Author archive
24 July 2023
Above: Abandoned hotels run for kilometres along the waterfront where we swam. Moving to Gazimagusa We wanted to leave our Dipkarpaz accommodation late morning so that we’d get to Gazimagusa and not have to wait to enter our next accommodation. However, a power outage at breakfast meant that we’d be without any fan or air-con […]
23 July 2023
Kantara Castle Today we move on to Dipkarpaz Peninsula, which is the north-east tip of the island. Google Maps suggests that it would be a 30 min side-trip to add-on the Kantara Castle but we already knew that they’re too optimistic with travel times on the windy mountain roads. We had taken things easy this […]
22 July 2023
St Hilarion Castle We have two sights planned for today. I thought we’d do one as early as possible and the other at the end of the day. That way, we would avoid the worst of the day’s 36 degC heat. After an awesome breakfast on the rooftop, we headed out about 0845 on the […]
21 July 2023
Getting from Larnaca to Girne Today we move to Northern Cyprus or the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, depending on your point of view, for a five-night stay. We had a choice of the 0845 or 0915 bus to Nicosia, in order to make it across the “border” to collect our rental car at 1100 on […]
21 July 2023
Trooditissa Monastery Today was available for some exploration beyond Larnaca to places that we aren’t going to later on in the trip. I had hoped to get a rental car with the backup plan being going to Limassol by bus. We managed to get a car reasonably cheaply at EUR40 for the day. We had […]
20 July 2023
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 […]
18 July 2023
Above: The grounds of the Naval Museum. Killing time Just like in Istanbul last week, we have a long day to kill before an evening flight. We fly from Varna to Larnaca at 2025. The difference is that Istanbul is a big city with limited exploration whereas we didn’t want to get wet and salty […]
17 July 2023
It appears we’re finally in holiday mode, after three weeks into the trip. We slept till 0840 and didn’t leave the apartment till way after 1100. First up, it was the ruins of the Roman baths. We didn’t pay to enter but just looked at them from outside the fence. Next we visited the St […]
16 July 2023
We had a slow morning, leaving the apartment around 1100. Our visit to the Naval Museum nearby didn’t work out as it was closed today and tomorrow, so we’ll have to go on the morning of our departure from Varna. We took an early lunch of various pre-cooked meals before walking to the Dormition of […]
15 July 2023
Today we move from Romania’s Black Sea Riviera down to Bulgaria’s. Specifically, Varna. I had prebooked Mercado Sud’s service online for their only service today at 1000. I ordered a cheap ride on Bolt rideshare around 0900 and got to the bus station where we had a short wait before boarding the van around 0930. […]