Visiting Asinou

After a whirlwind of St. Paddy's day activities, I headed out to the village of Asinou for some peace and quiet. The church of Asinou is considered the most beautiful painted church in the Troodos Mountains and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was truly stunning. The interior of the church is painted in floor-to-ceiling frescoes. I've never seen such vivid and bold interior paintings in a church. I was amazed at the complexity of the frescoes: St. George, the 40 Martyr's, and the painting of the black-veiled benefactress stay with me the most. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside. After my tour of the church, I ate a late lunch at the taverna across the road: dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), macaroni, and some delicious homemade stew, topped off with a Cypriot coffee (metrio, of course.)

Chatting with Deborah Potter

The last two weeks were pretty intense-- tons of receptions and programs. One of the highlights was hosting U.S. media figure and former CNN correspondent Deborah Potter, an expert on reporting in areas of regional conflict. She was in Cyprus as part as a follow-up to the Embassy's annual bicommunal media symposium. The lecture she gave was world-class. We had an incredible day touring around my favorite cafe and the market in north Nicosia.

Hanging out with Duende

What a couple of weeks! I spent a full week touring with Duende, a Latin Jazz Quartet! It was incredible. Sometimes I can't believe I'm getting paid to to do my job. One night they received two standing ovations. They held jam sessions, conducted children's and Master's workshops, and gave performances throughout the island. They even performed at the prison! We were given a tour of the Cypriot K-9 unit. They were covered in all the media, and I even ended up on a talk show. That was pretty wild.
We did some sight seeing around Limassol and Kyrenia, too. We visited an ancient Roman amphitheater that had such perfect acoustics that you could whisper and be heard several stories up. The vista was breathtaking. We kept driving around in fields and then pulled up to this castle out in the middle of nowhere-- but Cyprus is kind of like that. Of course, Kyrenia Harbor is beautiful as always. One of the guys liked it so much he skipped lunch and went hunting for a job!
Two days after packing Duende off to the airport, we launched a traffic safety initiative with a press conference. Wow. We received an incredible response. Full-page articles, requests for national interviews, meeting requests from other Ambassadors...we definitely struck a nerve.
I'll post some photos in the next few days.