Most likely my last post of the year

Especially as this is only my second post since returning from Cyprus in early September...

We have broadband at home now, and I love it! A few teething problems in the first few days seem to have been sorted out, and it's been quite reliable since then.

Soph and I just had a lovely dinner cooked on our new BBQ and eaten on our new garden furniture in our gazebo. Life is pretty good at the moment!

And for those who haven't seen our kitten yet here she is:



Have a great new year's eve everyone!

Back again

Hey, my first entry since returning from Cyprus! Just the two months ago. Probably should change the name of my journal, but I couldn't be bothered...

Not much to say, I'm mainly focussed on all the things Soph and I have to do for our new house. Right now we're in the packing and changing addresses for everything stage.

I'll try and write at least one more entry before the end of the year!

Last Day!

Today is my last full day in Cyprus, my flight leaves tomorrow at 3pm. I'm a little bit sad to be going, because I love all the people here, and I also haven't seen as much of Cyprus as I would have liked, and I also missed out on going to Egpyt and/or Jordan. Of course the main reason I missed out on all that was because I went to the Olympics, and that of course more than makes up for it! But overall I'm really happy to be going home and being with Sophie and my family and friends again.

The last few days have been great, on Wednesday I went out to an Italian restaurant with Prasad (one of my housemates) and two other guys from work, and I had a fantastic tortellini with a four cheese sauce, was one of the best I've ever had. Last night was drinks in a bar with a large group of people from work, including James (my trainer for the last two weeks), Mark who was in Cyprus for a couple of days on his way from India to his US home, and my other housemate Ganesh. Tonight a groups of us from the apartment complex are going to go to a Greek takeaway place at the end of our street for dinner, I think I'll have a final Souvlaki! Hopefully I'll also have enough money for an icecream, but I'm attempting to avoid getting any more money out, as the minumum ATM withdrawal is £20 ($60) and there's no way I'll get close to using that up before I leave.

So tomorrow I first have a 3-hour flight to Bahrain, where I have a 1.5 hour break. I then have a 17 hour flight to Sydney, including a 1 hour stopover in Singapore, arriving at 8:10pm. Unfortunately the last plane from Sydney to Canberra leaves at 8:30pm so I'll be staying overnight with Grandpa and Uncle John at Longueville. Then I fly to Canberra at 6:30am, arriving at 7:20am Monday. So it will be 37 hours between leaving my apartment in Nicosia and arriving at Goodchild St. And I'm still really looking forward to it!

I'll probably keep up my journal when back in Canberra, but I somehow don't think it will be as interesting unless you enjoy hearing about how all my sporting teams are performing!

Anyway thanks for reading, and I hope to see most of you next week!

North Nicosia

Last Sunday I went across the border into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I shared a taxi with some other guys from the apartment who were heading in to town, and got dropped off at the Ledra Palace Hotel crossing. The Ledra Palace was the largest hotel in Cyprus at the time of the invasion/rescue, but is now used as housing for UN personnel.

Lonely Planet said that I would have to show my passport and have my details entered into a log book on the Greek side, and that they would carefully check that I had no Turkish or Greek background. Cypriots are not allowed to cross from one side to the other, and it is impossible to cross into southern Cyprus if you start in the north; only day trips to the north from the south are allowed. Still, the border guards didn’t seem too fussed and just waved me through when I showed my passport. So I walked through the exclusion zone, which contained this shop:





Presumably it’s been frozen in time since 1974, since it’s not going to get a whole lot of Cypriot customers! Barbed wire lined most of the road, but the relaxed nature of the border guards on both sides made me feel very safe.

On the Turkish side they checked my passport and entered my details in a computer. I then filled out a form and they stamped that rather than stamp my passport, which apparently would lead to problems at other Greek borders. One of the border guards “introduced” me to a taxi driver, but I declined and walked the 100m into the old city.

I didn’t really do much in North Nicosia except follow the Lonely Planet walking tour, and then wander around some more. There were lots of amusing/heartbreaking sights, such as the football field that has its seating on the other side of the border:





Or the church on the Greek side that backs on to the Turkish side:





Apparently they’re still allowed to hold services on the proviso that the back door is never, ever used!

The areas around the border were very run down:





It was even worse than the southern side, but there were also some nice areas where they’re making a redevelopment effort:





The mosque which I’d seen from the top of the Woolworths building was quite impressive close up and was lovely inside, very white and clean, with Turkish rugs covering the entire floor. It’s a bit of an odd building, built as a gothic cathedral but converted to a mosque after one of the many invasions of Cyprus. I also saw some more mosques and churches, and Turkish baths.

I found a nice place to have lunch, and I went for a Doner Kebab meal, and it was delicious, and so very filling! It cost 8,000,000 lira, or about $7 (Turkey has a rather large inflation problem).

I headed back to the border, I had my piece of paper stamped again, and this time the Greek guard did check my passport carefully, and asked me where I was staying. And so ended my time in the TRNC!

Sunday at the Olympics, Part 2

I left the basketball at 5pm and started the long journey back to Athens in order to get to somewhere near the end of the Marathon route by the expected finishing time of 8:30. Leaving in the middle of the match worked out well as there was hardly anyone at the tram stop so I easily got a seat. The machine even gave me my change! So it appeared it would be a better trip back in, but unfortunately when we reached the tram stops for the beach people just poured in and the tram became really, really full. So it was a long and unpleasant journey, although it was quite funny that a couple who had been near me on the tram in were near me again on the tram on the way out, quite amazing given the size and number of trams and my odd time of departure.

Anyway I arrived back in to Athens at about 6:30, so I still had heaps of time before I needed to go to the marathon route. I walked around the tourist area some more, still searching for the waffle parlour from Soph’s and my previous trip, but I couldn’t find it (I’m pretty sure it’s been replaced by a more generic café). I ended up getting some Souvlaki at Quick Pitta, mainly because they had a TV where I could watch the middle stages of the marathon.

