this is me emerging with an impressive lack of grace from the blue waters of
the coast of cyprus according to legend the goddess aphrodite was born nearby
rising up from the sea foam to become one of the most enduring symbols of love and beauty
and it got me wondering just how much love and beauty would i find here in cyprus her birthplace
so in this video i'll be sharing the most impressive places and things i got to see here
starting with the rock of the roman this spot to my right is the birthplace of goddess aphrodite
afros means foam so she emerged from the sea phone in this exact spot that's the etymology
favored by a lot of local tour guides because it's incredibly poetic but while editing this
video i thought i would fact check it by which i mean i very briefly went on wikipedia and i
found out that this interpretation isn't valid according to modern scholars and the origin of
the name aphrodite is unclear nevertheless it's a pretty incredible place to visit
in the summer you can even go swimming nearby while we're on the topic of swimming here is my
favorite water-based activity in cyprus my instagram reel about it got 10 million views
and nearly 1 million on tick tock by the way you can follow me on both at girl vs globe girl vs
globe so we're currently at musan underwater museum and we're going in wearing our wetsuits
let's go doing some glamour shots now flower shots exactly this is for my only fans page so it's all
good [ __ ] only fans first no you know what people are making on the idea even on this cold
relatively cloudy day the underwater museum was beautiful i didn't bring a gopro so unfortunately
all i have is this clip of me looking like um like a floating corpse so yeah there you go how was
it great i stupidly didn't bring a towel and i'm very cold i've just put my just putting my coat on
fashion once we were done snorkeling we headed to the harbor in ionapa
and had lunch at this incredible seafood restaurant called vasso's fish tavern
it's been there since 1962 and genuinely everything i tried was amazing sushi
salmon carpaccio look at all this food all right now i think it's time for dessert right
now we are inside nikki suite it's a shop that this lovely lady started 36 years ago
and they do everything from fruits to vegetables they can serve them with sugar and
that's it traditionally cypriot housewives would offer their guests homemade spoon sweets as they
call them and nikki inherited her passion for them from her mother today she employs dozens
of women from her small mountain village of agros and exports the suites as far as australia japan
and egypt and now we're inside the shop where all the sweets are sold as you can see behind
me there are many varieties here's some pretty obvious ones like cherry but then we move on to
pumpkin we've got watermelon there is rose which is grown locally and the one i personally feel
most confused by is the olive the watermelon sweets that i saw inside the shop are actually
made using the white part of the rind so you don't use the green but you don't use the red
bit of the watermelon but only the white and it's basically just a zero waste policy you
really want to use as much of the fruit as you possibly can if you're poor if you're
living in a faraway village like this with no access to other forms of sustenance i am nikki
i cook in traditional sweet marmalade i cook it about 90 different products here 90 yes wow
we're using sugar fruits and lemon juice nothing else i live here for 60 years it's my village i
love this place my house is there my mom living there have the sun for many many days of the years
we have snow the winter we have it's all it's nice the best from our suites it's a walnut
we have only one day of the year to pick up from the tree we're using also cinnamon and cloves
for aroma is this one the olive olives can i try it yes you have steak yes please
it's nice nice it's different from there so wow can i have one more yes oh it's really good
mickey polly it's very nice these sweets i've really enjoyed being inside your shop
thank you very much i think i need to load up with you for all for everyone right next up it's time
for some adrenaline at adventure mountain park so i'm about to try paintball for the first time
this is my teammate sammy this is what are you um this is one of our opponents this is chris and
then nino is struggling to get his um suit on so i think that bones well i feel like we've got this
good luck i don't think i need it but thank you right so i'm gonna quickly explain how the game
works and then we have a set of like safety rules whatever happens you don't take visual
as it turns out getting shot actually really hurts i have injuries that are probably a
little bit non-pg i got shot on the bum a couple of times but overall i would say i i did find it
very fun but i found it absolutely terrifying i um i just kept hiding i didn't really want to
actively participate in the warfare okay next up archery how are we feeling let's go i've done my
hair up katniss everdeen style and now i'm gonna try my hand at archery i'm expecting mixed results
yeah wait wait wait it's still glowing you know how would you rate my archery skills
like they're okay no no that was a zero then it was lunch time and i was genuinely shocked by
how nice the food was i figured they'd give us i don't know like burgers and chips but instead it
was all this amazing traditional cypriot food it's literally the biggest meal i've ever been served
hello apologies for looking like a frat boy but we have just arrived at the inf sculpture park
which was open back in 2014 and since then has amassed quite a collection they've had several
symposiums every year international artists come here and they contribute different statues
