Taking a break - AKA Eating, Sleeping and generally doing nothing.
Good afternoon True Believers.
I know before anyone comments (wishful thinking on my part) my posts have been a little light over the last few weeks. This lack of verbose ranting is due to a few of the following factors.
(A) Dissertation work. (B) Impending Spatial Audio Exam. (C) Holiday.
With that out of the way I opted to encompass sections A and B (working on down time) with section C (to many this may seem a little boring) but stick with me while I explain. Over the years holidays were a family thing in respect of being a parent with young children you go away to relax but to be honest taking a break is never an option. So now that my two are “older, but still childlike”, holidays have turned into a very selfish pastime where I do what I want to do and if (Thing One & Thing Two <– family joke) who reside in my house (Rent free) want to come they have to pay for themselves (Bad Parent !!).
Both me and Sandra (my soulmate) enjoy the quieter things in life, Destinations with (A) Low quantities of British holiday makers, (B) Excellent local food, (C) Great scenery and (D) Lots of driving off the beaten track. So after a few weeks last year picking destinations based on previous criteria Cyprus becomes our spring holiday destination. At this point I could be totally honest and go off on a proper rant about the lack of our holiday choice mojo but I fear WordPress may shred this before it reaches my readers so I will travel down a more sedate descriptive path.
Personally I love chilling in cafe’s in unspoilt areas enjoying watching the locals go about their own day to day business whilst enjoying what local local food is on offer. Alas, this is not entirely true with this country, somewhere down the line as the costal areas became popular someone (whoever you are) neglected to understand what natural beauty really stands for and built mile upon mile of concrete (and not very environmentally sympathetic monstrosities) thus destroying any scenery or ambience.
With that, our quite nice base camp becomes a place to sleep and eat breakfast while we pick a more inland and enjoyable experience. The car which we hired for the week becomes our best friend, taking us along winding country roads showing us the real country which we came to see. People living their lives how they want to in untouched surroundings instead of pandering to the masses and in some respect losing their own cultural identity (I feel this is the worst crime for any country that becomes a holiday destination).
I suppose the one resounding comment that you are probably thinking is “Stop moaning, you made the choice to go there !” but I feel that my comments are valid from a “places shouldn’t change to cater for the masses” point of view. Our world is becoming a smaller place thanks to cheaper Air Travel and the wonderful world of the internet so is it a crime to experience a foreign countries culture first hand instead of demanding them to change thus debasing their own historical and personal culture so you can have your “Bacon and eggs” or your “everything with chips” way of holidaying.
Alas I feel the latter is becoming common place and soon there maybe only a few pockets of truly untouched beauty left in the world while the rest becomes in every sense of the word “Home from Home”. It is very true what some people say about the Human race, “As a species we destroy everything we touch in the name of progress”
Till next time True Believers.
Paul
So I opted to document these experiences and with kind thanks to our Apartment Manager (for letting me use his internet connection) The following Flickr diary is a selection of what we found on our travels through what became a very enjoyable holiday.
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