Nicosia, Cyprus

I appologize for my silence the last couple days. Without my backpack, I also didn't have my laptop, or the charger to my phone, thusly my phone just died off.

3/29/08
In the morning I met Andrea in the living room for breakfast. We talked about the day's planned events while watching a bit of Cypriot news. Andrea works as a diplomat for the Cypriot Government, and so as part of her job, she has to stay current on world events. We decided that we should start out by heading down to Marks & Spencer to pick me up some clothes to wear during the couple of days I'll be without my backpack. As of now I was wearing one of her old t-shirts, and my dirty jeans. After that, the plan was to meet up with a couple of Andrea's friends for a little get together and a homecooked lunch, and then late that night she would take me to a bar that had live Cypriot music playing all night.

As planned, we first drove over to Marks & Spencer to get me some clothes. Andrea got a couple of things herself as well, but of course, it was only fair as long as I was getting myself a couple of things. My shopping didn't take long, I just bought two plain t-shirts (one brown, one black), a pack of 3 pairs of black socks, and a pack of 3 pairs of underwear. I didn't much hasstle with details, just found my size, and a price I could stand, and I was out of there. Andrea however, being a girl, took a bit longer. Not a whole lot longer, but she seemed a little more careful with her selection than I was. We finished our shopping so early in fact, we had time to go back to the apartment and change into our new clothes before meeting her friends for lunch. It was really nice to be wearing clean, new clothes.

When we arrived for lunch, I got to meet a couple new people, as well as seeing some people from the night before. Ellada made us some amazing kind of curry and rice, and talked to me about Athens. Thing's I should see, how I should get there, and all that. Later, while they talked about their friend's education in UK, I used the last of my phone battery to send off the last blog, re-entering the conversation where I could.

Later in the night Andrea took me to that bar where I got to see, and truly experience Cypriot music at its finest. The band was absolutely increadable, and people were singing along and dancing in front of the stage. I would have sung along too had I known the lyrics, it seemed like everyone was having such a great time. There was a bachelorette party taking place at a table across from us, and her friends had dressed the bride up with a sparkily crown, and a big pink sash that said "Bride To Be." The whole night they dominated the dance floor, and sang the loudest of everyone in the room. Unfortunately, the live music didn't start until about midnight, and I'd been getting myself up early so often, my sleeping schedule had changed since back home. So I was already dead tired when the party began, So the whole night I'm thuroughly enjoying myself, but trying to stay awake at the same time. After a while Andrea seemed to be getting tired too, so we got up to leave at just after 2am and didn't stay till 4am when the concert ended. Upon returning I fell right to sleep without any trouble at all. I've seldom known a troubled sleep since I've been traveling. Whenever I have a bed to sleep in I feel so at peace, and thankful to be sleeping in a bed at all. I seem to have left my insomnia at home, and I'm glad to be without it for a while.