Cyprus 2017 (Part 1)
My Grandma is one of my favourite people in the entire world! This summer, she took my sister Charlie and I on holiday to Paphos, in Cyprus. We were so excited! We stayed at the Smartline Hotel Paphos, on an All-Inclusive basis. As our dad grew up in Cyprus, my sister and I are quite familiar with the island, as we visit most summers. Grandma hadn't been since 2009, so we were looking forward to showing her all of our favourite places!
On Tuesday 4th July, Dad drove the three of us to East Midlands airport. In the airport, there was a LEON cafe, which Charlie and I were super happy about. For those of you who may not have heard of LEON before, they are a healthy cafe chain, mainly based in London. On our last visit to London, Charlie took me to the LEON in the West End, which is slightly different to all of the other LEONs. This is because the waiting staff sing showtunes periodically throughout the day! Being the theatre fans we are, Charlie and I love this place (almost as much as we love the Theatre Cafe)! On the way to the airport, we realised we forgot to pack the sun cream, so we bought some from the Superdrug in the airport. We ate lunch too, before boarding the plane at 2 pm.
We flew on one of the new Thomas Cook Airbuses, and we were impressed by the leg room and comfort of the seats. Luckily, there were no delays, and we were in the air promptly! The Traveller magazine provided was actually quite interesting, especially the articles on hippie-ism (is that even a word???) Dinner was provided later on in the flight, which was a choice between sweet and sour chicken or beef and dumplings, both of which were James Martin meals (you know, that other chef who's not Jamie Oliver?) Charlie and Grandma both chose the chicken, whilst I had the beef.
We arrived at the hotel quite late, and, since we had missed dinner at the hotel (even though we had it on the plane!), the hotel provided us with sandwiches and snacks in our room, which was a really nice, unexpected touch. We nipped down to the bar to get some lemonades, before checking out the TV (a hard job, as all the titles and information were in Welsh for some odd reason!)
We eventually fell asleep, but were up early the next morning. Well, Grandma was- she has a shower every morning at exactly 7 o'clock! We headed down for breakfast at 9, where we were pleasantly surprised by what was on offer. We sat outside, where we had a lovely view of the pool area. My (rather extensive!) breakfast included hilariously tiny sausages, bacon just the way I like it, a bowl full of peaches, some mini croissants, and my favourite beverage, peach juice!
Charlie and I decided to go out and explore the local area whilst Grandma was sunbathing. We made our way to a nearby shopping centre, after getting lost a few times (apparently I'm a bit rubbish at map-reading)! The shopping centre is called King's Avenue Mall, and it was a handy 15-minute walk away from our hotel (or so we thought- we actually found a shortcut later on in the holiday, which took 5 minutes!) The air-conditioning was so welcome after walking in the 35° Celsius heat! We looked around some shops, many of which had great sales on. In Bershka, I picked up a pack of 4 enamels pins for €3.99 to add to my collection. By the way, if anyone reading this would like to do any pin trading (Disney or non-Disney), be sure to leave a comment below! I can't find anyone who does non-Disney pin trading :(
We also visited Jumbo, which is a MASSIVE shop which sells everything from toys to cooking stuff! This Jumbo had 3 levels, and although we didn't end up buying anything, we had plenty of fun (see my Cyprus Vlog to find out more)!
Dinner back at the hotel that night was great, and so was the evening entertainment, which was a series of singers and bands, including an ABBA tribute band, which Grandma (and me) loved!
On Thursday, we visited the beach. We originally planned to go to Coral Bay Beach, but we missed the bus stop, so we ended up a bit further down the coast, at Corallia Beach (sounds like Coral Bay in disguise, doesn't it?!) The sea was absolutely freeeezing, but Charlie and I braved it and went for a swim- Grandma was quite happy sunbathing. The morning passed really quickly, and before we knew it, it was 1 pm. Since lunch at our hotel ended at 2 pm, we dashed for the bus. We missed it by seconds! Luckily, another one came a few minutes later. We had to change buses at the bus station to get back to our hotel, so eventually made it back at quarter to 2! Just in time for a quick lunch :)
Something quite funny happened that evening. There was a kids' disco as part of the evening entertainment, and although I consider myself a bit too old for that kind of thing now (sadly!), my all-time favourite childhood song came on and I couldn't help singing along! The song is called "Veo Veo" and it's a kids' disco classic, sung in Spanish. I used to know allll the words to this song, and I hadn't heard it in years until then!
