for some reason, tuesday's practice is way earlier than normal, so we don't really have very long to do anything with between his morning lift and when he has to be back at the gym. there's not a cloud in the sky and its a beautiful temperature for wandering, so we decide to just head out of the apartment on foot and see what happens.
we're actually very fortunate to be living in a really cute little suburb of nicosia where at the foot of our street is a little convenience store, a restaurant (that i've never seen open), and a tiny "local" bar. turn the corner and you find a gyro spot and a couple other places to grab a quick lunch, along with a bus stop. across from that is a primary school and a really nice park-like open area with a dirt track/path wrapping its way around the borders. if you keep walking up the street with the park on your left, you get to a more main strip with shops and banks and what have you. we don't make it that far because we decide that this park looks like a really nice place to have a little stroll and enjoy the weather. yes, i just turned down the opportunity to shop. weird, i know.
i haven't experienced parks in england, but this one is nothing special when you compare it to the gorgeous green rolling hills ones that i'm used to in the states. it is definitely no central park, but i love it regardless. there are huge trees that create canopies over the track, some version of pine trees but completely different from any one i've ever seen before, and i soon realize they're growing pine cones! i honestly had no idea that pine cones grew in this climate... silly me just thought they were a winter find! i decide it is imperative that we collect pine cones to bring back to the apartment so i can put them in a bowl on our table or something (they're still sitting in the closet).
we walk and talk and wander around, and before we know it, an hour and a half goes by and it's time to go back home so we can feed the big guy and send him on his way to practice. i officially dub the park "central park very very east," because i'm a moron, and we walk back up the street and decide we should do this every day.
we have yet to go back.
xox k
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
things in cyprus don't cost money
monday we have a little bit of time between ben's lifting and practice, so we decide to run to the shop for some veggies and drop off postcards that we got over the weekend to send to england & the states.
we get to the post office, (by taking a photo of where it is on the ipod), and the door is locked. apparently, they close at 1:30 on mondays. i swear people in this country just do whatever the hell they want. they park on the sides of the streets by pulling up on curbs and sidewalks (it's actually pretty convenient), they drive through dirt valleys to get from one road to another where there's no connector, and now they set their own hours and don't give two thoughts about people who need their services. it's a great way to live - you just do whatever you want, whenever you want, and other people deal with it.
regardless of the fact that they're closed (it's like 2pm by now), there are still some guys sitting behind counters inside. one of them points us to a side door, motioning for us to go in. we go through that door, and we're in the behind the scenes part of the post office, where there are guys filing letters and so forth. they try to tell us to leave, we try to tell them that this other guy told us to come in, and in reality, it's just one big confusing mess with mixed up bits of both languages. the guy who seems like the boss sees the stack of postcards in my hand and says to me "send? okay, you send," and brings us into the public side. he gives us the stamps to put on the postcards and tells us it's 3 euros. ben hands him his debit card and he tells us they don't take cards. this is where things get awkward, since the stamps are already on my postcards and we don't have any cash with us (i had 85 cents... i counted). all in one breath, he says, "it's okay. it's okay. leave them here. thank you, bye." we have successfully managed to open a closed post office and then proceed to not pay for what we needed. ever happened to you? didn't think so. we thank the guy about a million times, i leave the 85 cents on his desk, like that makes a difference, and we head out.
next up is the veggies. this is probably my favorite story since i've gotten here. the place looks like an indoor farmers market, minus all of the vendors. it's beyond simple: plywood counters with plastic crates filled with pretty much any fruit or veggie you could imagine, and then some. i was in heavennnn! we pick out 4 huge bell peppers, 6 gigantic - like seriously very, very very large mushrooms, a head of garlic, 4 onions, 2 tomatoes, a lime, and a bunch of scallions and take them up to the counter to pay. the guy puts each on a scale and types something into the computer to enter the weight/price stuff. he gets to the lime, looks at it, makes some kind of "ehhh" sound, and tosses it into the bag. apparently limes are free. our grand total was 1.80. 1.80! groceries would be SOOOOO cheap if i didn't live with ben! i was so proud of this shopping extravaganza that i emailed it to pretty much everyone i knew, told my mom to call and tell mima (my 91-year-old grandmother), and now am writing a blog about it. i've officially just become a house-non-wife.
have i mentioned that i love it here?