sammy did you want to repeat your joke cause me when i can't remember if i put deodorant on
it's mainly bums isn't it a lot of bum now one thing i've noticed is there are many statues of
aphrodite and aphrodite is a bit of a symbol of cyprus she supposedly was born here but of course
you already knew that what you may not know however is that these little hippos lived in
cyprus but we're hunted to extinction boo while we're on the topic of cypriot nature let's go
on a little hike along this gorgeous nature trail i'm going to show you a very cool view
hikers beware the walk is easy it takes less than an hour in total and you'll be surrounded
by gorgeous flowers the entire time not to mention the unbelievably blue waters beneath
you we've arrived at a little mermaid cove probably one of the nicest beaches i've seen in
a few years time so beautiful in fact that i nearly plunged to my death while filming it
i did get my swearing on camera
another impressive sight you'll see in your walk is this church we were even a blessed with a
rainbow and lots of cats in fact let me tell you more about cypriot cats while we explored the area
some say they were brought over by cleopatra to get rid of poisonous snakes others claim it was
saint helena in 326 a.d whatever the truth the locals love them in fact the cats outnumber them
there are 1.5 million of them in cyprus and only 1.2 million people in fact there's even a
monastery dedicated to cats a holy monastery of saint nicholas of the cats we decided to treat
ourselves to some ice cream i have decided to go with two very challenging flavors
the top is rose which is lovely there's a lot of roses grown locally here in cyprus actually
one of the villages we went to has really large damascus rose production and at the bottom the
white ice cream that you see is mastic flavor now mastic is actually tree resin if you've watched
this video that i did on greek cuisine and if you haven't you should i um i explained a lot more
about the importance of mastic in greek cuisine and by extension cypriot of course we are about to
explore one of the most impressive buildings here in monaca it's called saint lazarus church and
it dates back to the 9th century it's a byzantine church and has all these gold gilded icons inside
i will admit when you first drive into larnaca it's not the most impressive of cities you just
get these really non-descript tall hotel buildings but for the past 4 000 years it has been one of
the world's most ancient continuously inhabited cities which is pretty impressive and it's kind
of interesting to see how it's turned from this incredibly ancient place to a tourist hotspot
i found larnica to be very artsy there's beautiful street art in the city center art galleries
overall i would say cyprus is really good at keeping its traditions alive this cute little
street is full of small manufacturers we found a blacksmith there's somebody doing upholstery etc
it's a very very nice traditional looking street i imagine this place would be really fun in the
summer look at these beautiful first thing you see when you fly to cyprus is a lake a salt lake for
flamingos so the flamingo lake is right by the airport which sammy has decided to drive us to
um i'm not a very good navigator after trying and failing we gave up on finding a parking spot next
to the lake and headed to the nearby mosque instead okay here's some ancient remains i'm
afraid that's all the information i currently have well now i've had time to do some research so here
is some more background the mosque is dedicated to om haram or hala sultan in turkish she was
the wife of one of prophet muhammed's companions and according to some sources she died in larnaca
and was buried nearby the mosque is considered a holy site by turkish cypriot muslims but because
it's located in the greek non-muslim part of cyprus pilgrimage visits are pretty rare oh and
here are some cats like i mentioned earlier you will find them everywhere flying cats all around
nope okay all right lunch time let me take you to a great fresh seafood restaurant with a lot of
character run by this lovely man apparently this is a popular fanta like beverage here in cyprus
keen this is great hello gartering salads like koslos similar with cost
we are inside the ancient caves of paphos and these are actually man-made you can
tell from the really regular structure of the stone and they were built in
thousand pcs there they are veritably ancient okay that was short and sweet next up here is
a famous shipwreck just off the coast of cyprus as you can see i visited on a very windy day so i
didn't hike down to it but it is a very cool spot especially if you love photography next is another
unexpected itinerary edition did you know that cypress has a banana plantations most of them are
near pathways close to the caves and shipwreck we've just talked about the bananas actually
grow in groves along the highway so it's really easy to park the car and go have a closer look
i was not expecting bananas and cypress the next three locations are all historical sites it was in
puffles that goddess aphrodite was born and it's a big center of culture on the island
the first spot was my favorite the ancient mosaics you can see here are considered some of the most
impressive in the world and they were actually only discovered in the 1960s by a local runner
yes yet another reason why i should probably take up jogging um never mind the mosaics were created
using locally mined stone and they depict famous mythological scenes one of my favorites was this
one showing theseus fight with the minotaur in crete then a short drive away you'll find the
tombs of the kings a giant necropolis that was designated a unesco world heritage site in 1980
the underground tombs are carved out of solid rock and many date as far back as the 4th century bc
