Twelve Things We Love about Cyprus

This is a tough list to make: we’ve only lived in Cyprus about six weeks, but we’ve really enjoyed our time here!

• Living so close to the water, hearing the sea, etc. etc. We’ve said it before, but we will really miss the Limassol molos and marina.
• Our apartment was fabulous, especially the balcony! We took the opportunity to come up with a whole new morning routine, involving tea and working outside until it got too sunny.
• Fish meze, in particular the sea bream and various calamari.

• Halloumi, the national cheese of Cyprus. We think we have not mentioned this before, and feel sad about that, because we’ve certainly eaten our share. It’s made from goat’s and sheep’s milk, and it’s delicious fried. (Yes we know: when is fried cheese ever bad?) We also love it grilled.

• Cypriot wines and fortified wines, i.e. Zivania and Commandaria.
• Many great archaeological sites: Paphos and Kourion especially.
• Sailing! (More on this soon, unless you subscribe to our newsletter, and then you already know all about it…)

• Gigantes! These enormous lima-like beans are not Cypriot, or not exclusively – but we were happy to see them again, and even made our own once or twice! Note: if you hate lima beans, that is because you have only eaten them frozen in mixed veg packages. Real lima beans are excellent and gigantes are even better. You cook them until they fall apart and serve in a rich tomato sauce – perfect for winter days!

• Limassol is very walkable, and Cyprus itself is easy to get around — we took public transportation to several cities and it was painless. It’s also really pretty, with lots of picturesque little streets.

• Afelia, the pork-with-coriander dish we can’t get enough of. (We’ve had many other good meats too, but this is our absolute favourite…)
• Friends old and new, who took us into the mountains to try delicious Cypriot wine, showed us lovely hill towns, and took us to wonderful restaurants in Limassol’s old town. There’s a reason that Greeks (and Cypriots) are famous for hospitality.
• The sunset from our flat, which we dropped everything to watch. It was different almost every day, and every day it was spectacular. If old age is the sunset of life, there’s lots of colour left in it!

And that’s our roundup of favourite things about Cyprus. We’re on the move again, so stay tuned to find out where we live next!