I see you have reached the desperation Of a fool whose options are running out, So you strengthen your contamination While weakening what you are all about. This does not mean we can let our guard down For you’ll return with a new mutation, But even that will have lesser renown When facing the anger of this nation. You may keep our smiles behind a thick mask, And we may continue to jab our arms, Making the routine no longer a task; We will not fear your diminishing harms. Though history will be filled with shed tears, We will get over these bitter, old fears.
The lives that they lived were the lives of kings Though the blood in their veins was not royal. The comfort and happiness that wealth brings Is not always based upon life’s toil, And the select few who strut these cities Did not break their backs to build their roadways; Instead, they pointed to the groves of trees, Deciding that there the buildings would raise. They would sit back with their glass of red wine, Sighing while watching all of the legs run. They’d brag at how their money made things fine After the hard labor’s work was done. But all this greatness was soon forgotten When they were sealed in a tomb to rot in.
The seeds had been found in an earthen jar, Buried for saving, centuries ago. Even the wearing of time could not mar The vineyards that would eventually grow. From this ancient grape a new production Brought back to the world the sweetest nectar, Recalling an old epic seduction Of Odysseus’s long adventure. Legend even tells of lion hearted Royalty praising the drink’s great value. From Earth, the recipe never parted As stories of it glory only grew. It is the reason for this aria That we will sing for Commandaria.
One of the nice things about living so close to Europe is that I can be in a different country after a short plane flight. Another thing that is nice about this is I can visit some of the world’s most coveted destinations during times where the tourists are gone. It means that I have access to this town with lots of amazing sights and great restaurants without having to fight my way through crazy crowds. This is what I did on my latest vacation. I took an hour flight from Amman, Jordan to the island town of Paphos, Cyprus to enjoy this town before it exploded with tourists during the summer months.
There are some disadvantages to enjoying a tourist sight this way, the biggest of which is the weather. Most of the time people travel to Paphos to enjoy the sun and warmth along the sea shore, but when I was there, I had to bundle up and brave the wind in order to enjoy the outdoors. I was told that it was unusually cold this year, but it still made for a different spring break environment than what I was hoping for.
The businesses were a little more ambitious in getting me to go to them then they usually would as well. I believe a lot of this is because they are gearing up for the upcoming tourist season, and they are really looking forward to this season more than they have in the past. The last couple of years have hit businesses hard, and they need a good summer to bounce back, so they were pulling out all stops to attract that much needed business. There were numerous people that would point to their menus and try to engage in conversation as we walked by. My favorite was the pink pelican that was obviously someone’s pet, and the mascot of the restaurant with the same name. The small amount of tourists that were there were always drawn to this spot to get up and close to this animal that would otherwise be elusive.
On the other hand, the sights that would usually have throngs of people at them were empty. It opened them up to give them the kind of exploration that you always hope to give these historic points. I have been in Europe before where it is almost impossible to move around some of these sights, and they put you in a line to shove you along so they can get as many people through as fast as possible. That was not the case with my trip to Paphos. I could enjoy these sights at my leisure, and rarely did I see other people. If I did, we never got in each other’s way.
In a couple of months, this waterfront will be crowded with people, and I am happy that it will bring in the revenue that is need to keep this place thriving. I know that I will soon be one of the people in some other European town exploring what it has to offer, but until then I will enjoy this quiet European town before the mad rush. It is fun to get to experience it in this way rather than the usual madness that comes with the height of the tourist season, and I can’t wait to experience other European sights in the same way.
Not only the changing of the seasons Are buried during the Earth’s rotation Numerous times again around the sun. The tide will also take our creation, And cover it with the beach’s fine sand To compress it into a hardened stone. History will take this forgotten land To turn it to a place where plants have grown. It will take a man with a fine-haired brush And the patience of the centuries lost To push away the silence of time’s hush, Reminding us of a past that we tossed. The mosaic that once laid on the floor, We can now admire like once before.
It is not a trick of the eyes, or a way to play with the light. It is really a glass of wine of a new variety, blue wine. To be fair, it is not new, but it is a rare thing, and there are not many places in the world where you can get a glass of blue wine. The mistake that first brought this wonder into the world was in California, but five other countries repeated the process to produce their own blue wine. One of the wineries that produces this delicacy can be found in the hills of Cyprus outside the small village of Omodos called Linos.
