shopping and a road trip

a few days later, the boys had a game in larnaca against a team called aek ("ike").  stasa and i decided that we wanted to make the trip down to watch the game, but that before we went, we wanted to go downtown and do a little bit of shopping.


ben and i had to go to the bank, so stasa and i arranged to meet at noon at the starbucks downtown and then head from there.  ben dropped me off, and stasa was already waiting, ready to go.  we spent a couple hours wandering around the shops and ended up with a couple of cute finds each.  when it was about time for the guys to go to the gym for the bus, we grabbed a taxi to head back to stasa and cico's apartment, and then went to the gym with cico.


finally, the guys were boarded on the bus, we had the car turned around and ready to follow them, and we were ready to go!  the trip down was interesting, following behind a massive red bus that was weaving in and out of traffic and around the roundabouts like a crazy person, but we made it down there safe and sound.


stasa parked the car, and we were off to find our way into the gym (which is way bigger and much nicer than ours, by the way).  we get in and find seats, and are ready to go.  the boys start warming up, and a police officer comes over the the two of us.  he asked if we were here supporting apoel, which obviously we were, and told us that it would be safer for us to move to the other side of the gym.  i couldn't help but think that this was going to be an interesting night...


anyway, he walks us down a set of stairs, through a few back hallways, and stasa and i are kind of looking at each other like, umm is this the part where he kills us?  we go through a set of double doors, and we are on the court!  he leads us across the court - literally - and then through more doors, up more stairs, and into the seating area opposite where we were before.  we were two of like ten people sitting on that side, and there were gates separating us from the other side.  fans must be pretty crazy, eh?


now can i just say, this gym, nice as it may be, is absoluuuutely freezing.  freezing!  we were sitting for a few minutes before we realized it, but then our fingers and toes started to go numb.  because it was a nice day out, i was dressed completely inappropriately for the temperature, in a mid-thigh dress and a cardigan, and i pretty much wanted to kill myself.  at halftime, we went outside so stasa could have a cigarette, and it was literally warmer out there than it was in the gym.  i wish i was kidding.  we would up going to the car to get her huge winter coat to use as a blanket, and for the second half of the game, we did just that.


the end of the game was a nail biter.  we had a pretty big lead throughout most of the first half, but apoel has been pretty notorious for messing it up towards the end of the game.  low and behold, they did it again.  the last minute or so was back and forth points where apoel and aek shifted a point here and there for who was in the lead.  stasa and i were going absolutely mental watching and trying to figure out what the outcome was going to be.  


luckily, we won!


we headed back to nicosia, again following the bus, and the committee ended up giving everyone money to go enjoy a meal or drinks or something to celebrate.  we headed to bennigans, a nice irish restaurant kind of like an applebee's type place, and spent a few hours relaxing and enjoying the night!


i'm really starting to get used to this lifestyle!  a girl definitely can't complain.... ;)


xox k

girls day out

monday, eboni & i decided it was time for a little shopping extravaganza.  she & irie picked me up around 5 and we headed to strovolos to the mall of cyprus to have a look around for some more wintery type clothes.  both of us did really sucky jobs packing and weren't very prepared for the fact that there is, actually, a winter season here (barely).  basically, what it means is that during the nights, it gets chilly, and during the day you can't quite get away with shorts and t-shirts anymore.  who knew.

i had packed way more sun dresses, shorts, and tank tops than i had sweaters and long sleeve shirts, so naturally the only logical answer for the predicament was to go buy things! 

the mall of cyprus is great.  it's only two stories, and there aren't tons of stores in it, but the ones that are there are fun, stylish, clothing stores, mainly for women.  jackpot.  we're wandering around the shops and i'm thinking how i could literally wear just about everything i'm seeing.  i've found that clothes shopping in europe is so much more fun than it is in the states.  the stores are filled with amazing styles and it's so easy to get caught up in the fact that these are things that nobody back home will have and wind up buying everything you see.  i had made a mental note not to do this, but it took some serious strength.

as we walk in, we pass a little sweets stand and eboni stops to grab some baklava, because i told her she had to try it.  if you haven't, do it.  such an amazing greek pastry, with honey and pecans and amazingness.  honestly, don't pass it up.

we get to shopping.  eboni gets irie the most adorable little beanie hat in the first store we go into, with the ears that come down lower and have strings that either dangle or tie under the chin - so freaking cute!  we're wandering into various stores, picking up a few things here & there, and being girls.  before we know it, we're being kicked out of a store because the mall closed.  woops!

