I have now been in Paphos for a few days and am loving the small town vibe here after being in such big cities for the past two weeks. I am back in an apartment which has a lovely balcony where I sit every morning in the sun and write.

Much as I loved Larnaca, and at the risk of sounding spoilt, hotel life is fine for a little time, but it’s lovely to have somewhere you can just chill and not go out if you don’t want to. That is part of what this trip is all about, I will be spending winter somewhere new each year, so I want to work out what suits me best.

I have met up with friends, from Spain and Cyprus, and am looking forward to seeing them again before I leave next week. The rest of the time has just been beach walks, trips up to the old town and practical things like doing my washing and shopping.

The coast here is beautiful, very much like Aiya Napa, as it is mostly rocky coves with the most gorgeous hotels and houses along the beachfront. The sea is wonderfully blue again, I have been so lucky with the weather, it was even a bit too warm at points yesterday!

More million euro plus houses to admire!

The old town has been extensively restored, unlike Larnaca and Nicosia there are few derelict buildings, and one of the things that I really love is that all of the buildings have been painted different colours. Around the old market hall there are lots of cute little shops and cafes in pastel colours.

As with all of Cyprus there is a great focus on the arts and one of the places that I came across was the old caravansary or han. This is a resting place for long distance travellers who were travelling in caravans with their animals.

There were several in Paphos and this one was operational until the 1950s, having accommodation upstairs and stabling below. The building then fell into ruin until it was restored in 2017, and now is full of craft shops and cafes, as well as hosting events on a stage built within the complex.

It was brilliant to see photos of the restoration outside the building and great that it has been preserved for other uses.

I was busy taking pictures and initially didn’t notice that one of the external walls was covered in crochet mandalas.

They covered the whole wall, and they have all been made by a group called Peace2Peace who work to promote crafts amongst women of different cultures. That is such a brilliant idea, a friend in Marsden runs a similar group through her refugee support project and a lot of my old craft room stash went to them.

The display looked fantastic, and reminded of the gorgeous mandalas I bought from my friend Gale in Spain for mine and Ellen’s bedrooms. They were all beautiful designs and it is hard to pick a favourite but I think these two are gorgeous.

I love mandala designs and have just bought some new seat covers for Katy with a mandala print on that I can’t wait to fit next week.

One of my targets for when I get back to Spain must be to get someone to teach me how to crochet flowers. We have some excellent crocheters in the group, and I have had this book for about 10 years now. Just think of all the places I could put crochet flowers in Katy!

Because there has been so much restoration there were not too many old doors and balconies but I did spot a few, along with many lovely shops selling arts and crafts.

This was the entrance to a gorgeous little taverna, with a courtyard garden. It reminded me of the one described in the novel I recently read about Cyprus, ‘The Island of Missing Trees’.

I loved these hand painted shoe makers lasts.

I will be spending the rest of my time in Paphos visiting the archaeological sites and museums so will be posting about those before I leave. I also intend to wander along many more beautiful bits of coastline before I leave to go back to dear old England next week, just so I can remember what sun looks like after I have been there a while 😉

I hope that you are all having a good week and have nice things planned for the week ahead. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.