xox k
we get to the post office, (by taking a photo of where it is on the ipod), and the door is locked. apparently, they close at 1:30 on mondays. i swear people in this country just do whatever the hell they want. they park on the sides of the streets by pulling up on curbs and sidewalks (it's actually pretty convenient), they drive through dirt valleys to get from one road to another where there's no connector, and now they set their own hours and don't give two thoughts about people who need their services. it's a great way to live - you just do whatever you want, whenever you want, and other people deal with it.
regardless of the fact that they're closed (it's like 2pm by now), there are still some guys sitting behind counters inside. one of them points us to a side door, motioning for us to go in. we go through that door, and we're in the behind the scenes part of the post office, where there are guys filing letters and so forth. they try to tell us to leave, we try to tell them that this other guy told us to come in, and in reality, it's just one big confusing mess with mixed up bits of both languages. the guy who seems like the boss sees the stack of postcards in my hand and says to me "send? okay, you send," and brings us into the public side. he gives us the stamps to put on the postcards and tells us it's 3 euros. ben hands him his debit card and he tells us they don't take cards. this is where things get awkward, since the stamps are already on my postcards and we don't have any cash with us (i had 85 cents... i counted). all in one breath, he says, "it's okay. it's okay. leave them here. thank you, bye." we have successfully managed to open a closed post office and then proceed to not pay for what we needed. ever happened to you? didn't think so. we thank the guy about a million times, i leave the 85 cents on his desk, like that makes a difference, and we head out.
next up is the veggies. this is probably my favorite story since i've gotten here. the place looks like an indoor farmers market, minus all of the vendors. it's beyond simple: plywood counters with plastic crates filled with pretty much any fruit or veggie you could imagine, and then some. i was in heavennnn! we pick out 4 huge bell peppers, 6 gigantic - like seriously very, very very large mushrooms, a head of garlic, 4 onions, 2 tomatoes, a lime, and a bunch of scallions and take them up to the counter to pay. the guy puts each on a scale and types something into the computer to enter the weight/price stuff. he gets to the lime, looks at it, makes some kind of "ehhh" sound, and tosses it into the bag. apparently limes are free. our grand total was 1.80. 1.80! groceries would be SOOOOO cheap if i didn't live with ben! i was so proud of this shopping extravaganza that i emailed it to pretty much everyone i knew, told my mom to call and tell mima (my 91-year-old grandmother), and now am writing a blog about it. i've officially just become a house-non-wife.
have i mentioned that i love it here?
xox k
limassol
sunday, we decide to head to limassol, which is another beach town just about central on the southern coast of cyprus. we take a picture of the google map, and are on our way around early afternoon.
the main area of limassol, or what we saw of it, reminded me a lot of pacific coast highway in LA, except that everything was in greek. a gorgeous boardwalk followed the coast, with palm trees lining the boardwalk.
tons of huge sculptures decorated the grasses, and vendors were bountiful selling grilled ears of corn (what?!). never heard of that before!
it was a pretty uneventful day, really... just a lot of wandering around and taking in our surroundings, but there was a beautiful blue sky & it was wonderful to just walk and talk and explore!
when we left, we passed a huge keo warehouse, which is the #1 winery and beer company place in cyprus. i wanted to rob it, but ben said no. seeing as how we had just passed through a random police checkpoint 1000 meters prior, i suppose he was probably right about that one.
seriously, though, tell me that doesn't look like a reeeeally good time??
xox k
the main area of limassol, or what we saw of it, reminded me a lot of pacific coast highway in LA, except that everything was in greek. a gorgeous boardwalk followed the coast, with palm trees lining the boardwalk.
xox k
ayia napa
because ben's team had three friendly games in a row, the coach gave them the entire weekend off to rest & recoup... naturally, i decided that meant a weekend at the beach! pretty much looked on a map and pinpointed two beach towns that looked pretty in the google images and decided those were where we'd go. i feel like since we don't know anything about anywhere here, picking places by google is just as good a way to find somewhere to go as any, right?
the plan for saturday is ayia napa, which is a huge party town for people from england to come on "holiday." this is "vacation," for those of us who are normal. i know i'm going to get the whole "we invented the language blah blah blah" from ben & everyone else his way who reads this, but come on. holidays are christmas, new years, easter, etc.... not going away to sit in the sun. that's a vacation. anyway, during the summer months, i guess ayia napa is the place to be.
