Eid al-Fitr Vacation- Cyprus!
As most of you know, the Muslim world observed Ramadan over
the past month. Ramadan (month of
fasting) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is observed through
fasting during daylight hours (not eating/drinking/smoking/or intimate
“relations”) and by increasing their recitations of the Quran and salat
(prayers). Almost all of the
stores and restaurants are closed during daylight hours and open for “Iftar,”
the breaking of the fast. At this
time, families get together for a huge Iftar celebration meal. The stores and restaurants are open
late and everyone stays up until all hours of the night eating, smoking, and
celebrating. The locals have
decreased physical activity/working hours during Ramadan because of the
fasting. We, however, do
not, making getting anything done locally not so fun. The end of Ramadan is marked by the Muslim holiday,
Eid al-Fitr and is celebrated with parties and Eid gifts given to
children.
Because the embassy gave us an extended holiday weekend to
celebrate Eid, we decided to book a 5 night vacation in Cyrpus. It is an hour direct flight from Amman
to the island and figured it would be a nice little European”ish” getaway. Cyprus is an island nation in the
Mediterranean Sea. It is
officially part of the EU and is inhabited by the Greeks (majority) and the
Turks (minority).
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| All the taxis had three doors- this is our arrival at the airport in Lanarca, Cyprus |
We stayed at a resort in the beach town of Aiya Napa on the southeastern coast. Our hotel was full of British and Russian vacationers (since most of them take the month of August off). We spent most of the time at the pool with the kids but ventured into the town nightly for dinner and then spent two half-days at the beach. The town was really kid friendly; every single restaurant had a full built in playground area with bikes and cars for kids to ride and a variety of bounce houses. We would go into town just in time for Owen to fall asleep in the stroller and Ben and I could enjoy some adult time while Dylan played on the playground. Inevitably, Owen would wake up and Dylan would want us to watch her every move on the playground by the time the food would arrive :) It was a glorious 45 minutes in between, however, with adult conversation, great food and wine, and the ocean breeze.
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| View of one of the pools from our room |
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| Owen's first pool adventure. Loved the water. |
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| with my babies in the hotel pool |
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| Owen's napping fort between the pool chairs. As you can see, although he was less than 4 months in Cyprus, his 6 month bathing suit became a half shirt- big boy! |
The Beach
The beach was absolutely beautiful (although a little too crowded) and had crystal clear warm water and fine white sand. The first day the four of us rented one of the paddle boats with a slide on it. Owen came on my lap and Ben paddled while Dylan played on the slide. After we paddled out a good distance, Dylan decided she hated how the boat wobbled and wanted to swim back to shore. Since we couldn’t convince her totally rational four year old self otherwise, she started swimming to shore and I had to hop in and go with her, leaving Ben to paddle all the way back with Owen sleeping on his lap. It was quite a scene. Oh the joys of parenthood.
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| Nissi Beach- in front of us was a little island you could get to just by walking through the water |
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| Behind Ben and the kiddos you can see one of the paddle boats that we rented. We made Dylan wear her floaties in the ocean for a little added security |
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| nap shot |
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| Sunset |
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our little fish
Aiya Napa- the town |
One night we visited the amusement park in the middle of the town. It had a Ferris wheel that overlooked the sea and was absolutely beautiful at sunset. Dylan had a great time on the rides and Owen enjoyed looking at all of the lights and colors:
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| Aiya Napa sunset shot from the top of the ferris wheel |
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| other side from the ferris wheel |
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| the boys |
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| dylan on a ride |
Embassy Badge
Ben and I wear badges to access the embassy. We came home the other night to find that Dylan had asked Alou (nanny) to make one for her so she could go to work too. So cute.
All Grown Up
Owen started rolling over on our trip to Cyprus and is becoming quite the little mover- looks like we are in trouble sooner than we thought with this guy.