the place is really interesting but it was so cold and windy when we visited
that we didn't stay very long um but long enough for me to embarrass myself in front of a tourist
yep i'm a very good dancer yep okay also nearby is the korean archaeological side korean was one of
cyprus's most important city kingdoms in antiquity and you can see the remains of local bathhouses
and summer mosaics here we're about to visit a restaurant that's owned by this lady called sophia
apparently it's incredible i'm very excited to try there's like homemade bread homemade
halloumi right up my street first of all let me show you this small museum that sophia set up
it's basically a traditionally decorated home full of cypriot designs local weaved baskets
costumes and family portraits it really gives you a feel for its local culture and history
but the food is the star of the show so sophia showed us how to make halloumi and then
hand fed it to us which was absolutely adorable we also saw how she makes her sourdough bread
in the wood-fired oven and then got to try a bunch of dishes made with ingredients from the
local village it was a really nice meal the kind that just really makes you miss your grandmother
seeing as we're talking about all these cypriot traditions let's go meet a basket weaver in
another nearby village yes hi what do you make the baskets with every kind of materials
bamboo water reeds and wheat everything is from the local from the island and check everything by
myself two times a week a very old house is from 1850 and i remember that three years ago just one
week before they covered i opened the business and after eight days i closed it for two years
and all the houses they used to have this kind of beds but now you know with a new style new fashion
now it's ikea the only thing is stay here in this building it's only the roof it was half damage
but i remember by myself and i put new bamboo 95 my business is on the tourists
my mentality now i don't make any plans for the future what is coming it's coming and
oh you brought us biscuits that's so nice thank you
thank you very much it's leaning which we used to get from ireland and now belgium it's the
design we called the leonardo da vinci because davinci visited our village 1481
and took a piece with a particular zigzag design that's the one he took it is
five and a half minutes long if you look closely at da vinci's last separate painting
you will see that the tablecloth features a design that resembles left curl lace
now yes it is a speculation but i'm going to choose to believe it going forward i never
make two the same really and since that time i made 200 300 people all from memory me the time
we just get married it was incredible to see how important lace production is not just to this
lovely couple michalis and tula but separate culture in general but like many traditional
crafts it is now in danger a piece like this would take how long to make months two months
but it's not a full-time job the women sit at home and do it as a hobby now there is a move
from the government to help people because to make this for a day take two three euros
you cannot make living unless if the government comes and helps other ways finish the village
of lefkar is famous for another traditional craft one that also needs the government's and
frankly tourist support it's the threats of silver like a thread so fine and they work it round
around by hand let's head to another shop run by local silversmith pavlos pablo to look at how it's
made as we heard from tula filigree is a jewelry making method that involves twisting fine wires of
silver or gold to form intricate designs now based on archaeological finds in ancient mesopotamia
filigree has been around since at least 3000 bc i found it really interesting that a lot of the
patterns resemble lace in their level of detail they're very very impressive now pavlos is a man
of many towns and he also paints religious icons and i wanted to show them to you before we head
to our next stop which is a nearby orthodox church the church of the holy cross i've not
really mentioned the politics of cyprus in this video namely the fact that it's split in two
there's the larger greek cypriot side and the turkish republic of northern cyprus the activities
on this trip were organized with the help of the cyprus tourism board and due to political reasons
they were all on the greek side that means i have mainly shown you orthodox churches like this one
while the turkish side is predominantly muslim if you'd like to learn more check out johnny harris
he has a series on books called borders and it explains a lot now more about this church under
his feet here there's a small hall and they keep the small piece of the holy cross in all churches
in cyprus and i guess in other orthodox churches there is always this first floor in the past it
was used only by women because women didn't have work and they were home with their kids
so they were going very often in the church with their kids the babies and they had to
feed them breastfeed them so they had to be in a different place after a visit we got lunch at
this place with our wonderful tour guide thalia who you just saw it was probably the best meal
we had on this entire trip and then walking back we spotted this pomegranate juice stand and we
got talking to the guy who runs it he is an actor who used to live in london and moved to lifeguard
it's different places different rhythm of time in cyprus is like you know one years like five
years in london i love how alive the cypriot culture is and how proud the locals are of
their heritage i really hope you enjoyed my little guide to the southern side of cypress
and if you did give this video a like and i will see you next friday thanks for watching