we navigate our way down there using another of our handy dandy photos of google maps that we took on the ipod, and are there in about an hour. easy peasy! we drive right down the main strip, which is very touristy.... souvenir shops next to souvenir shops next to cheap jewelry shops next to restaurants next to more souvenir shops. i'm totally loving the fact that my life right now is someone else's vacation destination.
the plan for saturday is ayia napa, which is a huge party town for people from england to come on "holiday." this is "vacation," for those of us who are normal. i know i'm going to get the whole "we invented the language blah blah blah" from ben & everyone else his way who reads this, but come on. holidays are christmas, new years, easter, etc.... not going away to sit in the sun. that's a vacation. anyway, during the summer months, i guess ayia napa is the place to be.
we navigate our way down there using another of our handy dandy photos of google maps that we took on the ipod, and are there in about an hour. easy peasy! we drive right down the main strip, which is very touristy.... souvenir shops next to souvenir shops next to cheap jewelry shops next to restaurants next to more souvenir shops. i'm totally loving the fact that my life right now is someone else's vacation destination.
we find a parking lot that seriously could not get any better. it's right in the middle of everything, but next to the water, and it's free. i love this place. we walk into a little shop to grab some sun block for my lovely british boyfriend who cooks like a lobster in the sun. i guess i was having too much good karma, though, because we payed 15 euros for it. chalk it up to being in a tourist town, i guess.
a couple minutes later, sun block in hand, we're wandering towards a gorgeous little wharf area with bright colored boats and tons of little booths offering day trips on glass bottom boats, parasailing, snorkeling... the works.
we walk through all of this and come across a few hotels with beach in front of them, and i'm absolutely mesmerized by the fact that this is the mediterranean sea. i mean, i realized that it was, but it was really baffling me that i was soooo far from home that i was in the mediterranean sea. ben took a picture as i put my feet in for the first time.... i can't even explain how excited i was!
we wander a little further down and put our towels down to relax for a bit, until some clouds decide to come and take away the warm sun (iiii say it got cold, but in reality, i'm just a baby). we head back in the direction we came from and have a walk around the shops and restaurants and stuff. it's not as busy here as it normally would be because it's not the summer season anymore, and the half-term break from schools in england is juuuust barely beginning. there are a few british accents, but not as many as we had anticipated. headed down the street, ben stops to talk to parrots. typical.
at this point, we're beginning to get hungry, and have predetermined that we will have sushi for dinner. even as a vegan, i'm really completely obsessed with sushi.... i'm pretty much the worst vegan in the world.
as we're wandering along, i make friends with a street cat. apparently they're all over the place, but we haven't really come across too many at this point. the one that i decide to hang out with is absolutely beautiful, gray and white, and sooooo friendly! it was love at first site, but ben wouldn't let me take him home. how rude.
anyway, we find an awesome place to eat where we can sit outside right along the street, and the wait staff is in love with apoel, the team that ben plays for. we get free dessert and drinks, and i am one extremely happy camper. seriously, i could get used to this lifestyle. VERY used to it. we leave the restaurant, stop at a little ice cream place to get some crepes to keep benboy happy, and then walk around a bit more before heading home.
it was an absolutely amazing day... i felt like i was on my honeymoon (actually, i still do)... except, well, we're not married. gotta leave some things to look forward too, right?
xox k
Thursday, November 3, 2011
hair hunt
not sure why i'm awake at 2:15am, but since i am, it can't really hurt the process of catching up to speed, right?
third day i'm here, we decide to do the rug swap at ikea & grab a mirror, and to solve the problem with my hair appliances. we set off from the apartment around 11 or so, leaving plenty of time to be back for ben's 7pm "friendly" game. we head to ikea & manage to sort out the exchange without getting kicked out, ruining any setups, or really creating any scene what-so-ever. weird.
leaving there, we have a name for a shop that we've been told will have the "piece" i need to change the wattage on my hair straightener and blow dryer (mind you, we're expecting a small part about the size of the normal power adapter). we leave ikea, and have a pretty good idea of where to head in order to get to stefanie's, the electric store place, from a map we pulled up on google and took a photo of on the ipod. this photo-taking scheme is quickly becoming our version of a gps.