Omodos is a charming village in the heart of the wine country in Cyprus, and is a short hour drive from Paphos by car. It is one of the places that everybody should visit if they make it out to Cyprus, and not only to taste the blue wine. The village is a fun place to stroll through that transports you back in time when streets were narrow and the only way to get from one place to the other was by walking. It is covered now with touristy shops and restaurants, but looking around, you can still see and imagine the way it once was.
It is also nestled right in the heart of wine country. Linos Winery is one of the bigger and older wineries in the region, and the only one to boast about the blue wine, but there numerous wineries around that allow you try the nectar that they have created. They have many traditional variations, and few grapes that can only be found on the island, but the one that the people of Cyprus brag about the most is commandaria. This is a desert wine made from raisins, and it is not a sweet as I would have thought. It falls more into the category of a lighter sherry and goes great after dinner.
Commandaria, like much of the other things that can be found in Cyprus, dates way back in history, and holds the distinction for being the oldest variety of wine in the world. According to people on my tour, they made the wine all the way back in the Hellenistic period using old presses much like the one pictured above. They would squeeze the raisins and grapes between the two large beams while men twisted the press below. They would then collect the juice in these large earthen jugs to ferment, and when the wine was ready, they would serve it to their guests.
The process has changed over the years, and now they collect the wine in oak barrels to age, but this does not take away from the history of the wine making process of this region. Commandaria is the wine that is talked about in Odysseus’s voyages, and Richard the Lion Hearted drank it during the crusades. It adds to the flavor of going out on a wine tasting tour in Cyprus.
It is easily one of the things that you should plan to do when taking a trip to Cyprus. There are many tour companies out there, and the one I took was called Cyprus Wine Tasting. They came to our place earlier in the morning and drove us to three different wineries while talking about the history of the island and the wine. The tour included a traditional lunch, and walk through the village of Omodos. And the most important thing was the driver to safely transport us from place to place. This is a great company to work with if you decide to take a tour and the one I recommend.
In the meantime, I raise my glass of blue wine to you and hope that someday you make it out to this part of the world.
Don’t let the Yelp review that complains about this “den of lies” deter you from making your way out to the the Tomb of Kings in Paphos, Cyprus. The writer of the review was mad that the title of the place did not live up to the expectations because they never saw a single king while they were visiting, and yes, there was some truth to this claim. Do not expect to come to this sight to see the vast tombs that hold the bones of once ago mighty kings. In fact, do not come out here expecting to see any bodies because there are none. I am not sure what happened to them, but I was amazed at the way I did not see any of them when strolling through the grassy knolls right off the ocean, but I don’t think that would have made this place any more exciting.
Basically, the Tomb of Kings is an old cemetery for the wealthy individuals who lived on Cyprus in the Hellenistic period. They built elaborate tombs to place their bodies, and then, like a lot of other places on Cyprus, time slowly buried them until centuries later archeologists came along and found them again. They started to unearth the tombs again, so people could come out and see the way people used to live over 2000 years ago.
The writer of the Yelp review might have been mad that all they got to see was a bunch of holes in the ground, and at first glance this is what this sight looks like. From the entrance to this archeological dig, there are a few tombs that were dug into the earth and to get there you have to walk down a precarious set of steps to get to these holes in the ground. But if you visit this sight, you need to move further down the shore and keep exploring those holes.
The tombs get more elaborate the further that you get into the sight. They still might not be tombs that were designed for kings, but they are still worth the effort to see. It highlights all of the classical architectural features from that era, and I can see why people want to come and see these tombs. It also makes me wonder how many more of them are buried underneath the ground that I walked on while I was visiting. There has to be more of these structures there, and I am sure that it only a matter of time before they are unearthed.
Despite the truth behind the Yelp review, I do not believe that the Tomb of Kings is really a den of lies. If you do not take the time or effort to really explore the sight, it does look like a bunch of holes in the ground. There is so much more to this place than that though. It may not have been kings who were buried here, but you get the royal treatment if you take the stroll to the end of the shore, and it is amazing how few people are willing to do that. Take the time to explore it fully before giving a review that might not be the truth of the place, and may even be creating your own den of lies.
I did not know a lot about the small island of Cyprus before I travelled out there for a long weekend. Everything I knew came from Shakespeare and Homer. I knew that many wars had fought on it because of its strategic position, and that it was one of the islands that Odysseus stopped at during his long voyage. Recently, there had been talks about Russian oligarchs losing their yachts that were parked on its shore, but beyond that I couldn’t tell much else about it.
