1st Day in Pervolia

In the morning we have again the seminar, in a conference room, air-conditioned. No internet, so no emails / surveys. The students begin to present their abstracts.

After lunch I check out the Faros hotel computer: there is a proprietary software which handles all interaction. It starts programs, but does not let the user save anything. There is a USB port in the wall, but as I plug in my memory stick, nothing happens. So no picture upload. And no printing - that is disabled too.

But I find out something else: I ask at the hotel check-in desk, if one could rent bicycles. Yes, one can. And I immediately rent one, for the rest of the day. Finally I am mobile again, without the need to pay for taxi rides. The hotel clerk drives me on a golf cart to the shed where the bicycles are. A blue 21 speed mountain bike, not too bad. I start riding right away, heading towards south-west. Maybe I can make it to Limassol? In the beginning it goes very smooth, wind appears to be from the back. I stop in Kiti, go into the internet cafe with the one computer. Save the car rental voucher onto my memory stick. Now I only will have to find a printer, maybe at the hotel. Then I can get my car on Sunday.

I continue to cycle. A few blocks away is a nice old Orthodox Church. Tourists come out of it, I take a few pictures, then head on towards south-west.

Now there appears to be a strong head wind, I only can go with about 12 km/h. The street is quite boring, a wide open plain, a few house ruins at the sides, fields. In the far distant to the right the Troodos mountains, on the left is the sea. The afternoon sun burns down quite strongly. I had put some UV protection onto myself, factor 25; should be sufficient. As I get more tired, I decide to take a swim. The coast is empty. Is not pleasant to lie at this beach, no sand is here, just stones. But the water is very pleasant, despine being warm it actually cools a bit, compared to being exposed to the burning sun.



After about 30 minutes I continue further along the coast. Make a pit stop at a beach establishment, have a few ice cold drinks. I am now sure that I cannot make it until Limassos. I head further inland, pass through Mazotos and head towards Alaminos, but halfway I return. Is too exhausting now. I am looking forward to something nice to eat now. Pass by at another nice church, more contemporary. But it appears that the Orthodox Church does not make any experiments: even newly built churches have the Byzanthine style. A pity - there are many nice contemporary catholic churches which convey a lot of spirituality through the architectural language of our times... the "old stuff" appears a bit stagnant, stuffy.



Pass again through Kiti, through the town centre of Pervolia. I stop at a restaurant, have a beer, village salad, calamari, and tsatsiki. Price just 15 Euro, and tastes great!

As I approach the Journalist Village, I decide to head on towards Larnaca towards north-east, just to see what is there. Make it up to the airport, then I turn back. Around 19:30 I return the bicycle at the hotel. I am quite tired now.

Transfer to Pervolia

The night before, just after midnight, I had reserved a car for the last three days of this stay, using the internet from the room. I just had done a very quick search for "car rental cyprus", and had come across the Carhire3000 site. I reserved a car, 3 days, 67 Euro all inclusive. With a free upgrade to an airconditioned vehicle. The confirmation email stated that I would need to print the voucher and present it at the counter... well, is not so easy done without a printer. I replied, explaining that I could not do that. It appeared that their office was in Manchester; I wrote done the phone number, just in case I would have to call them.

The morning seminar went well. The idea of using Survey Monkey for setting up a review of submitted abstract worked reasonably well. We discussed some of the abstracts, then closed the session.

It was again hot, and also getting more humid. As I was very thirsty, I walked for the last time to the Convenience Store to buy a few drinks, for the road and for the evening. Not sure how the options would be in Pervolia.

The bus arrived shortly before 16:00 near our dormitory at the University of Cyprus Campus. I had packed my stuff, but somehow was not able to fit everything into suitcase, computer bag, and photo bag; so in addition to these I had 3 plastic bags, with some drinks and towels. When we entered the bus, the driver was afraid that we would not be able to store everything in the bus - there was no luggage compartment. But we just piled everything onto the back seat row, and off we drove.

At about 17:00 we arrive in the "Journalist Village" in Pervolia. I wanted internet access - something that the bungalows would not provide. So I stay in the bus, together with a few others, to drive on to the Faros Hotel nearby where a few rooms had been reserved.

Beach near the Journalist Village

However, for me there was no room reserved there - instead there was only a bungalow flat in the "Journalist Village". And since that had been reserved, there was no way of bailing out of it. I almost considered just swallowing the double booking, until I got details about the internet access in the hotel: there was a phone dialup only, and the cost would be quite significant. So I decided to go back to the bungalow afterall. There was a PC in the hotel, 2 Euro for 15 minutes. There are also a few internet cafes in the town centre, so I gave up the idea of having internet in the room and settled for a few days without the web.



Christian and myself decide to take a taxi to Pervolia Centre, a few km west, to find out about internet access and to get some cash. The taxi trip costs 17 Euro. There is a cash machine in Kiti. The taxi driver asks a few kids around where the next internet cafe is. They point to a bar one block down the road. There are two PCs, coin operated, one coin machine is broken, so only one can use the PC at a time. 11 minutes cost 50 cents, appears to be reasonable. I am able to read a few emails and reply to the most important ones.



Slighty problemating with updating this blog is that blogger always adapts itself to the native language. So this means that I have to guess where to enter my blog entry (the previous entry was done through this).

At 20:00 there is a joint dinner at the restaurant "Enalia". Rudi Kaufmann from University of Nicosia joins us. We have a nice chat about students, PhD pursuits, and worldwide relocation.