Sex, Chips, and Ouzo-a Wild Night Out

So yeah....we went to see this play called "Sex, Chips, and Ouzo." It's about post Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1978-four years after the invasion. Basically these two British chicks come to Cyprus on holiday and meet two Cypriot men and the rest is chaos. If you want to read up on it more, check out their website: http://rubberear.wordpress.com/about/ The cool thing about this show was it was at Kourion Amphitheater (check out the Kourion post to see the amphitheater in daylight.) We had heard that it was a "thing" in Cyprus to see a show here so we figured we'd go since we missed their production of Romeo and Juliet.

A walk on the beach, how romantic ;)

Matt strolling along...

Don't we look nice?

So we found a dead fish on the beach, which I didn't think was real, and I wanted to take some pics to examine later to see if it was real (later we found 2 more fish just like the first so I decided it was real.) But some of the photos came out pretty.

I like the lighting on this one. And the fish is smiling!

Yup, we live here.

Since the show was from 1978 you have to throw out a peace sign while posing!

I look a LITTLE tan, right?

There was one scene where the one guy was in a dress and it was HILARIOUS! Especially when he sat down, as displayed below. The audience was pretty rambunctious so there was lots of wolf whistling during this scene.

All in all it was a pretty fun(ny) show. We didn't get a couple of the jokes (not being British and all) but we enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully there will be another show there soon (or at another amphitheater near by) so we can have another fun experience!

Finally, the End....

So here we are, the end. The finale. The last installment. We made it back to Paris Friday night and decided to go up to Sacre Couer since we didn't get to make it during the week. It was one of the things I REALLY REALLY wanted to do. And oh man am I glad we did!! We didn't really think about the fact that this is a catholic church that we were visiting on Friday afternoon, yup, right in time for mass! We went inside and walked around a little, during mass, then decided to go into the bell tower since it's supposed to have the best view of the city. Those who told me how amazing it is up there were right-it was fantastic!

What a beautiful basilica!

Up the stairs to the tower!

The walkways at the top-kinda mystical and creepy huh?

Gargoyle almost eating the Eiffle Tower.

Look! I'm squishing the Eiffle Tower!


At the top overlooking the city on a glorious summer day!

After finishing at Sacre Couer we went back to our hotel for the night, ready to see a few more things in the morning before heading off the the airport and home.
From the beginning Matt said he really wanted to see the Arc du Triomphe. So that was where we headed first thing Saturday morning. As it would take more time and money, we didn't go on the top which I was ok with since I had been before.

Take that Napoleon AND Hitler!

Our next stop was to go back to Notre Dame but to go into the bell tower! On the way we walked down the Champs Elysee and by the Louvre. It was such a lovely day and we had a wonderful walk!

We realized we had never gotten a pic in front of the Louvre, so here we are ;)

So after waiting a few hours, yes hours, to go up the bell tower we made it! Matt was having a great time up there. Me? Not so much!

Gargoyles and Notre Dame go hand in hand right?

Great View of the city.

You can see Sacre Couer just off the wing of the gargoyle. And in case you didn't know, this one is photographed A LOT!

In front of the cathedral after descending from the very top. If you look really close you can see people on the top right part of the tower-we were there. Insert me freaking out a little bit.

So there you have it loyal follower(s). An entire 2 weeks of food, culture, art, rain, bikes, and fun with my amazing hubby. We had so much fun! I hope you had fun seeing it and are inspired to go on your own crazy adventures! I can't wait for our next big adventure/trip! But before we go anywhere again, we have a college friend of Matt's coming for a long weekend, I'm off to Portugal with mom to ride fancy horses, mom comes home with me for a week, and then Matt's parents come for a week. Phew! It's about to get really crazy here!

Belquie-The FINAL Day

So what would you do on your final full day in Belgium. Us, we did what one would normally do on the first day, same as we did in Paris. We did a bike tour of course! Dad was on this "Let's do bike tours every where we go" kick so we found one to do in Brugges. It was GREAT! The guide was this kid getting his masters in art history so he knew ALL sorts of good stuff (naturally ;) ). It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time!

