So we decided that today was the day to go to Protaras, we remember it well from our 2011 holiday where we stayed at the Odesa hotel with Mum and Dad and Adam. We found out from the TUI rep, Joy, that we needed to get the 102 bus from the stop near the Mexican / Greek restaurant (I heard Mexican, Laura heard Greek).
Whilst we were talking to Joy, she asked us if we saw the tornado yesterday… Tornado, we said, no, she showed us a picture of a water spout tornado that hit the beach in Ayai Napa, there were a number of videos on YouTube showing it, crazy to think it was that close.
Anyway, off we went to catch the bus to Protaras. I used Google Maps, it was an 8 minute walk to the bus stop and it was 15minutes until the bus, but it wanted us to go up a road that didn’t exist, so we kept walking to the next turning, round some newish estate and then to a hill up to the bus stop. We made it with 2 minutes to spare.
€1.50 each for the fair in to Protaras and we had to wear a mask, good job we brought them with us. It took no more than 10minutes to get there and it dropped us outside the McDonalds. The memories came back as we walked down to the main strip where we knew we would see the Odesa hotel.
Ahh the Odesa, fond memories, which you can find in this blog in 2011 when we first started writing The Little Frosts On Tour.
Memories of foot eating fish, emergency doctors, the black pearl, shaky the balls, buying sunglasses. We even found the small opticians where I bought a pair of clip on sunglasses because I forgot mine back then and didn’t have reactions lenses – the opticians was closed.
The strip was pretty deserted, hardly anyone around, so we wandered around, popped into a few gift shops, bought a drink. You can really tell it was the end of the season, no one in the restaurants, nobody enticing you in, gift shops closed, very quiet.
Fortunately the storm of yesterday had cleared, and it was lovely weather. We stopped in a pub called Cheers and had a beer, it also meant we could use the facilities. Whilst in the pub, there was a mummy cat and 2 kittens. When we finished our drink, the kittens decided they needed a drink from mummy too… (The contented look on the cats face was lovely).
After our drink, we wanted to walk along the beach, up to the Odessa and back to the bus stop. It’s there where we found where all the people were… the beach was jam packed full, not only the beach but the beach front on the hotels too, tightly packed in, really claustrophobic. It made us realise just how quiet and secluded our hotel really is.
We continued walking down, it had changed an awful lot in 11 years, there were a lot of beach front hotels, there were life guard stations dotted around, massage tents, toilets every so often – it felt really overcrowded. Still it was nice to walk along the board walk.
We actually walked a little too far along the beach. I was looking for what I remembered of the Odessa where the beach joined the garden, which joined the hotel – we never saw it, the reason, there are so many more hotels in that area now, it’s so built up, we think in that part stands a newer hotel. Anyway we found a road leading back to the strip and it actually came out, eventually, by the bus stop. It was a short wait, just long enough to think we had more time and could waste some in another gift shop, when it arrived. The 101 bus.
Another short bus ride, and we had no idea when to press the stop button… we almost missed it… the bus driver swerved into the bus stop and we got out. We decided to walk, what was possibly the better way back to the hotel, it was just as long as the first time, but it led us past a pub that Gary would be interested in, and onto the beach where we had walked a few days ago – so we knew the way back.
We made it in time for lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the sun loungers nursing our aching feet and legs.
Off for dinner now, it’s Around the World Night in the restaurant. No doubt we will eat too much, have a couple of drinks and read some more. Maintaining a SlimmingWorld plan on holiday is doable for one week, but in the second week, not so much.
Not sure on the plan for tomorrow, it could be the last good day for a couple of days, so maybe the garden, and a bit of swimming in the sea… find out in the next instalment of The Little Frosts on Tour…