With the help of an information booth volunteer I had chosen a spot to watch the marathon and I headed there at 7:30. I walked through a nice park, with a pond in the middle with a LOT of ducks! I was in a bit of a rush but I had to stop and get a photo:





There were hundreds of people heading in the same direction and I started to realise that maybe I should have left a little earlier. I got to a street running parallel to the marathon route which I had planned to use to get to my chosen spot, but they had blocked it off even to pedestrians. So I had to go down to the marathon route itself, and unfortunately the footpath was completely packed with spectators. There was a way through at first but halfway along it pretty much closed up, so I had to really force my way through which wasn’t much fun at all. Eventually I came to spot where I could cross the road, it was a dual-carriage road and the other side was quite empty as it didn’t have a good view of the route itself. So I headed up the road until I got to another spot where I could cross back over. I found a great vantage point, there was an inlet where the tape was at an angle to the road so I could look up the marathon route and not have to lean out to see past people.





At first I was next to a couple of Brits, they were getting constant updates on their mobiles as to how Paula Radcliffe was going. They disappeared though, not sure if they went somewhere else or if they gave up after she pulled out. There was a great atmosphere with people of all countries around, there were lots of Japanese fans, there was a Cypriot flag nearby and a conga line of Kenyans went by after their runner had passed. I had my flag tied to the tape and I was directly in front of a big parking lot sign so I’m hoping to be able to spot myself on the replay! I stayed and watched for about half an hour after the winner went past, looking at the results list I think I would have seen all but 2 or 3 runners.

I also noticed that the same couple who I had seen on both my tram trips today were about 20m along the tape to my left! Such an astounding coincidence! I was just about to go talk to them when they both lit up cigarettes… so I decided I’d wait until they finished but they left before then. Oh well.

It was now 9pm and I was a bit of a wreck, so I decided I’d just head to the airport. At the metro station I went to the ticket counter to get a ticket (it’s €8 to the airport, normal fare is €0.60 or 0.70), but I was told it was free if I had an Olympics ticket! I’m not sure if that meant it had been free for the whole day, and I’d wasted all the fares I’d bought from machines, but they only added up to a few euros anyway. The trip was quite long, but was enlivened by an argument between two men who hadn’t bought a ticket and some ticket collectors. It was all in Greek so I’m not sure what the outcome was, but the fare-dodgers seemed upset so presumably they were fined. I also talked to a couple who turned out to be from Cyprus, although their flight was that night and thus they wouldn’t be joining me in sleeping at the airport.

I wandered around the airport for a while. I arrived in time to see the men’s 100m final so I was pleased to be able to see that. At 12am I’d hit the wall so I tried sleeping in various locations and positions. I was moved away from one by a security guard for “security reasons”, I have no idea what difference it made me moving to another area, but I managed to get reasonably comfortable on a couple of side-tables, using a bag as a pillow. I slept right through until 4:30am so it couldn’t have been too bad!

Sunday at the Olympics, Part 1

I got up at 4:45 (the earliest I've been up in a long, long time), had a shower, got my things, checked out and headed for the bus stop. I was there in plenty of time for the 5:30 bus, and this time I checked very carefully that this bus was going to Athens! The bus trip was very quick, so I had plenty of time to get breakfast when I arrived. I went to Everest, which is a fast-food style café, and I had a cheese and bacon croissant and a hot chococaramel. I caught the metro in to OAKA and it was again very quick and easy, and I arrived at the complex at about 7:50. It was all quite deserted, as you'd expect, so I went to the velodrome to see if it had opened up early. It had, and the cyclists had already started warming up so I had a great time watching them for the next hour or so! There were often 15-20 cyclists on the track at once, and it was funny to see some of the sprinters tag on the end of the pursuit teams and follow them round for a couple of laps. I went and sat in an "official photographer's position" for a while, it was right on the fence so I could get some extreme closeups:







The Australian pursuit team didn't take part in the warmup which was a shame, but all the Aussie sprinters were out there.

My seat was unfortunately one of the few in the velodrome that was in the sun, although about halfway through the session it got high enough for me to be in the shade. I'm so glad they built a roof though, I assumed that I would be out in the sun and it would have been very unpleasant!

I knew that I would be seeing a qualifying session, but I thought that I would still see some head-to-head races. However my session only consisted of the sprinters and then the pursuit teams setting qualifying times in order to progress to the races themselves. However on the plus side I saw Australians set the fastest time in each of the events, and they all went on to win gold medals! It was a great atmosphere, all the seats were full by the end, and the German fans were especially good, shouting "Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup!" every time one of their riders passed.





So all in all I had a great time at the velodrome, probably not as exciting as the water polo but definitely better results!

Next up was Australia vs Brazil in women’s basketball, and unfortunately I was in the far north of Athens and it was happening in the far south. It looked easy enough to get to though, there was a tram connection on the transport map I had that would take me directly to the stadium. So off I set...

The first hitch was when I arrived at Syntagma Square, one of the connecting stations, but after some searching and asking I found that they hadn't actually built the tram line to that station. So I had to go back to the metro and go another couple of stations, and then I found the tram stop easily enough. The ticket machine didn't give me my 40 euro cents change, but otherwise the journey out was OK, although it did take well over an hour. I had a seat though so I was happy enough.

We arrived at the "Helliniko" stop, and since I was heading to "Helliniko Olympic Complex", and the stop was right next to the complex on the map, and the stop was actually right next to the complex, I figured that it was the one to go for. However this proved not to be the case. A group of us (I certainly wasn't the only one who got it wrong) crossed an extremely busy road at a pedestrian crossing that cars completely ignored, walked two stops worth along the road, and then found we had to go back across the same extremely busy road at a pedestrian crossing that cars completely ignored, in order to be able to take the bridge back across the road and get into the complex.

All this of course was in high-30s heat, so I wasn't in the best of moods after I found that Helliniko is just a big flat expanse with enormous stadiums dotted around, and virtually no shade anywhere.





I was quite hungry so I went and got lunch - I got Gyros (shavings of meat off those spinning pillars), was €5 but was actually an excellent meal so I didn't feel too bad about the huge markup. I had to drag a table from the sun into the shade, and it was the last one available so I was lucky to get it. I filled my water bottle at the bubblers (was warm here, had been cold at OAKA) and headed to the basketball stadium. Unfortunately they hadn't opened the gates yet, even though it was only 45 mins to tip-off (I got in to water polo and cycling well over an hour before the start of each event). And there was absolutely no shade at the gates... so I went and stood under a small canopy for 20 minutes. Naturally there weren't any seats under the canopy, they were all out directly under the sun.

They finally opened up the gates, and I headed in. The stadium was enormous, it was quite clear that it was not going to be full for the Australia match, although the Greek match was on second so I thought it might fill up for that. The players came out for the warmup, with Lauren naturally getting the loudest cheer. I was in the upper section, and the main Australian support section was directly below me. I thought about going down and joining them but I could see that they were having their tickets carefully checked so it wasn't going to happen.

