Cyprus 2

Luckily, the weather did improve after we were finished with the training sessions and had some free time. Gayle and I "had" to go shopping for some speaker gifts, so we went to the old town area. Ean and Lynne ended up riding in with us and hanging out for a bit, which was a little challenging in that they were two of the speakers we were getting gifts for!



Ean and Lynne


Me, Ean and Gayle

Later that day, I went to lunch with Gayle, Irina (another staff member who was along to provide Russian interpretation) and Vladimir (the manager in our Moscow office) at the High Chapparell, which is decidedly NOT western. They have a fish meza that Vlad really likes. The sample above was some of the tamer offerings. Not really my cup of tea, but the company was great! Especially Vlad's bird calls to the white peacocks after lunch (which I have on video, for possible future blackmail purposes).

The next day we went to visit the village of Agros, which is in the central mountain area of Cyprus. We visited a church and a museum ...

and a rose water crafter, who makes everything imaginable out of rose water - candles, wine, lotion, etc. It happened to be the prime season for roses while we were there.

We also visited a meat smokehouse and a place that makes karidaki and other traditional Cypriot and Greek sweets.

We had lunch - a traditional Cyprus meza - in a local restaurant. Though it was a beautiful day, it was still a bit chilly in the mountains, so half of the group ended up going inside to eat. This is Demos, who runs the destination management company in Cyprus that helped us with the arrangements.

On Friday night we had the Farewell Gala dinner, as some of the participants were going home the next day. We dithered all day about whether to hold it poolside (great ambience) or inside, where it was safer. We ended up having a cocktail hour and group photo by the pool, and the dinner and dance inside.

I left to go home on Sunday, which ended up being a 26 hour travel marathon. And my bag missed my flight in Paris, but I was happy enough that I was on it myself. As of now, I still don't have it - hopefully tonight.