Simply Sofie

On December 1-8, 2007, Autumn-Winter time, we had our one week golf vacation in Cyprus. I said Autumn-Winter time because astronomically, it was still Autumn, but meteorologically, it was already Winter. We flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Larnaca, Cyprus via Vienna, Austria with Cyprus Airways on December 1, 2007. The flight was fine, but I found it a little bit long. We left Zurich at around 2:38pm and after an hour, we landed in Vienna. About 50 minutes later, we left Vienna and landed in Larnaca, Cyprus at 7:14pm. Well, Cyprus time, it was 8:14pm already. So, travel time was at least 4 hours and 30 minutes.

We were able to leave the airport at around 9:25pm. We actually joined a group of more than 50 people who also played golf like us at the golf tournament week organized by Take It Travel and ASGI Golf. Then we travelled from Larnaca to Pissouri, Cyprus where Columbia Beach Hotel is located. We arrived at the hotel at around 10:45pm, meaning travel time was at least an hour and 20 minutes.

We were hungry already so we were advised to just mark our golf bags. The hotel people took care of them and brought them up to our rooms, and we had our dinner. That was indeed a relief!

The next day, Sunday, I got up early and took some photos of the view from our room. Then we had our breakfast, as we needed to leave the hotel at 8:15am for a round of golf in Aphrodite Hills Golf in Kouklia, Cyprus.

Aphrodite Hills Golf was not really a difficult course but not really an easy one too. It was a challenging course considering the terrain of the place. See it for yourself. It was great playing there especially that the weather was good. It was sunny but not so warm.

May I add, as we were part of the group, we had our free meal and free water too.

After a round of golf, we went back to the hotel with other golfers. Then we took our bath, and then went down to meet others, and had some drinks courtesy of the organizers. We had Brandy sour, a local Cyprus drink, a little bit sourish but fine. Then we had a nice buffet dinner, and then rested for another round of golf the next day.

That was almost the routine for the rest of the week. But it was not at all a problem as we went there to just play and enjoy golf. We never had to worry about anything, except took note of the bus schedules. There were always 2 schedules in the morning and in the afternoon, one for the group who teed off and finished early, and one for the group who teed off and finished later.

The next day, Monday, we again got up early and ate our breakfast. As we still had some time, we went around the hotel and took some pictures. Then we left the hotel at 7:50am for another round of golf in Secret Valley Golf Club in Pafos (Paphos), Cyprus.

Secret Valley Golf Course was set in a scenic valley surrounded by trees and natural rock formations. It looked like an easy course but it was not. Looks can really be so deceiving.

Playing at Secret Valley Golf Course for the first time, I thought that, it was not so forgiving so I made sure that my shots were all straight on the fairways. Well, only on that round.

What I thought was proven the next day, Tuesday, when I made mistakes of slicing and hooking my shots, and during the tournament. My, oh my!

I didn’t take pictures during the tournament, to be able to concentrate on the game but my golf game was still not good. Well, that’s golf! And that’s reality!

The next day, Wednesday, was another day. We didn’t play golf. We went for a Jeep Safari tour around the Akamas Peninsula. It rained a little bit but still was a nice day.

Our first stop was at the Rock of Aphrodite. It was not located at the Akamas Peninsula but it was part of the tour. We saw that Rock of Aphrodite everyday. It was along the way going to the golf courses where we played golf.

The Rock of Aphrodite was located at Petra tou Romiou (Rock of the Greek), the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. According to the legend, this was the place and the rock where Aphrodite mythically arose from the white foam in the sea.

From there, passing through the city of Paphos, we went to Coral Bay, entered the South Coast of Akamas Peninsula. We went for a short a hike at the Avgas/Avakas Gorge Natural Trail near Pegeia and Agios Georgios area (near Coral Bay) and saw some of the Lime stones, Caves and Water trail. When we left the place, and while along the bay and inside the jeep, our tour guide especially pointed to us the rock formations on the area.

Then we went to Lara Bay, also called Turtle Beach as it is the home to the sea turtles especially the green turtles. For the Cypriots, the sea turtles are very important. Our guide told us that from generation to generation, people were never catching sea turtles to eat even if they got hungry.

Then we left Lara Bay. While we were inside the jeep, the tour guide played with the dogs while he was driving. He was barking like the dogs and the dogs were running along with the jeep. It was really funny. Everybody thought it was funny. Then something happened! Good thing, one of us who was somehow paying attention to the road, shouted, “Watch out!”. Wooh… we almost had an accident! Just looked at the picture below where the jeep was. All of us were safe and just got out of the jeep but didn’t know what to do. Well, good things happened too! Some friends of the tour guide passed by. Of course, they teased him about the jeep, but they helped him too. So, we were back on the road again at the Akamas Peninsula.

