Larnaca

Saturday 10.9.2016

Yesterday Ray and I were in the first boat out from the excavation site, already at noon or so. We decided to use the opportunity and go to Larnaca for afternoon and evening, just for fun. Harold gave us a ride on his way home to Nicosia.

We got in Larnaca early enough to visit Dive-In Larnaca, and say "hi" to Sheri and Chris there. I also had a chance to purchase a new wrist dive slate and a few double-ender clips that we need all the time, and which have a tendency of getting lost...

We stopped at a Kybele's beach cafe, when Ray noticed that he still had the room key in his pocket. He should have left it in the High View Gardens' office so that the other two divers could get in once they get back from the excavation site. They would not be happy campers if they could not get into their room all evening. We pondered the situation for a while, and Ray ended up sending the key back to Mazotos in a taxi. A significant problem was solved with just 30€. Who says that money can not buy you happiness?

Ray wanted to know all details of the taxi - just in case.

After furiously scurrying, we found someone to be there in the office to receive the key, probably about the same time as the the taxi arrived. Either way, it was a relief to get a confirmation that the key was where it should have been in the first place.

We strolled pass the small Medieval Castle to the main beach, had some ice cream there, and visited the Church of St. Lazarus. We covered out bare legs with purple wrap-around skirt, out of respect for the place. There were some people inside with short, but not us!

This is the place where the biblical Lazarus was eventually buried, once he died as the Bishop of Kition (present day Larnaca) after been revived from the death earlier by Jesus. Close to the main altar is a small coffin, where some of Lazarus' bones are on display surrounded with silver framing. The rest were taken to Constantinople by byzantine Emperor Leo VI in 898, looted by crusaders in early 1300's, brought to Marseille, and then lost. Emperor Leo VI had this current big church build over the original tomb as a compensation of him taking the relics.

Some of Lazarus' remains in the Church of St. Lazarus in Larnaca. These were found in 1972 in a marble sarcophagus under the altar. Too late for Emperor Leo VI to complain that he did not get all that he paid for.

We wanted to eat something different than the local home cooking style Cypriot meals that we have been eating 3 weeks at Pambos' tavern.  We ended up having big steaks at the Panos Steak House right on the main beach.

Afterwards we strolled (again) the beach boulevard for more ice cream, and visited the main Pier, where many Zenobia dive and tourist boats reside. This Pier is about the only place in Larnaca that Zenobia ("One of the best wrecks to dive in the world") is in any way visible. We concluded the visit in Art Cafe for dessert, and took a taxi to home. It turned out that a taxi for two to Mazotos is cheaper than a taxi for a key to Mazotos... Maybe people can haggle about the price better than a key?

Today we each did again our usual excavation at the site. It is getting more interesting now that we are excavating new layers that have not be seen before. However, we have only a little more than a week to go with this excavation, and there must be some days used at the end just to close down the excavation, collect and take apart the airlifts, and put some 60 cm layer of protecting sand on top of areas with wooden or metallic finds.

Tomorrow will be my off-gas day. I will go with Ray to Agia Napa to see Kyrenia II, the "original" copy of the Kyrenia ship. Well - at least the bottom planks may be just like in the original ship, and attached to the keel and to each other the same way as originally. Only the bottom of the original Kyrenia survived and was recovered. However, Kyrenia II was built in 1985 with tools and methods used in the antiques, whereas the Kyrenia Liberty we saw in Limassol was built in 2004 with modern tools and methods. The original Kyrenia ship is on display in the city of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus, and is out of reach for us in this trip. So, a very good replica will do.