The game itself was great for the first half, especially in the first quarter when it looked like it was going to go down to the wire. A tall Brazilian was getting all the rebounds and they were shooting really well! But in the second half Brazil just seemed to stop defending properly, and they weren't even competing for rebounds, and Australia just ran away with the match. Lauren was definitely the star; she hardly missed a shot all match.





So it was great to see the win but it didn't have the excitement of the water polo.





I thought that the next match would be starting very soon but the timer countdown said it was over an hour away! So that meant I would only have time to see one quarter before I had to head off to the marathon. When the players finally came out to begin the warmup, the Greeks got an enormous cheer from the crowd, and a big ‘Ole!’ as each player was introduced. However when the Japanese players came out, they were greeted with very loud boos and whistles, it was much worse than at the water polo last night. It continued throughout the match every time the Japanese had the ball. So I didn’t mind leaving early as I was disgusted with the crowd. The Greeks were up by about 15 points at quarter time so I figured the match was over anyway… I found out later that they only ended up winning by 1 or 2 points so it would have been a good match after all!

Broadcast Rage

Broadcast Rage - great anger caused by the idiotic decisions and mistakes of television companies.

Some recent examples are Nine stretching out the last six episodes of Friends over six months, Nine first moving West Wing to 10:30 and then not showing it at all so far this year, and the "Club Lime" ad that came on during play in the World Cup semi between Australia and NZ.

I had another such experience on Sunday when watching the marathon. They showed the first 15 minutes of the race, but then they cut to a replay of a Greek winning gold in the women's discus! And this wasn't just a quick replay, they showed replays of her throws, the medal ceremony, an interview with the athlete and then an interview with her coach! I was absolutely livid. Especially as it was quite clear that this was going to happen throughout the race. This proved to be correct as they proceeded to show extended highlights of the other three Greek athletics medal winners, plus - apparently just for the hell of it - the womens 100m final. This was of course on top of the 3 or 4 ad breaks. So naturally I missed seeing the major point of the race, when the nutter grabbed the leading Brazilian runner and held him for 20-30 seconds (they showed a replay upon returning).

Ads during the race are annoying but I do understand that the TV station is a business and they need to make their money somewhere. But showing the replays was something else. The 400m hurdles race had already been shown about 30 times, and will probably be shown another 30 times over the next month, so why did they have to show it during the marathon? The other channel was showing uninterrupted coverage of Taekwondo followed by the Water Polo final, why couldn't they have put it on there? I know a lot of people find the marathon really boring, but this was The Marathon over the original route, I would have thought it could have been given more respect.

Saturday at the Olympics

I got up at 7:30 or so and headed down to breakfast. It was a buffet affair, and I was seated at a table with two American women and a group of French people. It turns out that they had all booked accommodation in central Athens, but soon before arrival they had been told the hotel was overbooked so they would be staying on the Aegean I, which would be docked in the Athens port of Pireaus. Then when they arrived they found the ship was not in Pireaus but in Lavrio. So on the whole there were not particularly happy! Especially as they had not yet received a refund on their expensive Athens hotel accommodation. It was OK for me to be in Lavrio because I knew that I would be a long way from Athens, but it must have been awful for them to have their plans so affected!

I had an enormous breakfast: rolls with ham and swiss cheese, a muffin, pancakes and bacon. I figured I had to try and get my $300 worth! Especially as I would be leaving too early for breakfast tomorrow. After breakfast I had to rush to the bus stop, and I just made it in time for the 8:30 bus. The bus driver said that the bus was going to the airport and then to Athens... I thought that the bus leaving at this time went directly to Athens, but I decided that I would just get out at the airport and catch the metro in to town.

After some more unnecessary stops (an old lady got on at one stop and got off at a cemetery about 500m down the road) we arrived at Markopoulo (the town where the equestrian and shooting events take place). The bus driver said that people for the airport should get off here and wait for the next bus, so I did so (this also happened last night, but then I went straight from one bus to another). One bus came and went, but a bus company person said it wasn't the right one. When the next bus came I'm sure the driver said 'airport', but I think I must have misheard him as the other man waiting for the airport did not get on (although I didn't notice this until later). I only realised I was on the wrong bus when a lady came round collecting tickets, and I showed my ticket to the airport and she said that this bus was going to Athens. So a change in plans, but didn't really matter to me either way. She tried to get me to pay more money, but as a ticket to Athens is actually cheaper than that to the airport I refused, and eventually she gave up. So huzzah, I've finally scored a point against Greek transport systems!

So I arrived in Athens at about 10, I had a rough idea where I was as a man on the bus had told me which metro station we would be near, but I found an information point (just like for Sydney 2000 and for the World Cup they're everywhere and staffed with lots of different language speakers) and procured a street map. So I went on a long walk to the center of Athens and then wandered around all the tourist areas for a while.

I headed off to the Olympiakos Kentros Athina (or something like that… OAKA, anyway) at about 12. It was surprisingly easy to get there, it only involved one train, cost a little over $1 and I had a seat the whole way! Just the way it should be. On arrival I had to queue a short time to collect my tickets (I needed to present a printout from the internet and my passport), and then I went in to OAKA itself.

I’ve already mentioned how impressed I was with the entrance to OAKA, but now I have some pictures:









I spent the next few hours wandering around the complex, although it was extremely hot so I tried to stick mostly to the shade. I spent about an hour inside the (air-conditioned) merchandise tent. The most popular item seemed to be lanyards (cords that go around your neck for security passes etc). About half the people seemed to be wearing one for either their Olympics identification or for their tickets, and had been completely sold out in the complex. I had seen some back in Athens so I decided to go back there later and pick one up, as I’d quite like one to wear to work! Some things seemed ridiculously expensive – keyrings for €19, silk scarves for €50 and (quite plain and unattractive) polo shirts for €45 – while others seemed to be very reasonable, like great backpacks for €25, or good quality sandals for €20.

