After another wonderful breakfast with lots of halloumi, olives, and fresh orange juice, we walked to the Cyprus Museum on Museum St. The museum is very unassuming from the outside and the surprising lack of security is deceptive – the collection is truly world-class and in any other city it would be much more formal and full of shatterproof glass and alarms. The museum houses a very impressive collection of antiquities found in Cyprus spanning the Neolithic period to the Roman era. It is all set up in chronological order and it is very interesting to see how tools, weapons, and art evolved over time. One of the most amazing exhibits is the hall of Classical and Hellenistic statues which, among many other statues, also includes a large marble statue of Zeus. None of the statues and busts are behind ropes or glass and you are able to come right up to them and touch them (although, you might get in trouble for touching them, I am not sure). I also found the collection of ancient coins quite interesting. I would have liked to spend more time at the Cyprus Museum, but Rosemary got bored after a while and started fussing so we had to move on.
The next stop was on Ledra St. At Heraclis for more ice cream. Once again, Rosemary was thrilled with the chocolate.
In the afternoon we headed to Larnaca for seafood meze. Larnaca is a seaside city about an hour's drive from Nicosia. The main airport is there as well as a large commercial shipping port. Larnaca has a beatiful palm-tree lined seaside promenade and there are many vendors, entertainers, restaurants, luna parks (the Cypriot term for amusement park), and an outdoor stage. There is also a medieval castle and mosque at one end of the promenade. It was a bit like La Paz, Mexico (minus the castle and mosque, of course).
For meze, we went to a seafood tavern near the marina. Once again, it was plate after plate of food. There was octopus, calamari, deep-fried whole fish (several different kinds), fish kebabs, deep-fried whole crabs, mussels, and lots of non-fish items like pita, tzatziki, homous, olives, chips, etc. Of course, I had some of the local Keo beer too!
After we ate, we went for a walk along the marina and promenade. Rosemary got very excited when she saw a merry-go-round and I had to take her on it.
On the way back to Nicosia, the police had closed parts the highway in an attempt to control the amount of traffic on it. It didn't make too much sense because all they succeeded in doing was to clear the highway and bring the other roads to a crawl. It took us several hours to get back.
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