Saturday April 15, 2006 - Persona non Grata

After a lazy morning, we headed out to Pissouri (local small oceanside village). We enjoyed the sunny drive and ate lunch at the Columbia Resort. I’ve become pretty much a regular at the rental car place. Upon arriving back in Limassol, we met up with C’s colleague Ian, whom has been in Cyprus this past week. Ian, who “love’s miniature golf,” was thrilled when we suggested playing a round at our small little local course. These Eurosized miniature courses are smaller and made of plywood covered in artificial turf. Consequently, the rules state not to stand on the green unless it is impossible to reach your ball from outside – it took a little getting used to. After a frustratingly enjoyable 18 holes, I was the reigning champion.

We arrived at our first choice for dinner, an empty restaurant (literally all the tables were empty) since we were a good hour before Cypriot dinner time. Since we didn’t have a reservation, we were SOL. Stop number two, was the adjoining Italian restaurant where were again met with a sea of empty tables and the question, “Do you have a reservation?” Our persona non grata threesome was about to turn away, when apparently they just got a cancellation over the phone. Our meal was accompanied oddly by some multi-disk set of the greatest love songs of the 80’s and 90’s. It didn’t quite fit the restaurant, but we were enjoying guessing the upcoming song…“Time Love and Tenderness” , “Endless Love” , “The Greatest Love of All” … By the way , the restaurant didn’t fill up until we were on to dessert…an hour and a half later. We all had a joke over it being the perfect romantic high school first date – miniature golf followed by dinner. To top off the evening, we were invited by one of “C’s” Cypriot colleagues to go out for drinks at a bar called Drifter’s…which seemed quite American on the inside. It was a fun evening: lot’s of laughs, stories, and good music.