My Life in Travel

When you look for the things to do or places to visit in Ayia Napa, Google will show you some interesting places, one of which is the Sculpture Park. This is an open air museum that has contemporary sculptures of mythical beasts & ancient gods located on around 20.000sq. m. area. The authors are different, around 40 sculptors from all over the world created large and small works of arts, and the number of sculptures is growing every year. The park is open since 2014 and is located on the eastern edge of Ayia Napa.

You can come here by foot (this will take around half an hour from Ayia Napa center) or can take a bus (the bus stop is right next to the entrance). Consider to spend around 1 hour in this park, as it’s quite huge with many interesting works, which are worth to see. Be ready to meet the Gorgon, Aphrodite, Odysseus and many other known and unknown personages here.

But the Sculpture park is not the only thing you can visit here. Did you know that there is also a huge Cactus Park in Cyprus? It’s a new natural attraction opened in 2015 adjoining the Sculpture Park, with a purpose to become the largest cactus park across the Mediterranean. Currently there are around 8000 small and large all type of cactus plants 🌵. Nice perk here is that the entrance is free and is open all day, all year round. The park also offers an amazing view of the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. When you decide to come here, don’t forget your sunscreen otherwise you’re gonna be all burned. We came here in the morning time, thinking that we would avoid the burning hour, but that didn’t save us from being completely burned. Probably it may be more pleasant to walk around in winter season when sun is more smooth or in the evening, to catch a sunset from the rocky landscape.

The Sculpture Park and Cactus Park are connected with an Argo Bridge, which is modeled on the Argo, the ship named after its builder, Argus, used by Jason and the Argonauts (“Argo sailors”), a band of heroes in ancient Greek mythology. The years before the Trojan War they accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. On this bridge you can meet some of those heroes and move in time back to this mythological days and sail together with them.

This huge park wasn’t the only attraction that was planned to see today. Another stop was the mesmerizing Blue Lagoon. To reach this place we had to take bus N101 or N102, but the problem was we were already quite far from the town and no any bus stop was visible nearby. No any building, no people. Just the road in a “desert” with palms and burning sun. The buses run every 30 minute, so there was no sense to wait for it in the middle of the road, as there was no any shadow to hide. So we decided to walk back to Ayia Napa with a hope to see a bus stop soon. Instead in a few minutes we saw a bus N101 coming ahead and we tried to stop it with begging eyes :))) It was a big surprise when the driver stopped the bus! This is unusual for them, as they stop only at the bus stops and not in the middle of the road. Probably he saw our tired and burned faces and felt sorry for us to let us walk more under the sun. Some of passengers started to argue with a driver in Greek, probably saying that it’s not a taxi, but after driver’s speech they stopped. Thanks to this man, he saved us.

In about 15 minutes we reached our stop called Cape Greco. From here we had to walk more to reach the lagoon. It was about 2km walk. Sounds not much, but we had to walk in a desert with no trees and shadow, just a burning sun at the most burning hour. But it’s okay, nothing could stop us from our goals. When we reached the place, every tired feeling was gone. The breathtaking view of the Blue lagoon made us speechless. In the amazing blue water surrounded with rocky coast there were many small and big boats full of people. Most of them were a tour boats that make sightseeing tours to different places in this area, and one of the stops was at the Blue Lagoon, where they can come to swim, snorkel and relax. The view was indeed marvelous. It was worth to come here.

The only bad part was that the bus stop was quite far and going back by foot sounded not the best thing. We tried to look for cars going up, that had free places. But non of them, which seemed to be rented by tourists, stopped for help. Instead there was a car that stopped and it turned out that the driver was local. The car was full of working tools, we hardly could fit in it. But we were happy to have even this option. On another hand, the driver was a nice guy, the bus stop was not in his way, but he kindly drove us there and then turned back to continue his way. What a lucky day with the best drivers 🙂 🙂

After this tired day we deserved a good rest, and another stop in our plan was the well known Fig tree bay in Protaras. At the bus stop we took the same bus N101 and in another 15-20 minutes we were here in Protaras. Few minutes by foot from the bus stop and we saw the beach. And everything started to be clear why it is called Fig tree bay. All was because of numerous fig trees around. Unfortunately figs were not yet ready to cut and eat )) The view of the beach was so stunning, but we were hungry since morning and had to eat something before going to beach. There was a nice restaurant with a sea view, where we had our lunch and some refreshing drinks, that was much needed!

Now we’re ready for the beach. Just look at this golden velvet sand, the colour of the water, the view.. How could we resist? The next several hours we spent here on the sand, time to time going to swim and coming back to tan. But this was so lovely to be here and relaxed. Indeed this beach deserves to be considered as one of the bests in Protaras. Even though the bus works until 1am, we had to come back to Ayia Napa, and before sunset we took the bus home and soon we were in the center of Ayia Napa town.

The next day was decided to spend without any sightseeing tours, just relaxing time at the beach. And as we had our preferred favorite beach, which was the famous Nissi Beach, we got the bus (same N101) and in 5 minutes we were already here. Of course we could also walk from our hotel to here, but this time we skipped the walk. We wanted to be here as soon as possible. Just look at this water. How can this be real? You think this is a big pool? But no, this is the beach, the crystal clear water of Mediterranean sea. Even though it was end of September, the beach was full of people. The water was quite warm, not feeling cold inside at all. A real paradise to spend full day, as we did. We stayed here until sun went down, the water changed its blue colour into bronze under red sun rays, and only after sunset we walked back to Ayia Napa, passing by the other beaches, that were getting empty little by little and very soon we were already in the crazy streets of Ayia Napa.

After having a nice dinner with a local food we went for a walk in a night city that never sleeps. The streets were full of people, ones were enjoying the evening lights, the others were looking for a place to eat or have a drink, others were checking local shops for souvenirs. We also walked around, reached the harbor, where all the ships were “sleeping”. You could easily recognize the sightseeing boats and the fishing boats here. Near the harbor the restaurants smelled with fish, which was expectable. Even at that late time the water was warm. Of course no one was swimming, but you could sit near the beach, listen to the waves and don’t think about anything, just enjoy the moment.

The evening was nice and lovely, the day spent perfectly. This is how the vacation should be. Every moment must be enjoyed and remembered. But our adventures didn’t end here. We still have a lot to discover together.
See you soon on another side of Cyprus!