Paphos Ruins2

Before I get on with this post, I have to mention the weather here. I have decided that the weather is confused or playing a prank on us because this weekend through Monday it was 65* and people were swimming and in shorts, then yesterday it was snowing, hailing, and thunderstorming! They haven't had snow here in Nicosia since 1995! Of course it has to snow when I'm here, I feel like I brought the cold weather from home with me. This is suppose to be the sunniest and warmest country in all of Europe...anyway, back to pictures of sunny, wonderful Paphos.

Here are the last pictures of Paphos. I will be posting pictures of Carnival tomorrow, so enjoy these till then!

This park was just amazing, I couldn't get enough of it. And we could really interact with all the ruins, as opposed to a museum or monument where you can only observe. Here, I felt like I was brought back to another time period and could climb on the ruins, touch the mosaics, lay on a fallen column, play with the lizards, all while being enchanted by Mediterranean Sea and landscape surrounding us. I feel like I could really be connected with the scene around me and tried to imagine the temples and buildings as they once were; I wondered what each room was used for, what strange-looking objects functioned as, and what it was like when the columns werent split, the mosaics weren't faded and cracked, and before the buildings were deteriorated to the ruins they are today. It was truly one of the most beautiful and inspiring places I have ever been; I cannot portray the warmth of the sun nor the sensation of seeing this magnificent site for the first time.

This is just another example of the detail of the mosaics. In this picture, you can really see every single individual tile that was placed 2,000 years ago and that remains still today.

It's hard to see, but there is a lizard in the middle of this picture on a rock. These guys were everywhere and so fun to watch and find. The bigger ones, however, I was not quite as much a fan of...for those I preffered standing on rocks while Mark poked them out of their hiding places.

Just chilling on some 2,000 year old ruins, no big deal.

Any ideas as to what the circular objects were? I have no idea, but they were pretty cool looking to me!

Here I am standing in an ancient room with pottery-tiled floor remains. I have no idea what the room was for, but I thought it was awesome getting to pretend and imagine the possibilities!

This is an ancient ampitheater which was quite impressive. Unfortunately this was all that remained of the building, apparently there was once a massive perforamnce hall and structure that got ruined during an earthquake.

Here I am pretending to be a performer curtseying. I am standing where performers of long ago use to perform-plays of what I wonder; tragedies, comedies, epic romances, who knows but it is fun to imagine!

These are ruins of a castle that were part of the building complex. It too was destroyed during the earthquake.