Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Coffee, Cake and Karsiyaka

Look away Joyce (she is going to this monastery another time and don't want to ruin the surprise!)

We went to Karme which is a village up in the mountains which is a real Little Britain- it is a little more European than that but there has been a real export of British parochial culture right down to coffee mornings...

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The expat money has meant that the village has been done up a lot and is very picturesque but there is also a sort of artificial feel to it. However the view of the mountains is always real!
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View down to the sea from a higher road...
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The church tower ...
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And on the way down in a lower more ramshackle village is the basket shop...

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love it...
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The scrapes on the old church walls where years of vehicles have scraped it and a large basket for a multitude of cats... (who would no doubt ignore it anyway)
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We took the high road along through the mountains exploring many dead end narrow roads - main roads and dead ends all look alike and sign posting is all a matter of whim 
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A monastery we didn't get to that is now an old people's home
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We found monasteri sokak but the car was not up to the large stones that kept emerging from the road surface so we stopped for our picnic
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Then Woody and I continued up by foot to explore the terrain and see how long it would take us to get to the ruins that appeared quite distant from the glimpse we could see
From the car park...

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Nearly there...

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And then suddenly after a mere 7 minutes up....

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The way in i found....

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It had a lovely atmosphere and a beauty to it that was very special

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The view from the window...

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Inside

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The old church...

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The ruins have a fabulous view up to the mountains and down to the sea

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The old water course- it went to a shaped place where there were sinks and it then went on further into a pool. As we were here we heard the magical sound of goat bells ever moving and eventually we did see some up in the heights 

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At this monastery there were oranges....

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And a modern water fountain in honour of her maj. not working though! These features are scattered across the island...

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We took the road through the mountain peaks past st hilarion and this is the view to the south...

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And this is the view to the north...


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Dinner was with a friend with an interesting history and was at Mevhane which served traditional Cypriot foods with a wealth of
Meze, my favourite being the aubergine dip. We think it was cooked by a flame giving it a smoky texture and then the skin removed so it had no purple colour to give it away...

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You get entertained by traditional music if you like it! They come from table to table and sing and play

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And on return the view of a flood lit st hilarion to help you to sleep xxx

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