Carnival time

A visit from good friends John and Nikki Wallace

The start of Lent is marked by a number of traditions in Cyprus.  This includes Τσικνοπέμπτη or 'Fat Thursday', which is traditional meat feast held on the last Thursday before Lent.  On 'Fat Thursday', the smell of lamb and pork souvla barbecuing wafts around the streets and all the restaurants are full as people partake in a final feast of meat before Lent.  We learnt about this the hard way when we headed out to a restaurant on the Thursday with good friends from Australia John and Nikki Wallace who were visiting for a few days.  Suffice to say, absolutely no room at the inn at any of the Cypriot restaurants we tried, so we ended up at another favourite haunt aptly named 'the Syrian Arab Friendship Club'.  

Bazookis and guitars at the ready for this meat feast

The current season is also marked by Carnival, which takes place in towns across the island this weekend, with the main event taking place in Limmasol.  It's basically an excuse to dress up, so it's common to see people in shops, bus drivers etc all in fancy dress for a few days.  Given Sam's penchant for all things dress-up related, he is particularly enamoured with the carnival season, and has spent the last 5 days in various states of fancy dress.  This coming week Cyprus has a public holiday known as 'Green Monday', which officially marks the start of Lent.  It's tradition on Green Monday that children fly kites all across the island.  Our kids are ready to go with their prototypes.


Sarah, Jessie and Gus have been at Lake Tahoe in the US this week visiting Sarah's brother Roger, Bonnie and their two boys Ben and Bryce. They're back this coming Monday night and by all accounts it sounds like they've had a great trip. More from Sarah on this later I'm sure.  

Good winter rains means a very green island at the
moment; a big contrast to summer.

So I've been holding the fort at home with Sam and Anna this week.  We've had a good time together, and I've been amused by Sam and Anna's regular exchanges.  One of their questions whenever there has been a disagreement or fighting is to ask each other 'can I still come to your party'? If the answer is yes, then all seems to be right in the world again and harmony prevails. Exactly which party they are referring to I'm not quite sure, but I assume it relates to the nebulous concept of a birthday party.


It's been cold in Cyprus over the last few weeks.  In fact last Fri we had a tease of snow in Nicosia which apparently is very rare.  The weather will turn quickly though, and even this weekend the thermometer is nudging 22 degrees so warmer weather is not far away.  Spring can't come fast enough for Sam and Anna, who've been itching to get into sandals and crocs for weeks now.  

These characters have been appearing all over town
as part of the carnival festivities