You ever go to Brugges, go on this tour. It's worth it, I promise!

Here he is, explaining things in a court yard.

And we're off! I'm getting good at "bike-by" shots

"Lover's Lake"-who wouldn't want to be in love here??


Yup-we saw a windmill. It was awesome. And it still works!

The first shot looked like the windmill was coming out of my head-this one is better.


So dad lost his phone on the tour so we had to rewalk parts of the route we biked. It gave me the chance to take some more "artsy" photos.

Seriously, who doesn't love this?

Man has to earn a living somehow right? Why not stick a horn on a violin and try that out?

Now you all know how much I love churches. We went into this church that had a piece that Michael Angelo sculpted that actually got to leave Italy in his life time. It's Mary and Jesus, in case you couldn't tell. It's actually fairly small but it's pretty amazing.


Original fresco from the early part of the church. That angel looks a little mad, don't you think?

As seems the norm around this part of the world, the church was dedicated to Mary. And so she's in a lot of the art work.

These were all plaques thanking/dedicating Mary for something in all different languages. There were about 3 walls of these things. And they were pretty full to!


So have I told you about the swans around here? Like in the UK, swans are protected in Belgium. So they pretty much do what they want. And in case you didn't know, swans are kinda mean. Ok, they're really mean. There were these swans that hung out in the canal by our hotel window so we would watch them swim around all peaceful like, until a boat went by. Then they went into attack swan mode and chased the boats down the canal. It was really amusing to watch. I took a few shots of the swans doing this but this one is the funniest. It's like the swan is saying "yeah you better keep going! stay away from my turf!" Go to http://thecypruslife.shutterfly.com/ to see all the photos of the swans around Brugges.


Our last meal was at this restaurant that we found that used to be some kind of guild. It was right on the canal (of course) and was in this really cool old building. Mom and dad both ordered the ham hock, thinking it wouldn't be as big as their face. Well, it was. Dad took it like a champ and was ready to chow down.

Mom freaked out a bit. You can't really blame her can you?

The food was OH SO tasty so it was worth gorging ourselves. After eating we went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before going back to Paris the next day. Mom and dad were going straight to the airport hotel since they had an early morning flight while Matt and I spent our final day exploring the sights in Paris we didn't get to see but wanted to. That will be on the next (and final, you lucky, lucky people!) post!

One Year Into It

So we've done it! We made it one year living abroad! Who would've thought that we could actually do it and not kill each other, ourselves, the dog, and various other people ;) Just kidding. It's been a trying year (but what year hasn't really?) but we've had TONS of fun and adventures in the process. I've decided to do a quick year in review, life on the island and adventures taken.

Where would we be without good friends made? Probably curled up in a ball on the couch a lot, crying to myself.

We had a Christmas away from family but at least we still had our lovely sweaters.

Matt got to be manly and see some cars zoom around real fast with some other manly men!

What would life be like without playing at the beach? Especially since we live only 10 minutes from it!

And I happily get to ride some ponies and work on my game while here-I may even prove to be a rider yet!

That's basically life for us on the island-eating, riding, good friends, and wearing ugly clothes. Happily as life continues on we are getting a busier social calender-that shows we're really adapting to life here right??? We've also become part of a great Baptist church and are getting to know the people slowly yet surely. The pastor (Mark) is American so he thinks we're the greatest things since sliced bread, especially Matt since they've started watching football games together.

And as all of you loyal readers know, we have done quite a bit of traveling this year. We've hit 5 countries this year, making my goal of a trip about every 3 months right on target. We have plans (or at least I do) for more to come this year, hopefully including a long jaunt in Australia/New Zealand (what?? It's cheaper and quicker to fly from here than the states. Don't judge us!) I am off to Portugal with mom next month for a week of riding fancy horses and a little sight seeing-I'm excited to spend the time with my mom one on one. And to ride fancy horses too. We're going to check out Lisbon for a few days as well so I'm starting off this second year with a bang!

