Bucket List Must Wait...First, Berengaria Hotel

I must admit, I'm just an armchair traveler at the moment, stuck and waiting to get my wings back so before I book some flights to travel around the world why not write about Cyprus..the island of sunshine, daxi, souvlaki, and so on...the list is endless.

For some people Cyprus is the paradise, for others it's just a pit stop, and I'm not here to write about the islander life or the culture. There must be hundreds of travel guides for that purpose. I won't talk about the touristy places and the crystal clear sea either...that simply bores me.

If I'm honest I enjoy the abandoned and dark places the most nowadays. Yeah...dark soul right?!

However there are plenty of hidden gems in here I have or will try to discover and write about and since I already mentioned my affection for abandoned places, let's start the list with one of them.

Berengaria Hotel

The hotel itself is located in Prodromos, somewhere deep in the mountains. It's just like in the fairy tales big, old, abandoned castle in the middle of the village silently standing, surrounded by forest.

Even the history of the hotel can be a script of a House on the haunted hill kind of movie or a spooky Halloween story you tell around a campfire.

Built in the 1930's Berengaria was the first major, luxury hotel with infinity pool, traditional afternoon tea, rich visitors from all over Europe...and what else it had? Three greedy and jealous heirs who all died from mysterious and suspicious circumstances later on. Yeah...the curse of the dead father...they should have listened to him and ran the place together but their vanity caused the hotel to fail.

So, the place is supposed to be haunted now.

It was also said the a merchant's wife who was found dead in the swimming pool and a fair maiden dressed in white are also seeking to avenge their deaths and can be seen during the dusk hours.

True or not, the hotel has been abandoned for more than 30 years and during this time the locals took everything from it.

So as you gathered I just had to see the place with my own eyes. Some thrill seeking people had camped and spent a cold night there few years ago but I wasn't that brave just yet.

Also, I did not want to win the "worst mum of the year" award by scaring my daughter out with a spontaneous ghost hunting sleepover so we decide to have a day trip instead.

It was a sunny, warm day, clear blue sky. If you know me well you also know I don't like to have many people wandering around and taking selfies whilst I'm trying to explore, so I was pleased to see that there was only a group of young Russians (taking selfies) there but the hotel appeared to be empty otherwise.

Through the main entrance we stepped into the big hall where the main staircase was leading to the second floor. Seeing the deterioration of the place was not as sad as seeing all those meaningless, ugly graffiti all around the walls and stairs.

I just wanted the hotel to talk to me...tell the stories the cold walls are keeping, show me a ladies and gents parading in their fancy dresses, smoking cigars and looking very important.

Wanted to listen to the quartet playing in the main dining hall near the fireplace, and waiters rushing between tables serving tea. It almost seemed like the scene from Titanic when the camera entered the boat and for few seconds they let you see the shining and glamorous past before the image of grey, lifeless present took over.

I was determined to explore every dark corners and hidden rooms.

We started with the ground floor including the garden, swimming pool and an old engine room. We reached the far wing where the large fireplace dominated the wall. From there we were lead to several smaller rooms and finally to the exit to the garden.

It was obvious that the swimming pool and sunbathing area had seen better days, cocktail parties, laughter, maybe holiday romances but I kept wondering if the merchant's wife was really found dead in it.

The trees and plants have still not claimed back their territory but I assume in few more decades the pool and walls will be covered with ivy and grass will grow out between the tiles.

From the garden, through a small door we found ourselves in a big, dark blue room. It reminded me to a spa or inside pool area however it was the hotel's nightclub, not a pretty one I must say.

It was now time explore the first and second floor. We headed back to the main staircase which is still very stable so had no issues climbing it. Both floors were very similar, divided into two wings, having massive empty rooms and countless windows.

I remember having a conversation with my other half whether or not these rooms were the actual bedrooms as it was just hard to imagine how they were supposed to look like.

The right wing appeared to be more damaged than the other, a big corner of the entire building was now cracked and partly missing.

At last we found a small path from the main entrance, leading us to the back of the hotel where the damage was even more noticeable. It was not sunny anymore... black clouds were gathering above the mountains, the temperature dropped and rain was approaching. The broken walls, abandoned, dusty garages were just a said view, reminders of a once luxurious but not yet forgotten era.

Most likely the hotel won't ever be restored, wind will continue howling in the big halls and walls will keep their secrets forever.