Easter Celebrations - Droushia Village Style...

Last night Chivers decided to sleep on the bed with us - or rather between us - leaving me little room for manoeuvre!  We didn't mind too much as we preferred for him to be in and safe because, over here in Cyprus, at Easter, we are plagued by home-made fireworks which sound like a gun shot when they go off.  We left the door open so that he could go out if he wished but it just meant that Minz came in early wanting to be fed - god can she give you a look when you ignore her!  We are having to keep a close eye on Chivs at the moment because he keeps coming home with a tick in his fur.  This is something we are going to have to watch carefully as they can be quite dangerous to both cats and humans and we don't want him bringing any onto the bed - yuk!

We opted for a quiet morning hoping that as it progressed there would be sufficient sun to warm the water.  It is quite misleading now we have the conservatory because it is warm and still in there when it can be wild and windy outside.

I finally got round to sorting out our 'glory hole' - everybody has one surely?  It was driving John mad because every time he opened the door something fell onto the floor so now it is more like 'Sleeping with the Enemy' and less like 'Sleeping with a Slut'! I now know that I don't need to buy any shampoo or conditioner or toothpaste or candles or lightbulbs for quite some time!  

This sort of tidying is quite cathartic and buoyed up by my success I moved onto our second glory hole which is the cupboard that houses all those kitchen things that do not stack - it also houses all the cat food and treats so I kept having to remove Chivers from inside so that I could complete the job in hand.  It is now as tidy as it can be for as long as that lasts!!

John and I decided that we would go out for a walk this afternoon and take the two cameras with us so that we could both take photographs which was something we had always planned to do.  It was very pleasant this afternoon with sunshine and a warm wind and it would have been peaceful were it not for the Easter celebrations that were going on in the village accompanied by the ubiquitous bangers.

Everything is still looking very lush and green although I am guessing it will only be a matter of time before the land starts to yellow and look parched.  We decided to walk down from our house to the Droushia Hills taverna (closed unfortunately) and along the road to the Droushia Heights hotel and then back up through the village home.

You cannot deny what a beautiful part of the island we live in and although the island is experiencing change those changes are slower in the rural areas.  Cyprus has not been unaffected by the general economic crisis round the world although for a while it just seemed to ignore the fact that it was going on. 

Work on the old Droushia Heights Hotel continues, scarily so some might say and one wonders why they didn't just knock it down and start again.  Still it can only be a good thing for the village when it has been completed as it has been quite an eyesore in the centre and hopefully people staying there might patronise the tavernas in the village and ensure that they continue in business as times are hard.  We watch the progress with interest!

As we walked on past the hotel and towards the centre of the village we decided we would stop for a drink at Stathmos before heading back home.  There has been a poster in the village advertising some Easter Monday activities starting at 2.00pm but we could neither see nor hear anything.  We had been told that there would be stalls around the Churchyard but there was nothing there.  We asked Bambos if anything was happening at the Amphitheatre and he said that the dancing might start in an hour or an hour or so - this is very typical in Cyprus - something is advertised at 2.00pm but doesn't actually start until 4.30pm!!

As we sat sipping our beers the village began to fill up with people and cars and Marianna who (wo)mans the community office came up to us telling us to 'Come Come - it starts soon'

We wandered down to the amphitheatre which was packed - I guess we were witnessing the Cypriot equivalent of an English village fete (well sort of).  We watched some strange strongest man competition where the men struggled to pick up a huge bolder and then dropped it on the floor - we are unsure whether or not there was a trophy for the person who managed to chip the most off of the boulder.  I can't find anything about the competition on the tintyweb so perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Next there were a number of chaotic tug o' war competitions involving men, women and children.  It would have been good to know if there was any rivalry between the teams.  Not sure I would have wanted to do this on concrete - I think one or two participants sustained an injury or two!

All of this was accompanied by random fireworks going off close by - the locals seemed oblivious - they are clearly just part and parcel of Easter to them.  The adolescent girls were busy wiggling and giggling past the adolescent boys who were posturing in their shades and skin tight jeans.

We were then treated to virtuoso performances by Droushia's equivalent to Chaz and Dave!  How come these traditional songs all sound the same and are so painful on the ears???  

By this time the centre of the village was complete chaos - the national past-time of parking as close as possible to whatever you are going to meant that everywhere was at a standstill with more and more cars pitching up and then abandoned by the drivers, pity the poor tourists who got caught up right in the middle of all this trying desperately to make sure their hire car got through unscathed.

John and I were just about to throw in the towel when Marianna came rushing up to tell John that there was free drink available and dragged him off (she can be seen on the left of John here wearing the red top) even though we insisted that we were fine. John came back with beer and food!  Bless her for seeking us out and making sure that we were involved - we were happy watching from the periphery and would have been quite happy to go and pay for a drink.  Still we do think it is good for us to be seen in and around the village and supporting things when we can.

We felt it only fair to stay and watch a little of the dancing even though those participating were the same as we had seen back in the summer at Stathmos when we went with George and Pam.  

Thinking that this could be a long afternoon/evening and that audience participation might be required at some point we beat a hasty retreat.  Tea was calling!