sunday the 6th is another day off, and we decide to hook up with kevin, eboni, & irie for a bit of an adventure. i had read about aphrodite's rock, and the pictures on google images looked absolutely breathtaking. i knew it was a longer drive than the majority of the trips we'd been taking, but i figured it'd be worth it if we got to spend the majority of the day down that way. i think it was about an hour and a half to aphrodite's rock, and another half to paphos from there. we get in touch with the crew in the morning, and decide we'll set off at 12:30.
we decide to take separate cars in case irie gets sleepy or something & they need to leave early, and we set off. about an hour into the trip or so, there's an exit for a scenic route i read about online, and we decide to head that way. granted this way was probably much lengthier, but it wound up being gorgeous. we pulled off the street a few times for photo opps, but mostly trekked our way through rolling hills, in and out of the view of the gorgeous mediterranean coast.
we've been traveling on this scenic road for quite awhile, and i start to get nervous that i've navigated wrong. normally, i wouldn't care, but i feel like with the others in their separate car behind us, i really want to get it right. just as i start to get really anxious about it, we pull into another lay-by to check out the view, and we realize we've found it!!
i had never heard the story of aphrodite until i became interested in checking out this part of the beautiful cyprus coast, so for those of you who, like me, haven't heard it, here's the short version.
greek mythology has it that aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. apparently, she was born at this very place when she emerged from the sea foam a fully grown woman and was escorted to shore on a shell. the story says that if you swim, nude, around her rock (the middle of the three in the photo above), you will remain young & fertile for eternity.
we hung out at this vantage point for a bit, enjoying the scenery before deciding to head down the hill to check it out.
everything about this place was just gorgeous! i loved the way the sun shone above the rock as we came down the hill to the beach.
from up above, i was almost disappointed in the prominence of the rocks... i had anticipated them being huge and really pronounced along the shore, and they were beautiful, but they weren't. when we got closer, i finally got my "wow" moment. look how small those two people walking in front of the rock look! every bone in my body wanted to climb it, but the sign on the side that said not to wound up getting the best of me.
the view of the beach with the rocks behind us, looking towards paphos. the beach was amazing, filled with beautiful beach stones that ben decided to collect. he filled his pockets with huge rocks to the point where i thought his shorts were going to fall down. i still have no idea how they stayed up... there were seriously a lot of rocks in there ...rocks that are now sitting on our bedroom floor collecting dust. personally, i chose a few smaller rocks with the idea that maybe they'd make nice pendants (which they are proving to do quite well), and i found a piece of sea glass! it's the first and only piece i've found since being in cyprus. again, what a lovely pendant it has made.
eventually, irie has had enough of throwing the rocks into the water (i'm pretty sure this was one of my favorite things to do when i was little, too) ... actually, it is still one of ben's favorites, which is probably another reason why he & irie get along so well! we decide to head out and make the remaining half our trip to paphos to see what that's all about.
we get there just in time for the sun to begin to set, and it's absolutely beautiful. this coastal area of paphos is soo picturesque.. i'm really not sure why i decided to not take out my camera as we were driving through, (since i'm a firm believer that one can never have too many photos), but for some reason i didn't. these were taken along the sea-walk, as we were heading to find a place to eat.
we stumble across a cute restaurant with a large open-air area (where i took the picture above from, actually), and decide to eat there. the menu looks amazing, and believe me, it was. all of the food i've had since i've been here has been outstanding. i'm beginning to feel extremely lucky that there isn't a scale in our apartment!!
another beautiful day with great company... what more can a girl ask for?
xox k
