The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

As far as food choices are concerned, I can be described as “the opposite of a gourmet” (If such a word exsist). I am very picky about the food i eat and 99.99% of the time, i would pick vegetarian Indian food over any other and within this classification of vegetarian Indian food itself, I am very selective. So, this makes me a very bad company to anyone wanting to eat out. Vidhya has managed to put up with me somehow in this area.

So, for a person with such tastes, I surprised myself when i started liking the traditional cypriot meze in one of the restaurants in Lofou village. I was introduced to it by our gang after lot of convincing that i can manage with the french fries there. It turned out that i ate lot more than just the fries.

Lofou village is a short drive away from Limassol. You have to go on the troodos road and once you cross the Alassa park you will see an exit to lofou. From that exit, it is another 10 km drive. This part of the drive is on high plateaus and the views there are worth the drive. Lofou was once abandones, but now it contains a restaurant and few other agro-touristic homes. The village is small and it characterised by typical cypriot village architecture. A walk around the village will help in digesting the huge amount of food which you will eat in the meze

Once you near the village, there are clear signs pointing you to the “traditional cyprus tavern”. There is as such no entrance to the village. Once you take a left turn from the main road, you will see a small right which goes into the village. Here you can park the anywhere or there is a big parking place a little ahead on the right just opposite a schaool playground.

I love the setting of the entire eating area. We usually sit outside which is covered by tarpaulin and surrounded by plants. This place is always cool even in summer. Once it started drizzling and we moved to the centre table (outside) and the ambience was amazing, with rain falling all round us and us gorging on wonderful food!

We usually order the vegetarian meze for all of us. The meat eaters just order an extra non-veg dish. I never knew that you could so many vegetarian dishes in a restaurant in Cyprus. I wanted to count and photograph each of the items when i last visited, but i got so engrossed in eating that i forgot to do that. The list of items served to include (but not limited to) pita with cheese, haloumi cheese, fries, good salads, aubergine, mushrooms, okra (lady’s finger) ,pourgouri, tahini, humus and many others totalling around 28 in number. Our gang goes to many restarants, but we never experience the “fullness” at any other restaurant. On an average, we spend 3-4 hrs whenever we come here. it seems that the desserts are the best of them all (i don’t eat any of these). Lassanaki (dunno how to spell it) is the best.

Of course, you can drown all the food you eat in local wine!

If you want to eat traditional cypriot food in a traditional environment, then this place is a must-visit!

written by Rajaram S

No, this is not the Kalidonia Waterfall in Cyprus, but the Narada Falls in Mount Rainier National Park near Seattle in USA. Yeah, I am in the US of A now and ensuring that i don’t waste any weekends. It’s been 10 days here already and i am amazed by the natural beauty of Washington State. Posts and photos about Seattle would be a misfit on this blog, so i created a new website about the places I am visiting in Seattle. So, go checkout Sights in Seattle.

written by Rajaram S \\ tags: Seattle, USA

Cyprus is not known for extreme weather. During the winter season, we do get the occassional thunderstorm which have even lead to minor flooding in Larnaca and Nicosia. Though rare, these thunderstorms do put on a spectacular show with ample thunder and lightning to please the weather watchers and to scare the ones who have been brought up with a fear of the same. Yesterday night, the show was grand, with huge lightning strikes lasting for more than an hour. So, there was enough time for me to setup the camera and the tripod and take some lightning strike shots! If you want to know how to take photographs of lightning strikes, check out this post on my other blog.

Few years ago (in 2003), there was this big cloud buildup in Limassol. It looked like a big black flying saucer as the cloud had clear edges. it seems that such clouds give rise to Tornados and indeed, we had the best ever tornado strike (is this also called a strike) in recent history.

Almost all the tornados started off from the sea and moved inland. The one which moved over Omonia Avenue caused a lot of damage. It was so powerful that it even bent steel posts. Some shops, like the Karmi Fruit Market on the beach road were badly damaged. One passed just next to our building and it carried a garbage bin and crashed the bin onto the security cabin of our office. Vidhya was in our house at that time and i immediately called her and asked her to start taking photographs. She went out on the balcony and starting taking photos. As she was taking photos, she suddenly realised that it was getting very windy. Then she realised that a tornado from the right, which she didnt notice as she was taking photos towards the left was right on top of our house! She ran back inside the house Below are some of the photos taken with the Nikon coolpix 2500 , the one i had before i got the D70 SLR.

written by Rajaram S

Let me know your comments through the Poll below…If you are reading this through a feed, you may not be able to see the poll below. So, please visit the site and let me know your opinion.

if you want to see the design of the old page, you can see it here.

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

I have never heard of this circus before, but all the posters claim it to be “world-famous”. So, if it is indeed world-famous, then the Medrano Circus should not be missed.

Duration: 9 – 20 October, 2008

Times:
Monday to Saturday 18:00 and 20:30 (2 showings)
Sunday 11:00, 16:00, and 1900 (3 Showings)

Event Location : Next to Tsirio football Stadium

Price / Range: Tickets can be purchased at the circus entrance directly.

Category VIP Adults €25 Kids €15
Category A’ Adults €20 Kids €12
Category B’ Adults €17 kids €10

Enjoy!

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the euro, the European Commission launches a Eurocompetition, an online poster competition among Europe’s youth! The Eurocompetition invites pupils from the euro area and Slovakia to express their views and thoughts on the “10 years of the euro” in a creative way in the form of a poster.

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S