Cyprus- a memory never forgotton...

In February this year of 2008, me and my classmates experienced a really new and interesting journey to the country of Cyprus which we will never forget. As I have been remembering what we have been through those 10 days we were there, I felt like I should share it with the TL community.

So, me and my classmates are all IB (International Baccalaureate) students. Only 20 people in our school were accepted into the program and thus we were a very small group. So throughout the beginning of last year we started to know each other better, but we still didn't know each other enough. That was until we were informed that as part of the IB program here at the school, we get to go to an environmental center in Cyprus in order to finish our internal assessments (Experiments and observations). Everyone was excited to go to Cyprus especially without any parent supervision!! I myself, was pretty excited too and for the next 2 months it was the talk on everyone's conversations. Finally, the day has come for us to go to the airport on our way to Cyprus. We said our goodbyes to our parents, and then smiled as we and our two teachers entered the Airport's waiting section. As we were waiting for our flight we were all alone away from the control of our parents feeling one of the best feelings we have ever experienced. Soon, they called us in and we entered the airplane. It was actually one of the smallest planes I have ever seen and it wasn't what you would call a "good plane" but more like the cheapest flight we were offered xD!

We had to go to Kuwait first for a transit and then back to Cyprus. Once we landed in Kuwait, we were running and exploring the new airport until the time came for our transit flight. We entered the waiting room, and starting chatting while waiting for the airplane to come. We waited for 2 hrs and there seems to be problems with the flight. Finally, a guy came out and told us "Flight Canceled!"... We were all WTF!! Where would we go?! Where should we stay?! God that was something!! But as it turns out, the airline was nice enough to give us a 2 day stay at a hotel within the airport until the next flight is ready.

Everyone was shocked, a O.O was on everyone's faces. We received our luggage back, and went with a bus to the hotel we would stay in. I would say it was a 3 star hotel, really just meh. But we didn't know, that that part of the trip was the most awesome !! We passed our 2 day stay at this hotel by doing nothing except using the internet, watching movies, playing sports, and having huge amounts of chats. We only slept 4-8 hrs from the 2 days combined! It was really something. So finally, the day of the flight came and we took our luggage back to the airport. The put it back on the airplane and in 1 hr we were on that flight to Cyprus. That was the most uncomfortable flight I have been in! The plane kept shaking and people kept saying it will fall sometime. Couple of hrs later we arrived at the Cyprus airport. It was the most quite airport I have been into, there were literally only 50 people there >.>. We went in, took our luggage and waited for the driver of the bus which will head to the "village" we are going to be staying into come.

Finally the Bus came after 10 or 15 minutes, we took all our bags and put them in the bus and we were on our way the the village of Kritou Terra!! What a crazy bus, although it was comfortable at first it seemed that trouble never left us alone. The tire on the bottom right was flat and the driver kept driving for 2hrs using only 3 wheels!! After that, we reached a station in which we took another bus to reach the village. The village you see, was on top of a mountain xD. The people living there were all in their 60s or above LOL! It got soo foggy that I thought that the bus is going to fall because the driver was driving based on his instinct. But thank god, we finally reached the village. Guess what now? It started raining heavily. We were taken into our "accommodation" which was a room medium size with 5 People in it XD. It was a real mess. It was pretty cold for us, since at my country we are used to 45 degree Celsius temperatures. However, we finally arranged all of our sleeping beds and we got used to this room. The bathroom however, was so small that you cant even fit 2 people into it! Oh well, it was a new living experience. So our teacher came and told us to be awake morning 8 o'clock for breakfast at the Tavern ( which is a good sized food provider for the visitors of the center). It was already 3 o'clock in the morning so we changed and took a 5hr sleep. We woke up at 8 o'clock, and then changed and everything then headed to the tavern. To tell you the truth. It was a really nice place, with pretty good scenery and really delicious food! It had a TV and A DVD and A satellite receiver!! The guy that runs the place is so friendly, he makes you whatever you want. Enough said, we then ate our breakfast and then took our lunch sandwiches and went straight to the center. The center was pretty well facilitated and the instructors there were really nice people. We started up with our first lab experiment, which was Freshwater ecology.

We had to walk approximately 6KM down the mountain in order to find the stream we wanted to do our experiment on. As soon as we started, again heavy rain started falling from the sky. We finished it in 1-2hrs and then headed back to the lab. We finalized our results and at 5 PM we headed to our accommodation. We each used to bathroom in turns in order to shower, but the heater was broken.. So we showered with COLD water xD. Once we were done we headed back to the tavern for a marvelous meal :D. We came back at 10, dead tired and went to sleep looking forward for the next day. For the next 4 days, we did the same routine but with different labs which were all pretty exciting. Our heater got fixed and we got pretty adapted to the whole environment. One thing to sum the village scenery is "Amazingly beautiful". The last day came by, and we said goodbye to the village and headed into the city for some shopping. Finally we saw the light of techonolgy lol! We then took an archilogical tour and headed to the airport. We took our plane from cyprus to Kuwait and from Kuwait back to my country. We arrived at 8 oclock in the morning. I said goodbye to my friends, and took my luggage and left with my father back home. As I was leaving I couldnt get over how fast everything went. How good those times were. Thus, I wrote this blog to share with you this facinating new experince.

Here are some pics we took there :D

All of us In the village ( I am the guy with the puma beanie)