Five Guys Named Nick

I’m in Cyprus now. Larnaca, to be precise. Larnaca has 73,000 people and all of them appear to be involved in the tourist industry, which means that in February they are extremely lonely. There are a lot of naff shops which open for one or two unadvertised hours a day and then the staff repairs to their favourite caffeine stop where they discuss the affairs of the day. There was an election here, apparently. That would explain all the excitement; I saw at least two posters which appeared to have been up, recently.

The Med is nice. It’s too cold to swim but the beach makes for a good brisk walk, and apart from some marking and reading and a visit to the tomb of St. Lazarus (yes, that Lazarus) I intend to do very little here.

Lazarus isn't actually IN his tomb; the Crusaders, avid collectors that they were, took him off to Marseilles, where...they misplaced him. The information at the church says that local Cypriots managed "to keep some of the sacred remains". Yeah. Like a DNA sample. It's a gorgeous church, though, filled with hammered silver and gold icons and devoted Filipino tourists kissing the plastic sheeting which protects the Virgin Mary from all manner of infectious bacteria. An old woman walked in and unwrapped her own votive candle, which was the size of a baseball bat. People are Serious about their saint, here!

Dinner last night at Art Club 1900, a cozy upstairs joint whose walls are covered with classy paintings and old movie posters. The stuffed vegetables were stuffed to the point where the vegetables were unidentifiable, but that's alright. It was a step up from the small vegetarian pizza I'd had the night before at a local sports bar, where I watched Chelsea and Olympiakos. Yes, Korinna, they have nice red shirts.

Today, I think, a run along the beach while I plot what looks like an extremely disjointed and complex trip through northern Europe this summer. Wish me luck; I wish you warmth!

02.21.2008