holiday in Cyprus in honor of the name "Maria."  We celebrated with a visit to small mountain village called Fikardou with our new/old friend, Kate (who went to high school with the Reverend/Rabbi Rosie), and our new friend, Anna.

Kate did the driving.  She has a bit of Parnelli in her . . . the tiny mountain roads combined with temperatures in the high 90s, and us getting used to driving on the left, had us a bit tense by the time we arrived.  But Fikardou is a charming, old place, and we quickly relaxed and felt at ease—you know siga, siga.  The current population stands at 17 permanent residents, all of whom seem kind and warm.  In the end of September, they have a festival where they turn the town back into a "working" village and serve traditional food and drink—cheeses, wines, olives, and the like.  We found this out from another new friend over a very pink beverage made from milk and rosewater.  Delicious, but next time, we'll try it with soda water as well.

We had lunch in a very traditional place—the only restaurant in the actual village.  Because of the holiday, it was fully booked.  We were lucky to get a table.  So far, the Cypriot diet seems very meat-heavy, and our lunch was a strong illustration.  We ordered the lamb, and when it arrived, it looked like they had put the whole beast on the table for the four of us, along with oven roasted potatoes, a traditional Greek salad, and bread (the bread most often served is a dense, crusty white bread that seems unsalted).  The meats are baked in huge clay ovens that they seal with new clay as the meat is roasted.  Again, delicious.

the tiny church with 19th century paintings, Venetian glass + separate spaces for the men and the women w/children

We stopped for Cypriot coffees and "Frappes" at a place halfway down the mountain.  We think that Frappe is basically Nescafe mixed with frothed milk, but over ice, it hit the spot.  We also enjoyed some sort of candied walnuts drizzled with honey.  These seem to be a typical Cypriot dessert as well.





Here is a short video clip we shot outside the home of one local resident.  You can see the grapes hanging down from the arbor above, and the sign says that you can buy free-range chickens and eggs.  Listen closely and you can hear some beautiful Greek music playing from inside.  Nice to get out of the city for the day!

Cyprus Mantis

Check out this cool mantis hunting in our garden.  Totally Kung Fu.

...and apparently, Brian is your go to guy if you need a mantis prediction service.  He called it before we even got here.

to market, to market . . .

There is a farmers' market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, right in the Old City, about a 15-20 minute walk from our home, and we made our first venture there this morning..  Wonderfully cheap, beautiful produce, honey, lentils and grains, pickles, potted plants, olives, nuts, and bread.  Some vendors compete for your business, but most are laid back.  All are friendly.

Our walk was along the edge of 14th-Century Venetian walls, past the Famagusta Gate (we'll get you some pictures soon).  We got bread (€2 per loaf) from the woman in the picture (above, bottom left).  After our purchase, she gave us some small, dense, bagel-shaped, multi-grain snacks to munch. Delicious.

We also bought peaches, figs, apricots, and some kind of mega-citrus thing shaped like a pear, which we are hoping is pomelo-like.  

Stay tuned for a taste report.

We walked home through some of the smaller streets.  There is a really unusual mix of renovations and decay here, and there are many low-key coffee establishments like the one above.

It is a bit warm here (39°C at 9 AM today).  We're going to be inside our air-conditioning a lot until our bodies adjust or the season changes. 

Talk to you soon.  We're having dinner tonight with a friend who is taking us for Lebanese food.  More home and food pictures to come.  

Much love,
Kristi and Nat

Siga Siga

Siga Siga (Σιγά σιγά) means "slowly slowly" in Greek.  The Cypriots use this saying as a reminder to take life slowly, and enjoy things.  This sounds like a good plan for us!

So far, we LOVE Cyprus.  The Cypriots are consistently warm and easygoing people.  Even our neighbors who appeared dour at first lit up when we took the time to say hello (yassas) to them, and everyone has been warm and kind.  Although they are generous about letting us practice our Greek, many people have good English.  But we have already had several occasions where we have needed to communicate in Greek, and here's a warning: it's like those Cypriots have a different word for everything!

We plan to post pictures and stories here to share with friends, so check back often, or use the "follow by email" button on the top right of the page to receive updates in your inbox as we write posts.  Please do let us know how it looks from your end, or if there are any technical issues - and do comment freely, and ask questions.  Stay tuned for food, home, culture, and school updates to come.  We love you and miss you madly!

-Nat and Kristi