And so it begins... (From Detroit to Cyprus)

Meg:

(This is how we’re going to indicate who’s writing...though I’m sure it will be obvious)

We finally get to start our blog! So Tom and I got married on September 27th and since then we’ve been planning our move to Europe with a honeymoon attached. After an incredible month of visiting as many friends and family as we could pack in, moving out of our apartment, unloading all our stuff into both our generous parents’ houses, then shopping for adapters and tiny toiletries...we took off from Detroit on Nov. 1st! We scheduled a FANTASTIC 24-hour layover in Chicago and it was exactly that. Matt picked us up from the airport and Hannah bought us donuts that we devoured. We ate great breakfast, did some fun shopping, got our wedding ring tattoos,

had dinner, and then Matt brought us back for our flight to London! We had another pretty long layover but spent it in the airport, as that will force us to get back to London another time. 

We then flew to Cyprus on lovely British Air, which I just want to fly every time because they’re so nice and clean and have good movies and great food and yummy tea with milk and all the attendants have great accents and ooooh it’s just so great. So after landing with applause from some boisterous passengers, we collected our bags and headed to the car rental counter. They gave us the keys to our SUPER cute brand new tiny red Citroen (pictured later) and apologized for the lack of country map OR GPS rental-please remember we have no phones. The woman gave us some basic directions and encouragements like “you won’t get lost here”, “we only have one big motorway, not like where you come from”, or “it’s very easy, just head towards Limassol” (even though she hadn’t heard of Odou-our destination). We headed for the parking lot, me with our turn by turn directions to our place printed off the website, and Tom mentally getting pumped to drive on the opposite side of the road and the opposite side of the car. Then, after getting lost and needing directions to get out of the airport parking lot, we took the highway ‘B4’ like the directions said. However, there were no other street names listed on our paper after that, just lines like ‘Drive 24.3 km and take the exit’ (we assumed we would know it when we saw it?). When the speed limits started slowing down, and the road got skinnier, we stopped for directions at a gas station...”no English”, “go airport”, “turn right (with hand motions to the left)”. So we gathered we went the wrong way on the highway. No biggie, we turned around and went the opposite way, just hoping we were popping out of the correct exits on the bunches of roundabouts we were passing through. We took more turns, with less signs and construction detours, then we saw a movie theater and a KFC. We figured we were bound to find SOMEONE speaking English at this combination of venues. Luckily we didn’t even have to get past the parking lot (which took a considerable amount of patience from Tom to get into while weaving through spaces and lanes that didn’t look like we were supposed to be there). A sweet car pulled in next to us and a cool young Cypriot couple got out. When we asked if they spoke English, they said yes and acted eager to help (must have been the lost, panicked look on our faces). The couple hadn’t heard of our destination either but we showed the guy our mapquest-ish directions with its map without any words and he goes, “Ah yes, okay, you want to go there toNIGHT?” When we said that’s where we were staying, he said okay. Then he put on his best kindergarten voice, making sure we understood each instruction. He said the place we are looking for is near another place called Lefkara. His directions got us there about an hour later. Thanks guy! So we kept driving up the mountain after passing through Lefkara. The maps in the guidebook were too vague, the roads were getting darker and winding severely. There were fewer and fewer signs and we went 20 kilometers before passing another town. We saw a sign for something we recognized on our tiny map and tried to head down that road. It turned to dirt, it didn’t have any railings (remember we’re in the mountains), and it was winding so bad it would take us forever to go 10 km. It’s now 10:00 at night. I’ve been pretty upbeat on the outside and most of my insides, trying to boost up the spirits of my husband who has been getting more and more frustrated as he feels responsible for getting us both there safely, but this was a moment I envisioned us getting a flat tire and drinking our pee to stay alive until another set of lost tourists finds us. I think Tom was thinking the same thing or worse so we both decided to turn around and go back down to Lefkara. There we would knock on a guesthouse door until someone woke up and let us in or we would sleep in the car and wake up to the beautiful view. Despite the nightmare situation we felt we were experiencing, we were in the mountains and we KNEW beyond the dark turns there were breath-taking horizons awaiting our wake up. We still were feeling incredibly lucky and I knew with my whole friggin’ heart that I would rather be crazy-lost on this honeymoon with Tom than anywhere else. 

On the road in Lefkara where NOTHING looked open, we finally spotted a bar with people inside. We stopped; maybe they could help direct us to a place we could stay. We walked into what looked like a private party watching Captain Phillips with Greek subtitles, but they welcomed us warmly with their hey-foreigner-what-are-you-doing-in-our-bar stares. Luckily, one guy spoke English and he called our guest house owner for us, because we had the number, just no phones! Bad news, he’s in Larnaca (where the airport is). So now, the guy tells us we can drive to Odou and find someone to call the number again so the owner can call someone else to unlock the room for us (it’s now 11 pm) or we can sleep in our car. We asked if they knew of a hotel in Lefkara, they tried their one friend, he’s asleep. Okay! So looks like we’re driving the 20 km with new directions to Odou. We were DEFINITELY sleeping in our car. There was no way we were going to make it to Odou tonight (if ever) AND be able to find someone awake to call the owner to call someone else to open the place. Ah! 

So we start driving the way he instructed and we finally began to see signs for Odou! But that’s not the best part, once we found a place to park in Odou just off a street where we might be sleeping in the car, we spotted a phone booth all lit up like an angel! My head went down to grab my purse and Tom goes, “Oh man!” in a super excited voice. I looked up to see what he meant and there was a VERY friendly-looking, smiling woman waving at us in my window. Not only was she an English speaker, but SHE WAS THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO OPEN THE ROOM! She must have heard from the owner that we were lost and on our way a half hour before. She waited outside in the cold hoping to spot an American couple driving through Odou. You’ve got to be kidding me, Jesus. Tom and I were in such disbelief we had a hard time focusing on what she was saying, but she finally got us moved into our room

and invited us for a nice cup of Cyprus coffee (to die for). We sat with her while she fed us toast crackers, some chips, some typical Cypriot treat, and she told us about her 10 children. She said she should go to bed (it was now close to midnight) but she would have breakfast ready for us at 10 the next morning. We couldn't wait for the morning and were in complete bliss as we fell asleep.

Day 1 of honeymoon...#nowords #imeansorrythatwasalotofwords