turns out, we don't have such a great idea of where to go. somehow, what looked like a straight route has lead us into a one-way system that is beyond complicated. the "straight" we were supposed to take is one that we cant enter, so we wind up on these twisty turny itty bitty little streets winding through (gorgeous) old buildings, shops, homes, etc. if not for the stress of having absolutely no clue where to go, it would have been an amazing area to trot through.
we have zero idea of where we are, a time schedule to return to for ben's game, and an area of nicosia where people don't speak english, which is VERY difficult to come by. i do realize that we should be making attempts at learning greek, but seriously, it's hard. add to that the fact that almost everyone speaks english, so there's really no need to learn, and that even if i were to try to speak to them in greek, they recognize that i can't and answer in english.
long story short, we return to the apartment about two hours later, who knows how, without my hair adaptor thingamabob.
the next day, we are determined: we. will. find. stefanies. we start out in what we think is the right direction, and pass a shop that looks like maybe they sell electrical stuff. why not stop in & check if they have it while we're at it, right? we stop, and they don't, but yet another man who looks absolutely miserable and mean turns out to be an amazing help. this guy literally sits at the desk and draws us a map from where we are to the store we're trying to get to, and verbally explains every turn. "you go to the church and you make a right. then two more lights and you make a right (as he draws us taking left).." ...you get the picture.
somehow, we made it. we get there, ask where to find the things we're looking for, and are pointed to the very, very back left corner where another guy takes us to the shelf. can i just say, this compleeetely threw me for a loop. what i was expecting to be a small plastic thingy that you plug into the outlet and connect the appliance to wound up to be about the equivalent of a small generator! to use to do my hair with! not to mention it's about 20 pounds (not even joking) and like 100 euros.... you've got to be kidding me. i'm not sure when my hair became such a big freaking deal, but honestly this has become such a to-do that i'm just over it. the guy recommends that we just buy a new straightener and hair dryer, and because that's obviously the better decision, after ALL that hunting and searching and getting lost, we just wind up doing what we could have soooo easily done in the first place. i wanted to cry.
end of story, i got what i needed, and i can now do my hair. we didn't even miss the sunset!
life is good.
xox k
third day i'm here, we decide to do the rug swap at ikea & grab a mirror, and to solve the problem with my hair appliances. we set off from the apartment around 11 or so, leaving plenty of time to be back for ben's 7pm "friendly" game. we head to ikea & manage to sort out the exchange without getting kicked out, ruining any setups, or really creating any scene what-so-ever. weird.
leaving there, we have a name for a shop that we've been told will have the "piece" i need to change the wattage on my hair straightener and blow dryer (mind you, we're expecting a small part about the size of the normal power adapter). we leave ikea, and have a pretty good idea of where to head in order to get to stefanie's, the electric store place, from a map we pulled up on google and took a photo of on the ipod. this photo-taking scheme is quickly becoming our version of a gps.
turns out, we don't have such a great idea of where to go. somehow, what looked like a straight route has lead us into a one-way system that is beyond complicated. the "straight" we were supposed to take is one that we cant enter, so we wind up on these twisty turny itty bitty little streets winding through (gorgeous) old buildings, shops, homes, etc. if not for the stress of having absolutely no clue where to go, it would have been an amazing area to trot through.
we have zero idea of where we are, a time schedule to return to for ben's game, and an area of nicosia where people don't speak english, which is VERY difficult to come by. i do realize that we should be making attempts at learning greek, but seriously, it's hard. add to that the fact that almost everyone speaks english, so there's really no need to learn, and that even if i were to try to speak to them in greek, they recognize that i can't and answer in english.
long story short, we return to the apartment about two hours later, who knows how, without my hair adaptor thingamabob.
the next day, we are determined: we. will. find. stefanies. we start out in what we think is the right direction, and pass a shop that looks like maybe they sell electrical stuff. why not stop in & check if they have it while we're at it, right? we stop, and they don't, but yet another man who looks absolutely miserable and mean turns out to be an amazing help. this guy literally sits at the desk and draws us a map from where we are to the store we're trying to get to, and verbally explains every turn. "you go to the church and you make a right. then two more lights and you make a right (as he draws us taking left).." ...you get the picture.
