Chores then chilling

Attending to essential chores

I continued to lie in bed till nearly 0800 despite my 0700 alarm.  Wary of the nearly 40 degC heat that’s expected today, I quickly motivated myself to get up and go while Kim continued to sleep.

First priority was to get some EUR.  The city is dotted with many third party ATMs that charge high fees and trick you into their bad exchange rate with confusing wordings or menu structure.

Fortunately, I remembered the bank ATM that I had used before.  With that out of the way, I scouted out the three laundries closest to the hotel.  The first one wasn’t self-service and the second looked good enough.  The third, “Laundry Station”, was newer, had detergent handy and cheaper dryer rates.

I was already hot and sweaty by then.  Larnaca appears to rise late as a few supermarkets and convenience stores weren’t yet open.  I bought some milk a the first one and was charged EUR3 for a litre.  The going price as I realised later was more than EUR1 at a supermarket and more than EUR2 at a kiosk.

Back in the room, Kim had run into some bother with the builders that he had used.  We spent some time sorting that out and it was 1000 by the time we went out to the laundry in earnest to start our wash.

With the wash in progress, I went in search of a better supermarket while Kim went back to the hotel.  I returned to drop off the groceries and much-needed fruit before going back to the laundry to start the dryer.

It was now Kim’s turn to go to the laundry to monitor the drying and return with the finished goods.  It was around midday before the pleasurable part of our stay could begin.

Taking it easy

Unfortunately, Kim’s problems with the builder had ruined his temperament and our outing and a simple sandwich wasn’t pleasurable.  We returned to the room to sit out the hottest part of the day.

Around 1530 we dodged the sun, keeping in the shadow of tall buildings to get to the Church of St Lazarus for a brief visit at no charge.  We were given wraps to go around our legs as we were in shorts.

There were many beautiful frescoes and icons.  The faithful come and kiss the icons of saints that are on the altar screens.  We also took a quick visit downstairs into the Crypt of St Lazarus.

From there, we called by Larnaca’s Medieval Fort and peered in through the gate without paying the entry fee.  We parked ourselves near the fort’s wall and waded into the water.

It was a long wade through thigh-high then knee-high water to get to waist high.  From there, I swam to about the neck-high area where the water was still crystal clear.  The greyish sand and shallow depth meant that it didn’t look picture perfect, but the water was very clear.  I don’t recall the water being so nice last visit.

Sea temperature at this time of year is perfect.  Walk straight in without flinching.

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We took dinner at a restaurant called Alexander on the waterfront.  Prices were lower than many other places and it was quite busy.  The stifado was delicious and we treated ourselves to their reasonably-priced cocktails.  We loved the freebies such as popcorn with the drinks, and free “afters” like liqueur, coffee or icecream.

As we walked on the waterfront around 2000, people were still swimming in the water. Back in the room with dinner sitting heavily in our tummies, we popped out for a walk around 2100 before retiring.