I also spent time in McDonalds getting a sundae and sitting in the shade watching the diving, just had to escape the heat! I also walked to the main Olympic stadium and got a photo with it and the torch:





It was time for the water polo so I headed over. I hadn’t realised that it was in the same arena as the diving, and there were divers finishing their warm-down as I walked in, I wish I’d gone a little sooner and might have seen more! My seats were a little disappointing, right in the corner, but I still had a good view:





The match itself was brilliant, just a shame about the result with Greece getting up by 1. I was a bit disappointed with the attitude of the crowd, booing the Australians when they were introduced and at occasions throughout the match when they were on the attack. I guess it’s all relative – Soph gets upset at the Raiders crowd (including myself of course!) booing the opposition as they enter the field – but to me the Olympics are different, I don’t think any competitors should be booed. Anyway, here’s a photo of one of the swimoffs at the start of each quarter:





I decided to pretty much head straight home after the water polo had finished, as I had such an early start tomorrow. I went via Monastiriki and picked myself up a lanyard and a ticket holder. I had a bit of a wait for the bus back to Lavrio but it all went smoothly. I got a gyros and an icecream for dinner, headed back to the ship, packed up everything and went to sleep.

Friday in Athens and Lavrio

When I arrived at Larnaca airport, I found that Friday afternoon + holiday week + Olympics = airport chaos. The check in counters were completely packed, and it looked like I was in for an hour's queueing or so. However soon after I joined a really long queue, they opened up a couple of counters specifically for my flight, so I ended up getting through very quickly. The rest of the trip to Athens was pretty uneventful.

I was carrying all my luggage with me on the plane (two backpacks) so I got out of the airport quite quickly, but I had an hour's wait or so for the last bus to Lavrio so I just wandered around the airport for a while, and watched some Olympics on the TV screens.

The bus ride was only 50 minutes, so a lot faster than I was expecting, but it still made a lot of seemingly unneccessary stops: one was about 300m further on from another stop, and the most bizarre was out in the middle of nowhere on a featureless, unlit highway, where a man getting off was met by another man with a torch. It had the appearance of a spy thriller, with an exchange of secret documents about to take place.

Anyway I arrived in Lavrio at about 11pm. I was a little apprehensive as I had no idea how easy it was going to be to get from the bus stop to the ship (despite repeated requests the travel agent didn't supply me with that information). However I could see an enormous ship in the harbour as I stepped off the bus so that made things easy! It was a longer walk than it seemed at first, about 10 minutes away, and I realised when I got there that I was lucky I picked the right ship as I could see another one on the other side of the bay, probably at least a half hour's walk away.

Here's the Aegean I:





I checked in and went to my room, it was quite basic with two single beds and a small bathroom, but it was certainly a lot more comfortable than my original plan of sleeping in the transfer lounge at the airport! I had a quick look around the ship, at the half-empty pool and the lounge areas (there was string duet playing which was quite nice) but I was quite tired with a busy day ahead so I went to sleep straight away.

Sleep

Went to sleep at 7pm last night, and woke up at 8:15am! Can actually focus on the projector screen properly today!

Training is going well, we're going through at a good pace so it's looking like we'll be finised on Friday week. So I should be able to depart Saturday week, arriving back in Canberra on Monday week. It's enjoyable too, the instructor is great and I'm learning about an interesting product.

That's about it... might be able to do a detailed Olympic entry this evening, depends what time we finish.

Olympics

So very very tired! I've only had 15 hours sleep since Friday morning, and 4 hours of that was on some tables in the airport. So I probably won't be able to get through the whole weekend now...

But in brief:

Friday 20th August

Got a taxi from work to the airport, which cost $60 (must... not... complain). Arrived at Athens about 1/2 an hour late, and according to the timetable on the airport's website that meant I should have missed the last bus to Lavrio, but it turns out that there was another bus leaving in an hour, so it worked out really well. The bus trip to Lavrio took about an hour, and I arrived at the Aegean I at about 11. After checking in and a quick look around the ship (the pool was only half full... but I didn't really have time anyway) I went to sleep.

Saturday 21st August

Got up very late (compared to the rest of the weekend) at 7:30. Had my included breakfast on the ship, was really good, a buffet with just about all the breakfast items you would want. I then headed out to Athens. After some confusion (I thought I was going to the airport) I ended up in central Athens. So I went for a walk through the area that Soph and I stayed in two years ago, before heading off to the Olympic Complex.

Getting there by metro was really easy, and the trains weren't even that crowded (I had a seat). Although when I arrived there were people pouring out of the complex, which I thought was a bit of a worry given it was only 12:30, but I guess an Athletics session, and perhaps some other event as well, had just finished. I really loved the Athens Olympic Sport Complex (OAKA)! I assume everyone has seen a lot of it on TV, but I hadn't seen anything of it at all, so my last memory was the construction site that Soph and I visited in 2002. I really loved the tunnel of arches, the pools of water, the fountains, and the stadiums themselves. It was a very impressive entrance, probably better than Sydney's.

I wandered around for a while... it was extremely hot so I spent an hour or so in the HUGE airconditioned merchandise hall, and some more time sitting in the shade watching the diving on a big screen. I headed off to the water polo, my seat was right up in a corner of the arena. Still, I did buy the cheap tickets so I can't complain, and I had a pretty good view anyway. I watched Germany thrash Spain, and then Greece beat Australia by 1 goal in a great match. It really could have gone either way, the turning point was at the end of one of the quarters where we hit the bar after a 1-on-1 with the goalie, and then they went straight up the other end and scored with a couple of seconds left. Ah well, at least it was exciting!

I headed straight back to Lavrio, just missed a bus so took about 3 hours all up. I packed up everything and got to sleep at about 11:30.

Sunday 22nd August

Up at 4:45 - the Cycling started at OAKA at 9 so I was keen to get the 5:30 bus. I made it to OAKA at about 7:45, and went straight to the cycling. I was glad I got there so early because even the warmup was great to watch! There were a lot of bikes on the track at once, 4 or 5 pursuit teams and 10 spinters. Often the sprinters would join on the back of the pursuit teams and follow them around for a few laps.

Unfortunately I only had tickets to qualifying so I didn't actually see any head-to-head racing, but I saw Australians set the fastest time in all three events - Womens Sprint, Mens Sprint and Mens Team Pursuit, so it was great to be there for that!

I next headed for the basketball. I originally thought that it would also be at OAKA, but it turns out the preliminaries are at the Helliniko Olympic Complex, on the coast and a long way from OAKA. I had plenty of time though and thought it would be good to see some more stadiums. I didn't think much of Helliniko at all, for a number of reasons... but I'll expand on that later.