We passed by the area overlooking the Latsi/Latchi bay. We passed by a community with all the ruins. The ruins were the result of the Cyprus-Turkey conflict in Cyprus. The we stopped by in an area where there was an almond tree, and then cracked and ate some fresh almonds. It was fun!

We had our lunch at one of the taverns called “The Stone Tavern”. Taverns are very popular in Cyprus. They normally serve good food. We had fresh vegetable salad, olives, chicken, meat, coscos, and the rest I can’t remember. We had a good lunch, I would say.

Then we went to Baths of Aphrodite, 8 kilometers or 5 miles west of Polis towards Akamas Peninsula. According to the legend, Aphrodite used to take her beauty baths in this small secluded pool of natural water. It even came out while we were talking about the place that legend has it too, that whoever bathe in this pool will remain forever young. But there was a sign that it was not allowed to dip in the water. We were all joking each other that despite the sign, we should have done it to remain forever young.

Our next stop was Kathikas, a small village in Pafos (Paphos), Cyprus. We went inside a local coffee shop. We just stop there for a coffee. It was really not a tourist area. I just sat there with all the others as I don’t drink coffee. The place was interesting, I just couldn’t take the smoke but I stayed of course. Most of the people there were elderly men playing cards. I don’t know what they were playing. I especially had to ask Mikali, our guide, if we could take some pictures. He said yes, but no focusing on the faces. I tried. The funny thing was, there was no smoking sign on the wall.

When we went out, we saw a church. We ask Mikali if we could look inside the church. Well, he brought us there, and we were able to enter an Orthodox church. A very different church from the other churches that I have been, but again it was another interesting discovery for me. It was my first time to enter an Orthodox church.

That was our last stop. After that, we went back to the hotel in Pissouri. Every time someone asked me about our Jeep Safari tour, I always answered, “it was all about nature, nature, nature, and a little bit of culture”.

In the evening, we went down to the bar before our dinner. I tried another Cyprus local drink called Ouzo. I like it better than Brandy sour. Afterwards, we had another nice buffet dinner again.

What happened! Oh, oh!

No smoking! at the local coffee shop in Kathikas Village, Cyprus

The next day, Thursday, we played golf in Aphrodite Hills Golf. I was on the first flight. After the second hole, it rained heavily. Eventually because of lightning, just when we finished playing at the 9th hole, the game was stopped. We waited at the golf club until we could resume playing. When it stopped raining, we played again but the tournament was already cancelled. We just played 2 more holes, then we stopped as we saw some lightnings. The others didn’t even notice and just continued playing. The ranger told us that the others were crazy. Well, they didn’t see the lightning so they continued, but we did so we stopped. We chose to be safe. For one thing, we were able to finish 9 holes when the tournament was cancelled. Unfortunately, the other haven’t even started yet when it was cancelled. And another thing, I didn’t want to play anymore as my golf shoes were wet.

The next day, Friday, the 3rd day and last day of the tournament, we left the hotel at 7:30am. We played at Tsada Golf Club in Pafos, Cyprus. It seemed like a nice day. But after a few minutes when we arrived in Tsada Golf Club, it rained heavily but we still played golf.

The greens were wet and in some holes the balls were swimming. At one time, it was sunny, then it rained heavily, then sunny again, and then rained again. It was like that the whole time. With that kind of weather we still managed to finish 18 holes. I also kept myself busy taking pictures despite the heavy rain. I just didn’t play good.

Tsada Golf Course is a nice golf course, just a little bit difficult to play. I wasn’t really concentrating on my game anyway. I just played, enjoyed the game, and took pictures.

On the last evening, we had our Apero at the tavern of the hotel, and the winners for the day were awarded. Then we had our sit down dinner in Columbia Beach Resort located just beside the Columbia Beach Hotel. The overall winners were awarded there, and afterwards we just enjoyed our dinner.

The next day, Saturday, we left the hotel in Pissouri early in the morning at around 6:45am. We arrived in Larnaca at around 8:00am. The plane left Larnaca at around 10:30am and it landed in Zurich few minutes after 1:00pm. We got out of the plane at around 1:22pm.

For me, Cyprus is a nice place to explore. There are a lot of places worth to know and yet to discover with all of its legends, history, culture and nature. Maybe one these days, we will go back there.