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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Cyprus: Pissouri

A storm on Pissouri beach
The unseasonably moody weather that greeted us on Pissouri beach

From Larnaka, the drive east towards Lemesos was quick and featureless in the way that motorway drives often are, but it perked up our spirits immeasurably, because for the first time since the start of our holiday, the sun came out and stayed out. Even in February a week without seeing the sun is unusual in Cyprus, but as people never tired of telling us, we'd managed to pick the wettest and coldest February on record to explore the island, a fact that had wormed its way into my subconscious like a precocious child screaming, 'I told you so!' On the way I idly wondered if Pissouri would live up to its name; I didn't realise it would excel.

The view from Pissouri
The view from our hotel; the light dusting of white on the sun-loungers is snow

Put Another Vine on the Fire

The view from Pissouri
Once the sun came out, the view from Pissouri was beautiful

By evening the snow was still pounding down, smothering the cars and trees in a fine layer of powder that had absolutely no right to be there, so Peta decided we should pick a restaurant not by whether it had good food, but by whether it had smoke coming out of its chimney. As luck would have it this strategy bagged us an evening in a restaurant that had both.