Turns out you donāt need to complete 12 Herculean tasks to ascend to the top of mount Olympus. In Cyprus, you only have to drive an hour from Limassol. Literally, you can drive to the summit. Instead of gods however, youāll only find a radar station.
The day started like every other with breakfast. We didnāt want to go far from the Airbnb and opted for šCafe Toucan. The reviews were good, it was close by. The menu even turned out interesting. I ordered a Shaksuka topped with a burrata! Shaksuka is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Add Italian cheese on top and Iām sure itāll be wonderful. While announced, the spice was not hot and it contained baked beans. If you fried two eggs, poured baked beans in bland tomato sauce over the eggs and put a cold burrata on top you would have the essence of my breakfast. The place was full of promise and delivered North African food as made by the Britts.
With breakfast behind us we hopped into the car and drove to Troodos, a skiing destination with several ski slopes that serves as a hiking spot in the summer (as many ski towns do). The trail itself is a 10km loop to the summit and through a couple of points of interestālike two 500-year old pines. Some of it is a pleasant trail in the shade, some of it feels like a recycled ATV trail. while there are many signs saying ATVs and Skidoos are not permitted on the trails, there are way too many tire tracks for those signs to be anything but weak suggestions. You know, the type of suggestion like following speed limits or using blinkers in Cyprusāa shocking few people seem to even know their car have such things.
Overall the trail was a nice walk with very little difficulty or much grade. The summit of mount Olympus has a sky lift and a radar station. No deific beings having a party or working on interfering with mortal affairs, we checked! The view, however, was beautiful.
The little under 3-hour hike finished, we drove back home, washed the inevitable thick layer of dust on our feet and legs, and headed out for a glass of wine before diner. The description of the šGuest Cafe Bar talked to Karine. Seating is in a small pedestrian street, they offered small plates and had a good rating. When we got there we had to make the hardest decision anyone has to make when getting somewhere: where to sit? (Iām informed that it might just be the hardest decision for me) I usually let Karine pick when the staff doesnāt assign seats; if itās up to me Iāll need to analyze a long list of factors: whoās smoking; whoās likely to smoke; in which direction the windās blowing; where will I be able to stretch my legs without getting in the way; whereās the shade; which seats are in a traffic pattern; and many more. All that to say it would take me a while. This time around we had a different data point that overrode all others: a cat! I spotted a cat lying on a side table of one of the unoccupied couches in the side street. Obviously, thatās where we had to sit! Minutes after we sat, we had not ordered yet, our new feline friend was on Karine being pet. She proceeded to do her rounds on us, moving from Karine to me and the nearby cushions. We got upgraded as her best human friends once we received food and shared some our meat with her. The wine and food was good too so weāre planning on coming back tomorrow and visit our new friend.
Not having a reservation tonight, we went to walk by two of our contenders. We choose between the two on pure vibesā¦ around here vibe can be quantified by the number of healthy cats making the rounds (hey if you havenāt caught on that we love cats by now, check your reading comprehension). We picked šKaratello Tavern. We didnāt go for a mezĆ© as weāre still recovering from the large amount of food from yesterday. We picked vegetables and braised meat. All very good. We also shared our meat with one of the local cats that was very well behaved.
Tomorrow weāre visiting a cat monastery and exploring the city a little. Did you know that thereās a Cyprus cat breed? Read tomorrowās log to find out more!