I did discover that it is place of rich history and of great beauty. Just because of its location, I knew that I would be running into Greek and Roman ruins, and on my first day there, I was not disappointed. There are actually a lot of places to find ruins on the island, but the one that is closest to the waterfront of Paphos is the Kato Paphos Archeological Park. It sprawls all over a peninsula to the north and cost only 2.50 Euros for entry. I would recommend to go early because there is a lot to see and it closes down by 5 PM.
It is obviously still being dug up, so I am excited to go back in five or six years to see if anything has changed during that time, but in the meantime, there are a lot of hidden corners to explore that will keep anybody busy for a good portion of their day. There is also enough of variety among what to see so that it does not get boring. There are columns, caves, old buildings, and my favorite thing to see, the mosaics.
There is a really nice one in the House of Theseus which is out and exposed to the weather, and it really surprised me that they did not protect it better. I tried to get a good picture of it, but I had found it so late in the day that it was shrouded in shadows. Despite this, it was by far the most intricate of the mosaics and the best one to look at. I will leave it up to you to find it some day, and it will be worth the trip.
The House of Dionysus held the biggest collections of the mosaics, and most of them were surprisingly well preserved for how long they have been around. They depicted many of the greatest scenes from Greek mythology, and they had done a much better job of protecting them from the elements. Though all of the places that are presented in this historic sight, it was the House of Dionysus that impressed me the most. If you come here, and you don’t have a lot of time, I would make it for this spot because you will get the most out of the little time you have by coming here.
It was a nice introduction as to what the island of Cyprus had to offer, and it made me realize that there were many more surprises that I would find on my short weekend trip there.
Should I care that I need to get away Because my life has been beating me down? Is it a matter of where I will stay For another night in my new home town? I have gotten bored of these same old streets, And need a completely different view. When I wander down them, my heart retreats, And longs for a Spring morning to renew. The day of it being gloomy portends A future of more days being inside, But a break in the stormy clouds ends How the weather makes depression abide. I call for the rising of the Spring sun To confirm my renewal has begun.
Just like moving to any country or new location there have been a lot of adjustments to make and a lot of surprises, but I think the biggest surprises I have seen have been the Roman ruins that are all over the place throughout Jordan. I know logically thinking about it now, it makes sense. The presence of the Romans was always in the background in the Bible, and historically, they control this part of the world for a long time in history, so of course, their mark should be all over the place. But it is one of those things that did not hit me as being a part of my life now until I actually lived among those ruins for a couple of months.
I know that I have not hit the most important of these ruin in Petra, and I have plans on visiting that in April, but that does not mean that I haven’t seen some more of the impressive sights. There are some that jump right out from the first moments that you arrive in Amman, and smaller ruins that you have to travel to by the Sea of Galilee, and a truly impressive collection that creates its own city in Jerash. Each of them have their own flavor, but each is also a great way to spend a day in you make it out to Jordan.
The easiest of these ruins to access is in the heart of Amman. You can easily get to them with a thirty minute cab ride from the airport, or even better, with a ten to fifteen minute ride from most hotels in central Amman. They are really hard to miss. From many vantage points from this hilly city, they can be seen if you just look down. Look for the amphitheater in the heart of the city, and sitting right above that is a collection of ruins that overlooks this iconic location. Both sights are worth visiting, but they have separate entrance fees, so beware. There is a pass that can be bought when first arriving in Jordan that will reduce the cost a bit, but it will only allow you into a limited amount of sights in the country. Make sure to save one of those for Petra because that will be one that you really will want to see, but the two in Amman are also nice additions.
The other sight that I would suggest that you visit is only a short hour drive north of Amman. It is in the heart of the city of Jerash. This city got its start many centuries ago from these ruins and there are some impressive sights to see within the grounds. There are two smaller amphitheaters than the one that can be seen in Amman, but they are nestled on an old Roman road that gives them a more authentic feel. There is a long field that once was used for charioteer races with the stands still intact on one side of the field. There are old temples dedicated to ancient Roman gods even though they still used the Greek names. And there is a huge circular courtyard that was once was used as the gathering place for all who lived there, and those who had travelled many miles to get there.
There are many other places where the sights of Roman ruins can be found in Jordan. I have just shared my few favorite ones that I have witnessed so far after living here for a few months. It makes Jordan one of those places that should be on everybody itinerary for world travel, and it surprises me how few people want to make the trip to this little corner of the world.
But if you do make it out here, you will not be disappointed by what you will find. Jordan is a place rich in history and culture. The people are warm and friendly, and not enough people know about its spectacular views making it the prefect vacation destination for those in the know.
John Collings 