Dinner at Nicolas Tavern

Nicolas Tavern

souvla

Excellent dinner at Nicolas Tavern.

Choice of soups. Chose mushroom and chicken. Both were excellent, served piping hot.

Sword fish, I have never seen a portion this size before.

Excellent souvla, peices of pork spit roasted.

The pork was far superior to the pork at No 1 a couple of days ago, though maybe not a fair comparison, one peices of pork, the other a pork chop.

Skipped dessert as portion sizes large.

To drink, water, beer, followed by a brandy sour.

Nicolas Tavern is a traditional Greek-Cypriot taverna in Protaras. Kleftiko is cooked in the traditional manner in a wood-fired clay oven.

Stone sculptures

stone sculptures

A couple of years ago, stone sculpures started to appear on the edge of Playa Jardín, near to the castle. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them.

Similar rock sculputures have now appeared at Protaras, near the pier. They are on the waterline, on rocks, on a rocky ridge.

• Stone sculptures

Moonrise

moonrise

Moonrise of super moon, two nights after the lunar eclipse.

End of season at Sirena Bay

Sirena Bay

At Sirena Bay this afternoon to find closed, end of season, no one around.

Tables upturned, chairs packed away.

Dinner at No 1

No 1

No soup. Restaurant far from busy, yet no soup.

No soup was a mixed blessing. As an alternative, crispy mushrooms, freshly cooked, nicely presented and excellent.

Crispy mushrooms proved to be the highlight of the meal.

Main course, pork chop, served with salad and chips. The pork chop was large and of poor quality.

Restaurant was not busy, the service was poor. Exception was the youngest waitress.

Had to ask for steak knives, for dessert menu, for bill.

Did not fancy anything off the dessert menu, walked instead to coffee bar patisserie amelie where had excellent ice cream, followed by a cappuccino.

Moonrise

moon rise

Moonrise of super moon.

Early hours of the morning, a lunar eclipse.

Empty sunbeds

Protaras rows of empty sun beds

Rows of empty sunbeds.

• Empty bars and restaurants
• Where have all the tourists gone?
• Collapse of the tourist economy in Cyprus and the need to divest

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

A very rare event, a lunar eclipse and a super moon.

• Moonrise

Empty bars and restaurants

Eden Square taverna opened June already closed

Guru daytime almost as empty nighttime

Saturday night, Marcello’s and Lemongrass in the centre of Protaras were busy, as was the Italian across the street, but these were the exceptions, not the norm. And they are only busy because part of Sunrise group and it is an alternative to eating in hotel or apartment.

No 1, a few rows of tables by the street occupied, the tables behind, empty.

Japanese restaurant in Eden Square empty.

New restaurant in Eden Square that only opened in June, already closed.

A new restaurant opened in Eden Square last year, it opened end of May, a few weeks later it had closed.

A coffee bar in Eden Square, last year was replaced by a new coffee bar. It did not open until June, by end of August had already closed.

The coffee bar became part of Guru. A bar with white seats, expensive prices and moronic music blasting out. A recipe for failure. Saturday night, the extension empty, in the original part, a handful of people, all but empty.

• Guru faces reality
• Where have all the tourists gone?
• Collapse of the tourist economy in Cyprus and the need to divest

The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train

Travel into Waterloo Station, as you approach London, you will see rows of Victorian houses, their long, narrow gardens stretching to the railway line.

What is true of Waterloo, is also true of Euston.

That is the setting of The Girl on the Train. What is the lives of Jason and Jess, the couple seen by the girl on the train? They seem to be an ideal couple, until one day, Rachel, the girl on the train, sees Jess with a different man.

Having somehow become part of their lives, Rachel decides to alight at the station, the road just happens to be where she once lived.

What happens, she does not know. She has no memory. She finds herself home, covered in bruises, a split lip, a crack on the head. She then learns Megan, as that is her real name, is missing, foul play suspected. So shocked is she at the receipt of this news, she walks out into a road and is hit by a taxi.

The story is told from the viewpoint of three women, Rachel (the girl on the train), Megan (who has gone missing) and Anna (married to ex-husband of Rachel).

The Girl on the Train was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Until some way through, I thought one character, split personality. In the book, it is clearer, though even then, reading, begin to wonder, are all three one and the same?

Chilling.

This is the first novel by Paula Hawkins.

Style is unusual, different voices, very much the style of My Name is Red or The Winner Stands Alone.

Alfred Hitchcock would have turned The Girl on the Train into an excellent psychological thriller.