somehow, we made it. we get there, ask where to find the things we're looking for, and are pointed to the very, very back left corner where another guy takes us to the shelf. can i just say, this compleeetely threw me for a loop. what i was expecting to be a small plastic thingy that you plug into the outlet and connect the appliance to wound up to be about the equivalent of a small generator! to use to do my hair with! not to mention it's about 20 pounds (not even joking) and like 100 euros.... you've got to be kidding me. i'm not sure when my hair became such a big freaking deal, but honestly this has become such a to-do that i'm just over it. the guy recommends that we just buy a new straightener and hair dryer, and because that's obviously the better decision, after ALL that hunting and searching and getting lost, we just wind up doing what we could have soooo easily done in the first place. i wanted to cry.
end of story, i got what i needed, and i can now do my hair. we didn't even miss the sunset!
xox k
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
we close early on wednesdays...
ben & i wake up on wednesday morning with a plan of attack. we're going to eat, shower, & head out to ikea so i can make this place a home.
it was really pissing me off that there was no mirror in the room because it was impossible to do my hair. anyone who has known me for more than a day knows that i've never been a "hair-doer" type of person. i had finally decided that i was going to become one, and now look what happens! no mirror. to be fair, i do straighten it a lot, so i suppose i would have needed one regardless, but still, it was like bad karma or something.
in the states, we have outlets in the bathroom that "trip" if any water gets into them. they're perfectly safe, because you test them on a regular basis and make sure that the power will cut off properly, etc. apparently in europe, that's not the case. an outlet in the bathroom is completely unheard of & is sooooooooo dangerous, so none of my hair tools can be used in the bathroom, where the only mirror in the apartment was located.
i also found out that somehow i hadn't realized that my appliances needed an adaptor in order to work here because the plugs are all funny looking and don't work with the US ones. we picked one up earlier, and i tried to straighten my hair and noticed that my straightener was smelling funny. apparently i needed not only a plug adaptor, but also a wattage adapter if i didn't want to set the place on fire, because the power comes through stronger in europe than it does in the states. different money, different languages, and now different plugs? really couldn't make things easy for me, could they?
we head out to ikea about three hours after we had intended to leave, which anyone who has known ben for more than a day can see how that happened. maybe it was more like one hour late, but three makes my story sound better. we get in the car with a photo of the google mapped route to get there that we took on his ipod, and decide that it will suffice to get us where we need to be. luckily, this part actually went right! we get to ikea, park, & go in.
first of all, can i just say i am a complete & total ikea junky. i know the stuff isn't exactly top-of-the-line, but honestly i couldn't give two shits... i love it. and the size of the building?! i could spend four days in there, and not even stop to eat. again, if you know me, that is really saying something. we get to walking around, and in no time i'm lugging about the equivalent of my body weight in sheets, duvet, pillows - the works. okay, fine, ben's lugging it. people who see him coming literally just move.. it's like seeing shrek & buddy the elf morphed into one, performing a balancing act and running over small children in the process. i would have moved too.
we've made it about halfway through the store when some guy comes up to us to tell us they're closing in 5 minutes. i'm sorry, what?? it's 3pm. evidently they "close early on wednesdays." little do we know this will soon become the story of our lives. we hurry to finish finding what we need, find a carpet that looks fuzzy and comfy and are on our way, but not before i ruined the display by taking the one that was hanging up, caused a scene, and was reprimanded by someone in greek. apparently ruining a display is frowned upon.. who knew. in my defense, i didn't see the pile where you're supposed to take them from and thought that was what i was supposed to do. we leave before realizing that we don't have a mirror.
on the way home, we pass an electric store & decide to pop in to see if they have the wattage adaptor i need for my hair dryer/straightener. the front door is open and there are guys working on the steps outside, so we kind of make our way around them & head inside. we're greeted by a really sweet little girl who tells us that they're closed because it's after 3, but kind of still asks us what we need. this very large, mean-looking, greek man then comes over & proceeds to tell us again that they're "closed, but you, uhh, need something?" ben starts to explain the situation & what we're looking for. side note, you should see him talking to people that don't speak english very well! he's, for some reason, under the impression that if you use your hands a lot and flail them around, all of a sudden VOILA the person understands the language. it's really great for a laugh if you ever need one. this guy winds up writing down the name of another store for us to go to that will be able to give us the adaptor thing we need. why thank you sir! still finding it weird how most people here look absolutely terrifying and miserable, but wind up being the most friendly, helpful people ever.
