Christmas Treasures In Paphos

Christmas time in Cyprus always meant just another day for me. Without snow, freezing cold, chimney cake smell around the old down and entire city decoration it's just not the same, never will be. However the sunny and warm weather in December has its upsides too, we can always hop in the car and drive somewhere for a day trip. Paphos is just a 20 minutes drive away from us so why not have a walk before we fill our tummies with Christmas turkey and mince pies until we can't move.

I like to drive on the old road to Paphos because the view is beautiful and I can never get enough of Aphrodite's rocks. There is a spot where I always wanted to stop by and have a few minutes chill but we never did. Until today. It's called the Ten Points of Vision, showing the Rocks from different perspectives.

Even though some darker clouds were gathering we were optimistic that this few minutes pit stop was just the beginning of a real nice day and we won't be sent back home by the rain.

When it comes to Paphos, I usually have a plan for what I want to do there but this time my only plan was getting lost and ending up at places we've never visited before. So that's exactly what happened.

We parked our car next to the Municipality Garden - mainly because Emma saw the Christmas fair and I irresponsibly promised her a walk around there which resulted with a constant begging for having a ride on the bumper cars. There came the problem, I've not had any cash on me so we decided to look for a nearby ATM. We walked down few streets, turned away from the shopping areas, followed the smell of freshly barbecued meat and just when we got closer to the bank we found an old building with a small green door and some hand written signs offering painted pumpkins.

How odd, I thought, in the middle of nowhere there is this tiny craft shop still open, waiting for lost customers, perhaps we should visit it. I must say, it turned out to be a brilliant idea. I have a big admiration for hand made crafts, especially if they are unique and creative such as Evi Kokkinou's painted pumpkins were.

We stepped in quietly just to found ourselves between hundreds of colourful and amazing pumpkins. From big to small ones, they were all given personalities and characters by being painted and decorated as nurses, doctors, musicians, husband and wife and so on.

Every pieces were so detailed and unique that I just wanted to buy them all. We were going from room to room to explore the entire house and its magical atmosphere.

I was surprised that such and amazing craft is located in a such a hidden area of the town instead of being proudly displayed somewhere near center but then I realized that this small, last century patched up building is the real home for the pumpkin figures and it would absolutely lose its charm if it was surrounded by shopping malls. Every piece of furniture was a different style, big, comfy armchairs to rest in with a cup of coffee, checkered Cypriot style table cloth thrown on tables, camphor wood carved chests from Far East and big oval mirrors were placed in some way chaotic but very homelike manner. It felt like as if I was walking around my granny's place as a child hoping to play with her well kept porcelain dolls I never got to touch.

We must have been there for quite a while when the lady of the house, Evi appeared and started to talk about her passion and hobby - the pumpkin and papier mashe painting. Her eyes were lit up every time we asked a new question and she proudly told stories about finding decades old wooden cobblers in her grandfather's shoemaker store from Istanbul, which also gave her inspirations and ideas.

I found a beautiful antique painted horse hidden under a table which was appeared to be a present from Alexandria, brought by her grandma. It truly was a time traveling experience.

Phil was very interested in the whole painting process and Evi was happy talk about it. From the day of harvesting the pumpkins she has to wait at least 2 years until the pumpkin is dry enough to be decorated, then she removes the top layer of the skin, sketches the faces by pencils then carefully paints it with colourful acrylic paints. As a final step Evi's husband varnishes them so they can be shiny and protected.

I saw Emma was walking around one particular piece over and over again, looking at me with puppy eyes and of course it would have been quite rude just to say Bye to Evi and walk out from her store without purchasing any souvenir so we bought a funny looking papier mache figure from her. The moment we chose it, Evi picked it up and said goodbye to her "baby". That was so sweet and touching, I almost felt guilty to take it away from her.

We promised to take good care of now called Polly, and that we would definitely return in the future. She was absolutely a fabulous host and I can strongly recommend her craft shop in case you're looking for something unique.

With our new treasure we walked away and back to the town center as Emma sadly still didn't forget about the prospect of riding the bumper cars but I was lucky enough when Phil took over the responsibility of escorting her. The town hall area was fairly decorated with Christmasy stuff but this time of the day was still quiet, not too many kids dragged their parents there yet.

We walked around a bit enjoying the sunshine when we found a Christmas nativity scene with the funniest looking Joseph I've ever seen. I mean, poor thing looked so confused and worried that we could not stop laughing. He seemed like questioning his ability to locate baby Jesus in the whole picture.

Our day was so far going well, who would of thought Paphos can offer such fun?!

I must admit I've never visited the Tombs of Kings during the 10+ years I've spent in Cyprus but as it was a spontaneous day trip, we then spontaneously ended up there.

The view was really beautiful, the archaeological site was as interesting as it can be but I enjoyed the sound of the ocean and seagulls more than wandering around the ruins.

Philip has however always found some entertainment there, building a rock tower or posing as an ancient statue (failed).

Time was passing fast and we still had our super important duty of baking gingerbread-man cookies ahead so we decided to head back home slowly. Our last stop was at a random tree, randomly decorated with knitted patchwork in the middle of a park next to the Municipal Gallery.

Stopping there and taking a photo of it was a must in order to complete our colourful and adventurous day.

#weloveyoupaphos