a day in the life

the next day, we don't have much time between practices, so we figure we'll play it low key & enjoy the local area. 

when ben gets back from his morning practice, we head over to old nicosia to show charlie the adorable old town that used to be all there was to nicosia back in the day!  we walk around for awhile, check out most of what there is to see, show her the ledra street border crossing where you can enter the turkish-occupied side of cyprus (we don't cross because we don't have our passports on us), and then it's pretty much time to head back so ben can eat and get ready for practice.

charlie and i had arranged with stasa to meet at the gym when the boys go for practice so we could head for coffee, which was pretty much the standard procedure for stasa and i most days.  we get to the gym, say goodbye to benjamin and hop in with stasa to head off for coffee.

when we were at the butcher's grill the other day, we noticed a sign on the table that said they do a buffet on monday nights that is all you can eat, and all you can drink wine and beer.  we had gone for their lunch buffet before, and it was really extensive and yummy, so we decided it was pretty much heaven on earth and that we couldn't miss out on it.  we mention it to stasa and cico, and they said they might meet us there, but that they weren't sure.

we head over to the restaurant and get seats.  not sure whether we were expecting company or not, we just figured we'd start to eat.  a bit later, they came!  we spent the night eating and drinking and laughing, and when we couldn't possibly stuff another bite into our tummies, we left for home.

it was a really nice day, as uneventful as it was, because it was pretty typical of what we're up to on any given day, and charlie got a chance to see how we really spend a lot of our time.

xox k

day in larnaca & CHARLIE!

on saturday, feb 4th, charlie was coming!!!  we had spoken with stasa & cico and decided that we would all spend the day in larnaca, since we were picking up charlie around 7:30 or so.  cico told us about a salt pond down there where we could see flamingos, and i told him that i didn't have too much faith in this idea of his.  we planned to meet at second cup, the coffee shop, and follow them down with nikola too, and that was exactly what we did.

when we got there, the flamingos were pretty far away, but they were definitely there.. i apologized to cico, who was like, "come on kim, would i let you down?"  eh.... here's the picture of the flamingos.. you decide for yourself ;)

feeling a little let down, stasa and i decided to be our own flamingos.  it seemed like a good idea at the time..

from there, we headed to the mosque across the street to have a look around.

according to the sign at the entrance, "the building of the mosque in its present form is dated around the 18th century.  it is built over a tomb which according to tradition belongs to umm haram, foster mother of the prophet mohammed.  it is the main muslim pilgrimage site of cyprus and among the most important holy places of islam."  not too shabby, eh?

from there, we headed over to a semi-main area of larnaca, where there was a beautiful beach with a restaurant on the sand, etc.  we stayed for a few minutes, and then moved on to what i guess is the larnaca main street.

after having coffee and lunch with some of cico and stasa's friends from serbia, we spent the afternoon wandering around the streets and exploring the larnaca marina.

we walked by a children's park with a mini roller coaster, merry-go-round, etc, and being the 5-year-old that i am, i thought it would be fun to hand out in fred flinstones' car.

the best part of all of this is that as if it wasn't enough of an amazing, day, we still had yet to pick up charlie!  somewhere around 6:30, cico, stasa, and nik figured they would head back up to nicosia, so ben & i hopped in the car to head to the airport.


because we were a little bit early, we grabbed a coffee from one of the little shops in the waiting area, and decided to play hangman while we waited.  that's one of my favorite things about ben.. whenever we don't have something "real" to occupy our time, we so easily revert back to our child-like tendencies and find something to amuse ourselves with :)


before we knew it, charlie's flight was on listed on the board as having landed!  in true childhood form, i was jumping up and down with excitement, eagerly awaiting the minute when she would walk through the doors.  fiiiinally, she did, and we decided to sit for a coffee before getting back into the car to head back north.

somewhere along the journey, the subject of food came up (are you really surprised?).  ben & i had decided to hold off on groceries until she had gotten here so that we could all go together and plan out what we'd eat for the week,  so we figured that rather than trying to cook up something with the scarce supplies that could be found at the house, we should head to butcher's grille for a nice dinner out.

by the time we got home, everyone was pretty exhausted from a busy day: charlie with her travels, and ben & i with our excursion through larnaca.  we got home, and hit the beds... hard.

nothing like a week full of excitement to look forward to in the morning!

xox k