Travel to Cyprus and the first few hours

Now we're already spending the third evening on this beautiful Mediterranean island - high time for an update.

The Flight was overall more relaxing than expected. Luckily, we decided at the last minute to take our rickety stroller with us, otherwise we would have missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt. Our little monsters are not big fans of sitting still or staying with mom and dad, so we were glad to be able to lure them with sweets into the stroller and then move on.

From the airport, a minivan taxi brought us to our Airbnb, where our hostess was already eagerly waiting for us. After a short tour of the house, she took Timo to the grocery store so that we would have the essentials at least until Monday.

Timo: My first grocery shopping in a Cypriot supermarket was a real experience. During the ride, I had a nice conversation with our hostess and her friend. When we arrived at the market, I went in alone and was initially quite disoriented, and I also felt a bit rushed because our hostess was waiting outside in the car. And so, out of shock, I even bought my least favorite vegetable, zucchini. I also bought everything we needed for the first few days. Local products are quite cheap, while all imported products are significantly more expensive than in Germany. Since we want to integrate ourselves culinary from the beginning, I also bought halloumi, zivani (the national drink, tastes almost like grappa), pitta bread, tzatziki, and loukanika (a grilled sausage with red wine and mastic tree seeds). The small shopping cart was quickly filled, so I had to go into the market a second time to buy drinking water in 10 and 15 liter canisters, as the tap water is mostly from sea water desalination plants and is not suitable for cooking and drinking.

The weather is quite intense. We already felt like the midday heat was there at 10:30 am.

The mosquitoes concentrate, as in previous vacations, exclusively on Timo, for which the rest of the family is very grateful. Unlike the mosquito bites in Gozo/Malta, the Cypriot ones magically disappear the next day. Timo has decided to try out one of the mosquito sprays later... could be interesting ... on day 3.

And then my (Doreen's) personal highlight so far: My first car ride in Cyprus. For those who don't know the background quite well, here's a quick rundown: I took an intensive theory course over 7 days in the first week of March and started with driving lessons in the second week of March. It went so fast because I didn't have to take an exam, as I already have my driver's license for 20 years ;-) A US import from the time of my high school year in the most famous US state of all: Arkansas! Never heard of it? Doesn't matter! :)

After about the fourth driving lesson, I was on the verge of giving up driving altogether, but then I switched to automatic and it went a bit better since then. However, I am still very stressed by things like turning on multi-lane roads.

So today morning, I bravely let myself be driven by taxi to the airport to pick up my rental car, and after the nice gentleman at the counter installed the child seats for me, I sat in the car like a deer in headlights until it occurred to me that not all cars start automatically like my driving school car, but you need the car key for that in other cars. The next shock came almost immediately: Not only is there left-hand traffic in Cyprus and you sit on the other side, but also the blinkers and windshield wipers are swapped, so I had to pass the car rental employees on the way out while my windshield wipers were happily moving up and down in 28 °C and bright sunshine.

But thanks to the navigation system, I managed to find my way 'home' quite well. I only heard wild honking behind me twice, which was probably directed at me.

To really get going, I went out again after a short break to drive to the supermarket, where I think I parked backwards quite neatly. Yes!!!