anyway, we hop in the car with a faint idea of where to go (the google directions were deemed easy enough to copy on my hand rather than take a picture of), and are off to make a quick stop in nicosia - i really can't remember what it was for, to be honest with you - and then to be on our way. after we stop, we're back on the road, and have decided to just follow road signs for troodos since we're not in the right starting point for the directions.
we get a ways down, and are off the motor way and onto smaller roads. we get to a spot with a pull-off from the road and a map of the roads through the mountains and stop for a look. ben & i are looking at the map, i can't really remember exactly the name of the area that the waterfalls are in, but i know it isn't kykkos (where there is a gorgeous monastery), and i'm pretty sure it starts with a p. pygros? pygros. we go with that, set a route starting with a right turn at the fork in the road, and are back on the way. all that i really know about where this waterfall is is the name of a hotel that it's very close to, "edelweiss," and the name of the street where we can find the hotel. talk about good planning....
we're off twisting and turning through the mountains, climbing crazy steep hills and traipsing through small towns and "built-up" areas of the mountains. each corner we turn unveils yet another stunning view of rolling hills, villages, churches, and skyline.
it's amazing what they've been able to build on these crazy steep hills! there are even pubs with their adverts painted onto the stone walls... wall that were built so you don't fall off the sides of the streets (in some places, they don't even have these!! eeeek!)
and if that wasn't good enough, they even have GAS STATIONS! on the side of the mountain! how the trucks get up there to refill the fuel is absolutely beyond me, as there were areas of the streets that our tiny itty bitty car could hardly even make it through. not to mention that people here still park like idiots on the sides of the streets like they do in all the other parts of the island, not caring about those who might need to get through... or sideswipe their car.
we continue on up the hills, and are reaching the highest point just before the sun begins to set. we literally took the road all the way to the very top of the highest hill of the troodos. at the top was an area fenced in by barbed wire that i imagine has some sort of military function.
we were under the impression that there was a some kind of vantage point at the top where you could have a look around your views, but there's not. what we had been seeing from the distance was not an observation tower, but rather a massive golf ball.
k, fine... i'm sure it has some real purpose, like holding water or something, but tell me it's not a giant golf ball, right?!?
we keep driving. the sun is beginning to go down & we've still not found my waterfall. we're starting to make a decent on the other side of the mountain range, and our views are spectacular.
we continue on and it isn't long before the sun starts to set. even the very beginning of the sunset is astonishingly gorgeous.
we finally find the edelweiss hotel, nestled into this tiny little village, and i'm really proud of us for figuring it out.
we go inside to the front desk to find out how we find the waterfalls, and the guy there tells us that it's about to be dark and the path is 2 kilometers long and is not lit. plus, we wouldn't be able to see the waterfall really even if we made it through the path. we figure he's probably right and decide to come back another day to see the waterfall. regardless of how excited i was to see it & the fact that it was really the reason we came on this expedition in the first place, we have really done a lot of sight seeing already and we're happy with our afternoon, so it's not too heartbreaking. later, when we got home, i looked up how much it would cost to spend the night in the quaint little edelweiss hotel.... 22 euros.
somewhere along the line, we passed road signs leading back to lefkosia (the ones we follow for home) and decide that it's probably the faster route back, rather than backtracking the winds and twists and turns that we took to get up there. just as we're back on our way, we pass a clearing in the trees where we can see the sunset clearly. i have never in my life seen a more gorgeous sunset than the one that night.
we follow the signs back down the mountain and to a two lane main road that will take us where we need to be. it's not long before i recognize where we are: we've come out back at that map where we stopped earlier.... but from the other side of the fork in the road. had we gone left, we would have been there in no time! no regrets, though, as the sights we saw that day were priceless. next time we're intent on seeing the caledonia falls, though, we know juuuust where to go!
famous last words, right?
xox k
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