The basketball stadium was absolutely massive, so it probably wasn't even half full for the Australia vs Brazil game. The game itself was very exciting for the first half, but Australia completely ran away with it in the second. I watched the first quarter of the Greece vs Japan match, but I had to get to the marathon and it looked all over anyway with Greece up by 15 or so (they only just won it in the end! Pity I missed it). The trip back was a little faster (but a lot more crowded), and I made it in plenty of time. I watched some of the race from a greek takeaway place, and then headed to the place I'd picked to watch it, about 1km from the finish.

It wasn't much fun getting there... they had closed off the route I was planning to take, and it was absolutely packed near the stadium, I really had to force my way along the footpath. I got through the worst of it and found a good spot behind an rope at an angle to the road so I wouldn't be blocked by anyone. I cheered on just about all of the finishers (looking at the results I think I only missed 2 or 3). At this point the day really caught up with me so I decided to head to the airport. Was a very easy trip, so much easier than the bus journey that Soph and I did! I watched the 100m final on a TV in the departure hall, and I eventually got comfortable enough on some small side-tables next to some chairs to be able to sleep.

Monday 23rd August

My body clock woke me up exactly at my check-in time (4:30am). Annoyingly for that time in the morning there was already a large queue. The plane left Athens at 6:55 and I was at my desk at 9:15!

So OK, that wasn't very brief... but I've left out lots of interesting things, I promise! I'll have them plus some photos later in the week.

Almost time!

Well only a couple of hours until I head off to the airport, and on to Athens! Soph sent me an Australian flag, and it has just arrived in time for me to take it. So I'll do my best to get myself on TV... I'm told that all of my events are at least scheduled to be broadcast back in Australia.

It's looking like I might be watching the Water Polo team lose unfortunately, as Greece looked very good in a game that I saw on TV, and Australia has lost a few games. The womens basketball team is finding form though so that should be a great match!

Everything is sorted out for training, I've spent today helping to set up the training room. I think the trainer flies in from England that morning, and I'll be flying in from Athens so it could be a bit of a slow day!

I should be able to write about the Olympics on Monday, and I'll do the photos next Friday.

Larnaca Airport

This won't come as a big suprise to anyone who has read my constant complaints about the transportation problems in Cyprus, but there is absolutely no public transport between the capital city Nicosia, and the country's primary airport at Larnaca. The airport used to be in Nicosia but ended up in the buffer zone after the invasion / recovery (depending on which TV station you're watching) by Turkey.

Anyway, you can get a bus to Larnaca itself (except on Saturdays after 1pm and all day Sunday, of course). And then you can get a bus to the airport, which is just out of town, but you can't go directly from Nicosia to the airport.

Given that there's apparently 10 flights a day between Larnaca and Athens alone, you'd think there would be a market for a shuttle bus between the airport and Nicosia wouldn't you? It's a 30 minute trip along a dual-lane highway so it's surely feasible. I know I'd be happy to pay a $15 or $20 to save myself the $50-60 taxi fare I'm forced to take.

I'll try and make this the last complaint about transport, but I'm not making any promises!

Voucher

Alright, just got the voucher for the cruise ship so I'm all set! And if I'm really lucky I'll make the last bus to Lavrio after arriving in Athens. Unlikely, as my plane gets in 5 minutes before the bus departs. On the plus side I'm won't have to collect any bags, but on the whole it looks like I'll be taking a (no doubt) outrageously expensive taxi...

Great news!

I got some fantastic news this morning, I'm definitely joining a team at DIMIA so I'll be going back to Canberra to work. The contract is initially for 3 months, but as long as I do a good job it should be extended to a year or more. And it looks like I'll be getting 1-on-1 training for two weeks, starting on Monday... so I should be back much earlier than expected! I'm sure some of you think I'm crazy to be so happy at leaving Cyprus in summer and returning to Canberra in winter, but I just haven't been able to enjoy myself properly here without Soph. But now that my future is all decided I can stop worrying about being stuck here and start enjoying myself!

And that's going to start tomorrow when I go to the Olympics... now I'm starting to get really excited! I've booked accommodation for the Friday night as well (although I'm still waiting for them to send me the voucher for that night, which is starting to get a little worrying) so I'll only have "Airport Accommodation" for 4 or 5 hours on Sunday night. I'm going to be a wreck on Monday of course, but so be it... I think it's worth it!

I'll also have to figure out what I want to do around Cyprus before I leave. I don't know when my flight home will be, but it will probably depart somewhere between the 3rd of September and the 9th of September. If it's on Friday 3rd (directly after 2 weeks of training) then I'll only really have next weekend for sightseeing... and that's the last weekend of the Olympics! So a bit of a choice. There's no way I'm missing the mens marathon on the Sunday night (I'll be at the women's marathon this sunday but I'd like to watch the mens on TV to get the overall picture... plus I just love watching marathons!). I definitely want to do a day-trip across the border into North Nicosia, but I'd also like to go to Paphos (south-west coast) and the central Troodos Mountains. I guess I'll have to wait until I have a definite departure date before making any plans.

Olympics Day 4

Coverage was a lot better last night. When I got home from work both channels were switching around to lots of different sports quite quickly. I saw some water polo, football, hockey, sailing, volleyball and basketball. There was no weightlifting on last night so they also showed all the swimming live. The 4 x 200m relay was extremely disappointing... after Thorpe made up a full body length in the first half-lap I thought the race was ours. And he probably only needed another 10m to win the race at the end. Still, I guess this balances out the 4 x 100m gold on the first night which was so unexpected.

Unfortunately then the gymnastics started on one channel, and once it starts that's all they show until it finishes. The other channel showed Greece vs Spain in mens water polo, which I just loved, I can't wait to actually be there on Saturday! I can't believe there aren't more fights though, they're so brutal to each other but they just seem to accept it. And they only very rarely complain when being sent to the sin bin. Greece won the game quite comfortably and looked very good, I think Australia might struggle to beat them. Should be good to watch though! And all the tickets have been sold so it should be a great atmosphere.

After the water polo they showed Greece vs USA in mens basketball. Unfortunately at half time it looked like the US would go on and win so I went to bed (and was proved right this morning).

Shopping and cricket

Yesterday I went to do some shopping at the nearby supermarket after work. When I was there on Saturday I somehow missed the fact that there's a second floor! They have escalators to get up to the second floor (the stair kind), so to get the trolleys up there they have a special pulley system next to the escalator which is quite cute.

