Near the castle in the Pafos harbor is the Hobo's Cafe, a clean but rather typical tourist-centric restaurant. The only reason I include this picture here is how silly the whole place is: it looks nice and peaceful and family-oriented, and indeed I was told I couldn't put my feet on the table in front of me, but this doesn't seem to match the sexually-explicit and blatantly-profane Gangsta'-rap that was playing loudly in the background.

The waves come north out of the Mediterranean and often crash upon the coast, rolling directly over the rocks and onto the wide walkways. However, the spot on which the woman in this picture sits appears to be immune from the sea's wrath, though just a foot left or right suffers the full fury. Later that night I decided to try it for myself, and I must say it's rather disconcerting. Unlike her, I wasn't wearing a swimsuit and had a lot to lose with being soaked in seawater. However, aside from a light mist that reached as far as my ankles, the sea-side sanctuary extended its protection to me as well. But getting there and back, outside the safe zone and in the dark, is quite exciting.

Very highly ranked in my world list of good coffeeshops is Maroushia, the Fashion Internet Cafe (which is at least two-thirds correct, though I'm obviously not qualified to comment on the third). Located about three kilometers away from the harbor and the main tourist areas, Maroushia caters to the needs of a mostly-local crowd with an food, drink, Internet, and an almost-overwhelming sound system (of which I heartily approve, especially with the intro to the "I Love to See You Cry" video - wow, it jars my teeth). Two big-screen TVs play a ceaseless stream of MTV videos, even during the prime of World Cup mania, while guests sip their tea, play billiards, or surf the web with fashion and style. My particular habit was to commandeer the one table near an electrical outlet for hours at a time (usually three but sometimes six) and drink cup after cup of mediocre but reasonably cheap tea, often offset with a salad topped by with steamed crab or canned tuna.

One comment about MTV: either it ch... [more]

Gone is the QuarterPounder from the McDonalds menu, I'm sad to report. Granted, seeing as how they're on the metric system, and their unit of currency is called a "Cyprus Pound", the "quarter pounder" would be a misleading name. But... the Royale Cheese? Why not the "Two-Hundred Grammer"?


And no, I didn't go to Burger King.