Carob, Wine and Monasteries

Today was mostly, by contrast to the last two days, grey and overcast, much cooler. After a brief trip to the supermarket for a few items including some bread to make into sandwiches for lunch, we set off to explore inland, around the villages on the middle level below the Troodos Mountains, using suggestions from the tourist information centre.

Anogyra street

Our first destination was Anogyra. By now our priority was for coffee - there were a couple of places to choose between (always makes life harder!) The one we opted for was friendly and offered us Cyprus coffee, much the same as Turkish, sweet and strong. Just what we needed!

Carob museum

 

 

Production area

 In the village is a small carob museum and factory. The owner is from a line of carob farmers and most enthusiastic about the history. Until recent tines, carob was a very valuable crop but a combination of modern European food hygiene regulations and changing attitudes of a modern generation have meant that it is now much less important and most of the processing is centralized into large factories near the main towns. (We learnt later that the development of modern Cyprus has relegated agriculture to a much lesser role than historically it held)

Unripe carob pod

 The more important part of the carob is the pod itself from which is extracted the juices to turn into carob syrup. The seeds are much less valuable but nonetheless useful in many industrial processes. Apparently these seeds are very consistent in size and gave rise to the term carat for measuring precious metals and jewels.

From there we pottered along the country roads. Although driving is never speedy and requires good concentration around the many hairpin bends, the asphalt surface puts many UK roads to shame.

Vasa museum

 Vasa was a maze of tiny streets and houses huddled together. A small museum about local traditional wine making and the distillation of the local hard stuff appeared first. That turned out to be the easy bit!

Typical village still

Vasa church

 Up the same street and around some very tight bends and we came to the small chapel. This did not appear to be much used now. Alongside we found one of the old caves.

Inside Vasa church

 

Cave shrine

 We could see a larger, more modern church in the village centre and tried to navigate to it. Alas, dear reader, we have to admit failure. After squeezing through some tight corners and streets we were asked by a local where we wanted to go. 'Main square' did not get much of an answer. Try again: 'Malia' we tried and although he pointed the way the response was, 'What do you want to go there for?'

Shortly after leaving the village we pulled off the road to have our break for lunch.

Once we arrived at Malia we understood the comment - it was a pretty typical inland village but nothing much to detain us.

Finally we headed for Omodos, clearly a much more popular destination on the tourist trail. With only a few visitors it was rather pleasant but perhaps could be a bit oppressive in season.

Omodos main street

The centre of the village is a wide cobbled traffic-free street lined with a multitude of eating and drinking places. In the side streets many of the buildings have shops, mostly souvenirs and the like. Sweet making is another locentretivity and the coated nuts were almost tempting but, having succumbed at our first stop, Christine insisted on waiting for another day!

Omodos monastery entrance

The main building in the village centre is the monastery. Although there has been a church here for a long time, the present, enlarged building is from the 19C. Surrounding the church on two sides are two or three storey buildings. Once housing the main functions of the monastic life, they are now mostly small museums and a Treasury of church valuables - even the most ornate of north European Catholic churches seem quite ordinary alongside many of the Orthodox traditions. Icons and other painted boards together with very ornate communion vessels gave opportunities for artists and craftsmen down the centuries.

Omodos monastery

One display was a memorial to many local people who died in the EOKA uprising in the 1950's. In some ways it is surprising to find such a warm welcome as British people, given the bitterness of that period. Perhaps the fact that they gained independence helps. There is a greater sense of hurt from the divisions brought about by the Turkish invasion a couple of decades later, which still leaves the island forcibly divided.

Old wine press

Down one of the narrow streets is an old wine press, dating back to medieval times. Huge timbers form the main lever. Unlike cider presses in Cornwall, the huge screw does not itself press the grapes. Instead it is used to lift a huge stone attached to the end of the lever and it is this which extracts the juices.

Before leaving the village we managed a cup of tea from one of the many taverns - this one also described itself as a 'coffee restaurant'. Time then to drive back to Pissouri by a slightly more direct route.

The plan is to try one of the nearby tavernas tonight and we will report tomorrow on the experience!

Actually, I will try tonight although who knows how unorthodox it may turn out!

We chose Kastro on the beach front, although we were glad to be inside with a log fire for added warmth. Christine opted for fish (she had to choose her own red snapper) and Mike had pork in a Commandaria (local sweet wine) sauce. We dithered over the wine but the options meant that Christine could have a glass of village white whilst Mike went for a half carafe of red.

It was all very delicious and we were made very welcome in this family- run restaurant. It was rather quiet but this meant we could have a good chat. Junior, youngest of the three siblings who now run the business, had spent 18 months recently in Birmingham to complete his studies into the theory of hospitality.

We were treated to a seat by the fire for our coffee and also some local halva? And a shot of zivania, the local home made spirit.

It was very interesting to listen to Junior talking about the local observance of Lent. They avoid not only meat, fish and cheese but also olive oil. He was very fervent in his explanation.