The prices are in general the same or a little more expensive than Australia, except for a few items like icecream and chocolate, which are outrageously expensive. A 200g block of Cadbury's chocolate is over $5, and the cheapest icecream tubs I can find are $6 for 2L. Strangely enough individual icecreams, which are basically a combination of the above expensive items, are very good value in Australian terms with my favourite (enormous) icecream being $3.

After I got back from shopping all the Indians in my apartment complex had started a game of cricket, they even had stumps set up! The pitch was... uneven (a coarse gravel road) so it was probably best we were just using a tennis ball. I managed to get a few wickets but when I came to bat I hit the ball over the fence of a nearby house first ball. I didn't even get 6 for it! It was probably for the best though as I only just made the start of the 200m.

Murphy's Law

Well, a few hours after I wrote in my journal how happy I was that CYTV had shown all the swimming instead of sports like weighlifting or wrestling, they broke off in the middle of the swimming finals to show, of course, weightlifting. I guess I deserved it. Still, they did show the 200m race live so I wasn't too unhappy. And after the weightlifting had finished they went back and showed the rest of the swimming so I didn't miss out on anything.

I'm still starting to get frustrated as to how much time they waste when it could be used to show other events. When they came back from the weightlifting they first repeated the first four races that they had already shown live earlier. They also kept in all the leadups and the breaks between races, when they probably could have saved at least half an hour by cutting it all out. And the other channel only showed the gymnastics. So for a total of 7 hours of coverage there were only 3 sports shown. I'll bet they're regretting not showing some of the diving after Greece won their first gold medal!

Training

I'm starting to get worried about my training. Nothing appears to have been organised yet, and it appears that they're waiting for some more employees before they will begin. Hopefully it will all be sorted out this week... if it's not going to be starting any time soon I'd like to go home and come back to Cyprus when they've actually got themselves organised. If DIMIA decide they want me then that will probably make them get their act together, as I can't start there (and thus start earning money for the company) until they get me trained!

Olympic TV

Well I spent most of the weekend watching the Olympics. I moved into a new apartment on Friday night... it's quite nice, but not as good as the first place. And it's currently missing quite a few things that I need, like a toaster, a microwave, cutlery (we have forks and a couple of spoons, but no knives!), a kitchen sink plug and a few other things. But that should all be sorted out this week.

My housemate was away all weekend (only got back this morning), so it meant I was free to have full control of the remote! And the Olympics were usually on two channels, often 3, so that was a big plus.

I watched the opening ceremony... I really enjoyed some parts like the Frieze Parade (or whatever it was called, my commentary was all in Greek!) but other than that it was a little boring. The Bjork song really didn't fit at all, and I thought they could have done so much more with the water.

Saturday and Sunday I was watching the Olympics full-time. I saw all the swimming qualifiers and finals, which were brilliant. I was worried that swimming would be shunted to the side in favour of weightlifting or wrestling etc, but it looks like I'll be able to see it all. Other sports I saw were football, judo (which I just don't understand at all), basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, gymnastics, handball, diving, badminton, table tennis and tennis. So not a bad cross-section, although for me they show far too much gymnastics, and they didn't show any of the cycling road races at all which was disappointing. Still, I guess it's very difficult to do everything... especially when they concentrate on the Greek athletes. I haven't seen a single Cypriot in the news or in the olympic coverage, but the Greeks are everywhere!

I've found a Turkish Cypriot TV station and they're showing a little bit of the Olympics. They seem to mainly leave it to the Greek stations to provide coverage but they pop up now and again whenever a Turkish athlete or team is competing. A Turkish woman won the gold in weightlifting and they spent an hour or two with highlights, interviews (with cake!) and the like. It's all very low-budget though and is quite funny when you're used to the Australian presentation style.

I hope the 200m tonight lives up to expectations!

APOEL Photos

Just realised that I hadn't got around to posting photos of the football match I went to.

So here's the stadium:





And here's the equalising shot from Sparta:





Enjoy the Olympics everyone!

Work News

I had a phone interview with DIMIA this morning. I would love to see the phone bills for these calls I keep taking - yesterday I had a conference call involving 4 people in 4 different countries (Australia, Cyprus, England and India) and at least 2 of us had mobiles. But anyway it went quite well, and if they decide to go with me then it looks like I could be back in Canberra for the forseeable future once my training has finished. This is both good and bad... I think I'll be much happier overall as I am really missing Sophie and my friends and family, but it means I won't get to Egpyt. Still, I know I'll get there one day...

It will probably be a week or two before I find out for sure.

I still haven't moved apartments yet... will be moving tonight. Also, my training isn't starting on Monday which is quite annoying... it should be starting the week after and so I should still be back on the same day (September 18th) as I was leaving Cyprus a week after my (originally scheduled) training started anyway. I imagine BluePhoenix would be quite keen to get me to DIMIA as soon as possible so they can start getting seom value out of me!

It's going to be great watching the opening ceremony tonight, especially as I don't have to either get up at 4am or not get any sleep until 7am to do so! I'm planning on spending the rest of the weekend watching the Olympics... hopefully I'll be able to see all the big swimming races, and they won't choose to show weightlifting instead...

Moving

I'm moving apartments tomorrow. The new place is a lot further away from the office and from downtown, but is much closer to a large supermarket so that will be handy. I'll be in the same apartment complex as lots of other employees so there will be a bus that picks us up and takes us to and from work. I was just getting settled in my current apartment so it's a bit of a shame to move... but that's the way it goes.

They've moving me because they rented my current apartment on the proviso that it would be occupied by females, and as they have two women from India arriving tomorrow they're keen to start upholding the agreement.

I think that initially I'll be by myself, but it's a 3-bedroom place so there might be others arriving and staying with me. Especially as BluePhoenix are going crazy with hiring at the moment...

Oh well, it will have a bed, air conditioning and a TV with which to watch the Olympics, and I don't think I'll be needing too much more over the next few weeks!

Theme change

Haven't quite got it exactly how I like yet... there's just too many options! But this will do for now.

