To start most of my days I would wake up on time (except for one day) yet still rush to get ready. Although I always wanted to go out for breakfast, our days started too early and I never had enough time, so I ate the hotel breakfast. Next, we would board the bus and head off to our adventures. We never really got enough sleep so we would take epic bus naps that really hit the spot. We usually had business meetings earlier in the day and cultural events later in the afternoon. We visited ports, pharmaceutical companies, concrete companies, and more ports. For cultural events, we visited Aphrodite's Rock and the sea caves. We stayed in a tourist town on the coast called Paphos for one night and spent many days at the beach. We walked around and learned about the Turkish part of the island and all the history of conflict within that area. Our tour guide was a Turkish Cypriot that lived in Famagusta when it was bombed by Turkey, so we got to hear first-hand stories from her that were absolutely captivating. We went up to the Troodos mountains and a quaint village called Omodos where a restaurant made me a birthday cake for my birthday. And, of course we explored the capital, Nicosia, where we stayed, the most of all. We mostly stayed in the Old City in Nicosia and occasionally walked around the New City. We had free time for most of our lunches and dinners, so my friends and I made it a point to go to new restaurants every time all around the city. We spent a lot of time at cafe tables just talking and enjoying our meals like true Europeans; we stayed out late at cafes as is common in Cyprian cultures. My philosophy when it came to spending money was pretty much just to treat myself. Being in Cyprus was such an amazing opportunity that I didn't want anything to be shadowed by a budget. I spent a few hundred dollars in just two weeks, but I had a blast and experienced so many new things that it felt worth it. Although a lot of our free time was spent eating food and chatting in cafes, we did make an effort to walk around the city a lot and we visited a Cyprian art museum as well as a famous view of the city from a tower. And of course, we made time to buy our friends and families some gifts! Overall, our days were filled with some business, but mostly quality time spent with friends in a new and exciting culture.