Trip #1: Jolly ol' England. Everyone must visit the motherland right? Well, I don't think this was fully our motherland (oh Italy, we'll get there some day!!) but we had good friends there so we went the week of Christmas. It was great! Snow, cold, decorations, and sight seeing!

Trip #2: Greece-It's close. It's cheap. It's a must do on any European traveler's list. And it was FANTASTIC! The food was great! The sights were beautiful. We do plan to hit other parts we didn't see the first time around!

Trip #3: Israel. The Holy Land. The place of Mecca for all Christian in the world. We were fortunate enough to get to go with a fun family from church. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazarene, Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan river was all we saw but it was more than enough for our weekend away! Now when we read certain Bible stories the landscape, buildings, and city plans make more sense and we can actually visualize what we're reading about! It's so awesome!

Trip #4-Paris. Oh how I love thee! We got to meet mom and dad there and explore the city some. We saw all the major sights despite crappy weather for the most part. I really do love Paris and I'm always happy to go back and explore (AND EAT!!!) more!

Trip #5-Belgium. OK, technically this is part B of trip 4 but we can class it alone since it is a different country. After leaving Paris we went to Belgium to eat lots of chocolate and waffles. Oh man; if we lived there we'd gain about 60 pounds in no time! But the landscape was lovely and the food divine!

So there you have it! Our first year abroad. Man, we've done a lot haven't we?! Here is to year two with more adventures, friends, food, and loving life despite being so far away from those we love.

Belquie Day 5: Canals, Boats, Dogs, and Violently Graphic Movies

So after our wild adventures in Brussels we got on the train and headed toward the coast to Brugges. Oh man, what a great decision that was!! In reality it was the ONLY place mom wanted to see during our 2 weeks away. We hadn't really heard of this town until we started to do the research but it is a cool little place. Basically it's really, really, really old and has lots of interesting history to it and is well known for the architecture and canals. All of which we saw! Also, there is a fairly recent movie that has come out called "In Bruges" that is kind of funny but way more violent than I anticipated. But we saw all the cool sights in that movie! We even went oooh, remember that and look there and blah, blah, blah while we watched. If you have the stomach for somewhat graphic violence and a lot of language, check the movie out. It actually gives you a good glimpse of the town.
Anyway, we stayed at this great little bed and breakfast/hotel that was right on the canal and we had rooms that faced the canal. They were very helpful and polite too which is always nice. We got to Brugges, checked in, than decided to go on a canal boat ride since we had the time and wanted to get cracking on seeing the sights.

Our hotel-if you go to Brugges, stay here!

Me on our window seat in our cute room! Yup-that's the canal below. Don't worry, I didn't fall in!

We walked through the main square on our way to the boat ride.


Horse drawn carriages are a VERY popular tourist attraction-1 hr ride around the historic parts of the city.

Just another commute to work right?

Dad and mom on the boat waiting to go! They're already having fun!


Churches, bridges, canals, swans, and trees-this one photo encompasses all of Brugges.


Oh to relax by the water.

After the boat ride we walked around some since we had plenty of day light and time. We came upon the "Bier Temple" where we perused all the different beers (mainly from Belgium) then we went to sit on the patio for some down time and of course the boys had a beer.

Mom had a cherry beer that was quite tasty.

This was the inspiration for one of the Pirates of the Caribbean characters. No, not really. This was part of a somewhat eclectic fountain that was quite popular.

After dinner and as it was getting later, mom and dad decided to go to bed so Matt and I wandered around some more and goof off. We didn't get lost but we did explore some of the side streets and came upon the oldest bridge in the town where we took some fun photos including this one....

Of course I'm going to smile a little while being kissed by such a handsome man!

This dog was in the movie "In Bruges" and he just hangs out of this window that overlooks the canal. There was another little dog that would steal his spot when big dog was away but this one was way cuter ;) And mind you, this was taken at 10PM-by the lighting you'd think it was 4Pm

So after we were done with our walk, we went back to the hotel around sunset (1030/11PM??), snapped some shots, then went to bed ready for the next day of adventures-a bike tour!!