Olympics Accomodation

I've managed to book accommodation for the Olympics (for the middle night, at least). I'll be staying on the Agean I cruise ship which will be docked at Lavrio, about 50 km out of Athens:

http://www.cruise.gr/aegean_one.html

It's 160 euros a night (about $300) so it's still not exactly cheap, but at least I'll be getting reasonable value for money rather than paying $600 a night for a 2 star place in Athens. One agent even sent me a special offer of a room for $US1000 a night for a 3 star hotel! The normal rate for that particular hotel is 50 euros a night. It's just robbery.

I'm assuming that most of the facilities won't be available on the ship but hopefully I'll still be able to have a swim in the pool.

I'm still deciding whether I want to stay there on the first night as well. I can't stay there on the last night as the first bus doesn't leave until 5:30 and my flight back to Cyprus departs at 6:30. So I think I'll just stay in Athens until the early hours of the morning (hopefully at a giant television screen) and then try and get a bit of sleep at the airport. I'm sure I'm going to be less than attentive at my training course the following morning but I'll worry about that then!

Beaches and Buses

I took a trip to the beach on Saturday. My plan was to catch the first bus to Larnaca at 9am and return by the last bus at 4:15pm. It took 20 minutes from the airport at Larnaca to Nicosia when I arrived (although the taxi driver probably shaved 10 minutes off the time through reckless speeding), so I was expecting to be there around 9:40 or so. Unfortunately the bus didn't even touch the highway that runs directly between Nicosia and Larnaca, but instead took back roads the whole way, and made numerous stops. However the driver certainly wasn't taking his time! He drove very fast and did not tolerate slow drivers on the road - he often came up within a metre of other cars while travelling at over 80km/h - and the bus didn't have seatbelts. I didn't feel particularly safe.

So we arrived at around 9:50, and I stepped straight off the bus and onto the beach, so at least that was a positive. The beach itself was reasonable, but it's a darker sand which makes the whole beach look muddy and less attractive. The water was amazing though! Extremely warm, probably the warmest sea or ocean I've swum in. It was very shallow, about 100 metres or more before I couldn't stand. There also weren't any waves to speak of, but that's generally to be expected in the Mediterranean.

So I spent the day swimming and lying on one of those sunbeds under an umbrella reading The Da Vinci Code. I had lunch in a place recommended by Lonely Planet, I had a fantastic Mixed Souvlaki. After lunch the beach really started to fill up... and they were all Brits. It was very odd to be lying on a beach in Cyprus but only hearing British accents. Anyway it got to 3:45 so I went to get changed and catch the bus home.

After waiting around for a while I checked the sign and realised that buses stop at 1pm on Saturdays (I don't think I've ever been in a more useless country for public transport). The guidebook mentioned service taxis as an option to get back to Nicosia so I went to the office of one of the companies. A service taxi goes between two cities, it first drives all over Larnaca picking up passengers, drives to Nicosia and drops people off wherever they want. A flat fare is charged for everyone - £3.10 ($9.30), the bus was £2 ($6) - so it was a lot more attractive than paying the $50 or so for a normal taxi back home.

There was only a short wait of about 5 minutes before the taxi (a large van) set off from the office. We then drove around for about 1/2 an hour picking up passengers. We came to the last place and spent about 5 minutes driving around to find the right place, and then a further 5 minutes waiting for the passengers to come down. Unfortunately there were 2 passengers and only one spare seat. The driver said they would make a change outside the city so I had about 5 minutes of sitting 4 people to 3 seats. We then arrived at the changeover point, and for whatever reason I was made to get out and wait for the next taxi. I suggested that perhaps the last two people should perhaps wait as I'd already been on the taxi from the start, but to no avail.

So the taxi sped off, and I was left waiting with another guy who had ordered a taxi at that spot. After 5 minutes a taxi pulled up and the other guy got in, but even though there was plenty of room I was told to wait for the next one. I really don't know why. So after another 10 minutes a taxi finally arrived. We got to Nicosia and she dropped off people... I (of course) was the last to be dropped off. I said I was only paying half-fare due to the terrible service, but she went ballistic and threatened to call the police. So I just paid her and went inside. The trip was 1 hour and 45 minutes from when I got into the taxi to when I arrived home. I might get someone at BluePhoenix to make an official complaint... it will probably accomplish more coming from someone who speaks lives here and speaks Greek.

So all in all that was a terrible end to what had been a great day!

Cinema and Red Lights

I went to see Spider-man 2 last night, and I really loved it! The cinema experience was very retro though. The theatre itself was long and narrow, about the same size and shape as Electric Shadows. And I had it all to myself. There were no ads at the start but there were about 6 or 7 previews. Spider-man 2 was subtitled in Greek (but I didn't really notice it at all after about 5 minutes). It stopped abruptly in the middle and I thought something was wrong, but it was intermission! It's been a LONG time since I've had an intermission at a movie. It was only about 5 minutes long, and after another couple of previews the movie started up again. The movie also finished quite suddenly, with no credits shown at all.

Crossing roads here is a bit of an adventure due to the fact that Cypriots don't have much regard for traffic lights. Cars will not stop at an intersection unless they are forced to by oncoming traffic... and even then they inch out across the intersection, looking for gaps to dash through. I'm quite glad they drive on the left here so at least I don't have to concentrate on which way to look as I'm crossing a road! It's little wonder that there's a lot of broken glass on the intersections I pass on the way to work.

Much better

Thanks to the good people at PhotoBucket I have pictures again. These might even last out the night!

Photos

OK so the photos from the Walking Tour of Nicosia aren't there any more. I guess yahoo changes the URLs for photos on photos.yahoo.com ... might have to come up with something else.

Walking tour of Nicosia

On Sunday I spent most of the day wandering around the "Old City" of Nicosia. Most of Nicosia pretty much shuts down on Sunday, so once I got out of the tourist I just about had it all to myself. It had a bit of a ghost town feel to it, especially as there are a lot of unoccupied buildings which are falling apart. This certainly wasn't an uncommon scene:





However there were lots of lovely parts too, the Archbishop's Palace was probably the most attractive:





It was extremely hot walking around (one of those digital time/temperature displays said it was 37 degrees as I walked into the old city) so I had an icecream. I had my favourite, the Over icecream cone I discovered on Naxos. I actually struggle to finish it, which is saying something as I'm generally left wanting more. Anyway I ate my icecream in a park, which was quite large and completely deserted. I read in a guide book that a good proportion of the Nicosia population leaves en masse to the Troodos mountains, where the temperature is usually 10-15 degrees cooler. It's alright for those who have cars... but a day trip by bus is just about impossible even on a Saturday, and there seems to be about 2 buses running on the entire island on a Sunday. I've yet to see a single public bus in motion.