i get home and mister benjamin's not back from practice yet.  bummer, cuz i really can't wait to show him what he bought! ;) 

xox k

and so it begins..

because i had landed in larnaca around 10pm, we didn't get back to the apartment until it was too late for me to fix what i found there. by fix, i mean major, total, complete overhaul.  okay, fine.. to be fair, it wasn't thaaat bad.


our apartment is very modern, newly built, very "ikea-ish," and all seemed to be fine until i walked into our room. big room, tons of potential, with an entire wall full of closets and shelves that were most likely put there for the sole purpose of making me excited for all of the shopping it will take to fill them (i've already started).


once i was done drooling over the fairy tale shopping land in my head, my attention switched to the bedding. oh. my. god... NOT okay.  sheets that looked like raw fabrics about to be made into heinous pillows for some sort of circus. maybe into the funny vest things they put on the elephants? i'm really not sure, but it was definitely not something that belonged on a bed, and certainly didn't belong on MY bed (i'm kind of weird about bedding stuff). it was in this very moment that i made up my mind that a) whoever picked these designs should be fired and b) we would be remedying the situation asap. crawled into bed that night resenting every minute of it, but exhausted enough from my spring-break-like weekend with charlie that it didn't really matter when it came down to it... i was out like a light in no time.


day one.... the sun comes up without me.  ben leaves for lifting at 10 or so and comes back just shy of 12 & i'm still in bed, dead to the world.  can you say holy time difference? i think somewhere in between the bachelorette party in boston, the trip to oklahoma, running around connecticut seeing people, my weekend in london, and trip to cyprus, i maybe forgot to sleep... let alone give my body a chance to get used to whatever time zone i was in.  anyway, he manages to somehow pry my lifeless body from the sheets and insists that i get in the shower so we can go explore. i get out of the shower, put on some clothes, and step out onto our balcony to see what this place is all about.

not bad, right? i found (and still find) it amazing that all of those white tub things on the roofs are for heating water and solar energy rather than the electric way most places do it.  in the states, everybody seems to run around thinking we're the biggest and best, and look at the way this tiny itty bitty little country is so aware of what they can accomplish with solar energy! makes you wonder... just saying. 

anyyyway, we decide to head out for a bit of wandering and exploration, and by that, i mean going to a home store so i can begin to fix things.  did i mention that until i got my hands on things, if you wanted to.... say.... wash your hands in the bathroom, you would have to do so, then trot with your hands still dripping back into the bedroom to get a bath towel from the drying line on the balcony to dry them? just so we're clear, that's three doors you would open and a whole lot of floor you'd be dripping on just to get to a towel for drying your hands off.  real nice, guys.

we head into town, grab a starbucks coffee so i am properly adjusted to my new surroundings, and i purchase my cyprus starbucks city mug.  well, in reality, ben purchased it cuz he's the one with the money, but i now own it.  i think it will be so fun when we finally get a permanent place to have a cupboard full of mugs from all the places we've traveled to together! k, sorry, i'm rambling.... we head to a home store and pick up a lamp for the bedside table so that it's not so much of an all-or-nothing with the lights (the ceiling light in the bedroom is very, VERY bright, and last thing at night and first thing in the morning, it's not the most convenient thing to have). 

we also get a set of four clocks, which are now hanging on the wall set to times in oklahoma where issy is, connecticut (new england) where my family & most of our friends are, england where ben's family and more of our friends are, and cyprus where WE are! sounds kind of silly, but it looks really cool and has actually been really, really handy instead of calculating all of the time differences, especially now that half of us have already switch our clocks for daylight savings and those back in the states aren't until next week... you can see where this would get confusing!

while we were at the home store, i did something REALLY smart.  get excited.  i bought a hand towel for the bathroom.  honestly, you would have thought i just invented sliced bread.  we got home, i put it on the towel holder that was already installed right next to the bathroom sink, right where a hand towel belongs, and all of a sudden, i was a genius.  it was a miracle.... ben literally said to me, "that was a really great idea, babe." really??? last time i checked, it was the normal thing to do. you use the restroom, brush your teeth, whatever it is you're doing in there... then you wash your hands, and THEN YOU DRY THEM! whatever, i'll take being called a genius any day! ;)

all in all, it was a great day... got to see my boo for the first time since august, which was way too long, got to explore a little bit of a very foreign place, and ended the day with the absolutely beautiful sunsets that i'm becoming accustomed to.

xox k