when we get home, i'm so excited about these sheets & my desire to burn the other ones, that i don't even stop to wash them before putting them on the bed (sorry, mom). we go to unroll the carpet and put it down to find that it's only a meter squared & looks like a joke on the floor. room looks great, though, and much more homey!
it appears as though we'll be going baaack to ikea tomorrow to exchange the rug & find a mirror. in the meantime, ben has to get ready for a "friendly" game (aka scrimmage), so we make some food, relax, and then are on our way to the gym! game was good, he played well, and its another breathtaking sunset to end this crazy adventurous day!
i did say i wanted to come here for the adventure, right?
xox k
it was really pissing me off that there was no mirror in the room because it was impossible to do my hair. anyone who has known me for more than a day knows that i've never been a "hair-doer" type of person. i had finally decided that i was going to become one, and now look what happens! no mirror. to be fair, i do straighten it a lot, so i suppose i would have needed one regardless, but still, it was like bad karma or something.
in the states, we have outlets in the bathroom that "trip" if any water gets into them. they're perfectly safe, because you test them on a regular basis and make sure that the power will cut off properly, etc. apparently in europe, that's not the case. an outlet in the bathroom is completely unheard of & is sooooooooo dangerous, so none of my hair tools can be used in the bathroom, where the only mirror in the apartment was located.
i also found out that somehow i hadn't realized that my appliances needed an adaptor in order to work here because the plugs are all funny looking and don't work with the US ones. we picked one up earlier, and i tried to straighten my hair and noticed that my straightener was smelling funny. apparently i needed not only a plug adaptor, but also a wattage adapter if i didn't want to set the place on fire, because the power comes through stronger in europe than it does in the states. different money, different languages, and now different plugs? really couldn't make things easy for me, could they?
we head out to ikea about three hours after we had intended to leave, which anyone who has known ben for more than a day can see how that happened. maybe it was more like one hour late, but three makes my story sound better. we get in the car with a photo of the google mapped route to get there that we took on his ipod, and decide that it will suffice to get us where we need to be. luckily, this part actually went right! we get to ikea, park, & go in.
first of all, can i just say i am a complete & total ikea junky. i know the stuff isn't exactly top-of-the-line, but honestly i couldn't give two shits... i love it. and the size of the building?! i could spend four days in there, and not even stop to eat. again, if you know me, that is really saying something. we get to walking around, and in no time i'm lugging about the equivalent of my body weight in sheets, duvet, pillows - the works. okay, fine, ben's lugging it. people who see him coming literally just move.. it's like seeing shrek & buddy the elf morphed into one, performing a balancing act and running over small children in the process. i would have moved too.
we've made it about halfway through the store when some guy comes up to us to tell us they're closing in 5 minutes. i'm sorry, what?? it's 3pm. evidently they "close early on wednesdays." little do we know this will soon become the story of our lives. we hurry to finish finding what we need, find a carpet that looks fuzzy and comfy and are on our way, but not before i ruined the display by taking the one that was hanging up, caused a scene, and was reprimanded by someone in greek. apparently ruining a display is frowned upon.. who knew. in my defense, i didn't see the pile where you're supposed to take them from and thought that was what i was supposed to do. we leave before realizing that we don't have a mirror.
on the way home, we pass an electric store & decide to pop in to see if they have the wattage adaptor i need for my hair dryer/straightener. the front door is open and there are guys working on the steps outside, so we kind of make our way around them & head inside. we're greeted by a really sweet little girl who tells us that they're closed because it's after 3, but kind of still asks us what we need. this very large, mean-looking, greek man then comes over & proceeds to tell us again that they're "closed, but you, uhh, need something?" ben starts to explain the situation & what we're looking for. side note, you should see him talking to people that don't speak english very well! he's, for some reason, under the impression that if you use your hands a lot and flail them around, all of a sudden VOILA the person understands the language. it's really great for a laugh if you ever need one. this guy winds up writing down the name of another store for us to go to that will be able to give us the adaptor thing we need. why thank you sir! still finding it weird how most people here look absolutely terrifying and miserable, but wind up being the most friendly, helpful people ever.
when we get home, i'm so excited about these sheets & my desire to burn the other ones, that i don't even stop to wash them before putting them on the bed (sorry, mom). we go to unroll the carpet and put it down to find that it's only a meter squared & looks like a joke on the floor. room looks great, though, and much more homey!
xox k
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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.
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.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)