The next day was Friday, and today we ventured out to Paphos Harbour. First, we stopped for a drink at a little cafe, before browsing the abundant tourist shops. Charlie and I were looking for a very specific t-shirt for our little brother, Alex. You've probably seen them if you've been on holiday- they're the ones that say "So-and-so went to [insert place here] but all I got was this lousy t-shirt"! Unfortunately, we couldn't find one anywhere :(
We later came across a part of the harbour we had never been to before- right at the end was a bit of a hill, and on top was a walkway with a beautiful sea view. The path was accompanied by a row of colourful figurines, all decorated differently, that stretched on as far as the eye could see.
Saturday was mainly a pool day, interspersed with games of cards, which we always like to play (I usually win!) The hotel had 2 main pools and 2 kiddie pools. We only used one of the main pools, as it was bigger, yet less crowded. We had bought a ball back at the beach on Thursday, so Charlie and I spent lots of time playing with that, and also having handstand competitions. Charlie always wins those, because I find it impossible to go underwater without holding my nose, which only leaves me one hand to do a handstand with! I sometimes use a nose clip, but I forgot it this time :(
My sister sang Skyfall by Adele, which was great, as usual! Overall, not many people volunteered to do karaoke, so I decided why not do a second song? This time around, I sang "Part of your World" from Disney's The Little Mermaid. I was slightly less nervous this time, but I was still shaking so much- it was my first solo performance since I sang the "Hoedown Throwdown" from Hannah Montana at a talent show when I was 8!
On Sunday, we took Grandma to the shopping centre we went to on Wednesday, which is when we discovered the shortcut, thanks to the hotel receptionist! As usual, Grandma wanted to go in Marks and Spencer's (her favourite shop), even though we have that in England!
Now, if you've already watched my Cyprus vlog, you may have noticed I skipped Monday! There's no interesting reason for this, apart from the fact that I forgot to film anything! We had another pool day, and we also found the hotel's "mini market", aka. a souvenir shop. We still hadn't managed to find the t-shirt we wanted for our brother, so instead, we bought him a "Pirate of Cyprus" one, as well as some sweets for the plane ride home the next day.
Tuesday was our last day, and it came around far too quickly! After packing in the morning, we went down for breakfast, before returning to our room and collecting the cases, which we left in the luggage room downstairs. We spent the day by the pool, playing cards and making the most of our all-inclusive wristbands for the last time, which for me meant drinking a gazillion "Mickey Mouse" mocktails! I can't remember what was in it, but here's a picture (it's the one on the right):
I tried all the mocktails on the menu (Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck, Cinderella and Shirley Temple), but the Mickey Mouse was by far my favourite!
It was really sad to leave the hotel, after spending such an amazing week there creating so many beautiful memories, but the time had to come eventually. We were picked up at 7 on the bus for the airport. We sat at the front, where we had fun talking to our hilarious "transportation rep" Javin. He gave us priority passes through the check-in line, which was really kind.
The plane ride back to England (and normality!) was pretty uneventful, as both Grandma and Charlie fell asleep, and I was stuck in the middle of them! At least I had my Mortal Instruments colouring book! We arrived back at East Midlands Airport at about 1 am, where Dad was waiting to pick us up. The minute we got home, I jumped into bed and fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow! My holiday may have been over, but my summer was only just beginning :)
Well, that marks the end of my first applepip blog post! I hope you have enjoyed reading it, and make sure you check out my Cyprus vlog if you haven't already! (Don't forget to subscribe!)
Here's the link: Cyprus 2017 || Vlog
Bye for now!
Comments
Post a Comment