Around the entire city is a wall built by the Venetians. It hasn't done a particularly good job given that Nicosia has been successfully invaded on many occasions, but at least it's still standing:





I followed the wall as far you can go, until you hit the UN buffer zone. For those who don't know, Cyprus is split into two: the Turkish side to the north, and the Greek side to the South. Nicosia is also split in two, with a UN buffer zone down the middle of the city. You're not supposed to take photos but I was out of site of a guard post and there wasn't anyone in the hut so I figured I could get away with it. It's a lot easier than at a guard post in the center of the old city, where it's closely watched by a guard with a rather large gun.





I finished up my walking tour by going up to an observatory to get a good look at the entire city. Bizarrely the observatory is at the top of a Woolworths store. Woolworths here in Cyprus is more of a Myer affair, although there is a large supermarket in the basement. You get a good view of the entire city and surrounds. The most striking sights are both on the Turkish side.

There's a large mosque which I don't know too much about. I'm leaving that until I visit the northern side at some stage.





And then there's the enormous Turkish Cypriot flag on the side of a mountain. Turkey is the only country in the world that recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, so I guess they're trying to make up for its lack of exposure. It's certainly very visible - I saw it on my way from the airport to Nicosia, about 10km on the other side of the city to the flag.





Hopefully I'll get a closer look at both when I visit the North!

Athens 2004

I have booked my flights to Athens! I depart Cyprus on Friday 20th August and return on Monday 23rd (in time for work). I have also bought tickets to the following events:

• Mens Water Polo, AUS vs GRE (and some other game), Saturday August 21 at 4:30pm
  
  
• Track Cycling, Mens & Womens Sprints qualifying + Mens Team Pursuit
  qualifying, Sunday August 22 at 9am
  
  
• Womens Basketball, AUS vs BRA (and GRE vs JAP), Sunday August 21 at 2:30pm
  

After the basketball I head over to the Women's marathon course.

The one *slight* problem is going to be accommodation... I don't have any yet and from all accounts it's going to be very difficult to get. Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure something out... Soph and I managed it for the Commonwealths so hopefully it will get sorted out again.

Worklife

Well some people (OK, most people) have been complaining that I've given a detailed match report of a football match I went to, but haven't really mentioned trivial matters such as the work I'm here for, my apartment, what it's like in Cyprus etc.

I'm here to train for a project for the Department of Immigration. BluePhoenix (my company) pretty much moves people round the world to wherever the work is. They've offered DIMIA the option of having the project developed in Canberra or Cyprus, with Cyprus being the cheaper option. DIMIA still hasn't chosen the option they want, so it's possible I might be back working in Canberra after the training.

I'm training in BluePhoenix's own application builder which helps to create very large applications which are as "future proof" as possible. Some more eployees from India are flying in for it, and the trainer is flying in from Germany... the movements people make in the company are just amazing - an Indian left for Copenhagen earlier this week, a whole group of Indians are off to Spain next week, my roommate Mark is off to India this afternoon to give a training course, the CEO of the company flew in from Israel for to visit the office earlier today.

So after Mark leaves I'll have the apartment to myself for 2 weeks or so until the trainer arrives, apparently he'll be moving in. I'm definitely switching rooms to the one with the ensuite!

The office is nice and new, although that's because it's currently undergoing renovation. We all switch floors on Monday so they can work on this floor.

I walk to and from work... the company would pay for a taxi but I quite like the walk (it's only 10-15 minutes). Plus I'm hoping to trade these savings for a taxi ride to another town on the island - Mark has done this before so I should be able to as well.

The project I'll be working on has already unoficially started, so I'm going to be helping with that over the next two weeks. Not sure how much I'll be able to help before I've had the training... but I should at least be able to spot bugs, if not fix them.

Well that's the boring stuff out of the way... now I can get back to concentrating on ancient ruins (which I hope to see some of tomorrow) and football.

APOEL vs Sparta

I had to catch a taxi to the match, but it probably would have been faster and definitely cheaper to walk the last half as traffic really crawled close to the stadium. Plus they only had one ticket booth open... so even though I left my apartment at 7:10 and the stadium is only 5km, I only just made kickoff at 8.

The stadium was quite impressive... capacity is about 23,000, and all the seats are really close to the field. I was really pleased with my £10 seat, I was up quite high with a good view of the whole ground but I still felt really close to the field.

The match itself was great, although was disappointing for APOEL Nicosia in that they were up 2-0 with about 10 minutes left before collapsing to a 2-2 draw. The crowd was unbelievable though. I'd say there were about 15,000 people there, with 3 sides of the ground full, and (bizarrely) one end completely empty (although they had a giant APOEL shirt covering the entire stand). One end consisted of APOEL fans, all wearing orange, who pretty much jumped up and down and sang the entire match. There was a whole row of drummers who also kept going the whole match.

Unfortunately the two late goals that APOEL conceded means that they are unlikely to win the tie... a real pity as if they make it through to the third round they could be drawn against teams such as Liverpool, Manchester United or Real Madrid! Would have been brilliant to see one of those teams. Still, you never know...

I was a bit worried after the match about getting home, thought I might have to call the taxi company and somehow manage to explain exactly where I was (and wait while it fought through the traffic exiting the stadium). But there was a taxi sitting waiting just outside the entrance so it all worked out quite well.

Arrival in Cyprus

Well after an absolutely terrible flight:

• Directly behind a screaming baby
  
• 2 or 3 other screaming babies in my section of the plane
  
• A non-working entertainment system
  

i've arrived in Cyprus. Actually, the flight could have been worse... I had a spare seat next to me between Sydney and Singapore and I actually managed to get some sleep. Was still extremely tired last night, I went to sleep soon after 6 and didn't get up til 6:30 this morning.

My apartment is nice, I'm sharing with another BluePhoenix employee (an American called Mark... reminds me a lot of Jack Nicholson), which disappointed me at first, but now I'm actually quite pleased as he's really helped me settle in, shown me where everything is etc.

Tonight I'm off to the big APOEL Nicosia vs Sparta Prague match, a European Champions League qualifying match. Unfortunately public transport is really limited here (it's very disappointing, it's going to be an effort to get to all the sights around the island) so I think I'll have to catch a taxi. I'll have a match report tomorrow morning!