The Clock is Ticking - 18th July 2007

Many people will know Cyprus as a holiday island and may even have been here to one of the holiday resorts by the sea. Our local town of Paphos is one such holiday destination and is pretty much indistinguishable from a thousand other tourist destinations here in Cyprus and in Greece, Spain and all around the Mediterreanean Sea.

Paphos is slightly different in that it is split into two distinct areas. There is Kato Paphos (Lower Paphos) which is the tourist area with its hotels, bars, restaurants and beaches. In its favour I have to say they have a great ice cream shop on along the sea front which I would recommend to anyone who visits the island.

Then there is the old town area called Pano Paphos (Upper Paphos) which is the former Turkish town centre complete with its mosque. This is the part of Paphos that I particularly like. The area still has a Turkish feel to it with many small workshops, trademen and artisans all of which are open to the street for the passerby to see. Before I finish with this blog I wanted to give some idea of what this area is like and so this entry is merely a series of photographs showing a little of everyday life in Pano Paphos.

Pano Paphos has a central open market area that is now used as a carpark, a covered public market that has many small stalls selling linen and other tourist goods and nearby is the mosque that is now closed. The area is surrounded by a series of small streets with 2 storey buildings usually with a workshop at the street level.

Apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pictures.

One of the small side streets with its small workshops

Peering into a workshop were they make chairs. Just chairs!

Customized exhausts.

A tailor at work outside his shop.

A furniture shop preparing the tall church pews typical of the Greek Orthodox Church

Looking inside the covered public market

Notice that amid the traditional Cyprus lace there are the racks of pirate DVDs

A selection of DVDs easily available at many of the market stalls

Tin Pan Alley

Busy at work welding in the street

Something completely illegal anywhere else due to the possibility of 'arc eye', damage to the eye caused by looking at arc welding without protecting the eyes

The mosque near the central market

A workshop doing heaven knows what

Outside one of the furniture workshops

A clothes repair shop

Bicycle repairs

And the motorcycle repair shop

Upholstery made to measure


Another furniture workshop


The entrance to my favourite watering hole in town 'Timothy's Bar'

Bar and coffee shop and art dealer and antiques and you name it.

The beautiful tiled floor in Timothy's bar

More tiled floors in Timothy's

I am not a foot fetishist honest.

The band warms up at Timothy's


Letting down your hair at Timothy's

Notice the old chap on the right who is too far gone to get up and shake his stuff.

And finally....

Everyone should take their sheep to town now and then.