"... nice when it's finished!"

 1. Harbour Bus Station

Apparently it used to be like this!

The network of local buses in Paphos is a wondrous thing! It has been vital to Greyrocks and ought to have reduced the number of hire cars; but, of course, it hasn't! It is cheap (EUR1.5 per ride or EUR5 for a day ticket), Covid secure and reliable. The end of the line for most routes is the bus station at the harbour and little port, near to where a lot of the eating and drinking action takes place.  We have now learnt to get off at the stop before that, as our first journey caused us to refit our recently removed face masks to protect us from the dust! There has been major renovation and building work going on since March. The "bus station" has been operating without permanent buildings, suitable surface, delineation, information, seating, pedestrian crossings or shade, and the rest of road traffic is diverted through it because of the archaeological park works (see below) Changing buses has been less than pleasant. Especially dire have been a couple of occasions when night had fallen, and there was no lighting so one struggled between fences, up and down surfaces and round untrimmed foliage! To top it all our bus sneaked out without warning from behind another and we missed it! On Sunday we took the 603B and it stopped along the road beyond the terminus. There were to be three days of even worse disruption whilst resurfacing was taking place! It was completed on time, but with only half open, and then on Friday there it was: fully delineated, and with signs of further improvement. In the space of that day some seats and awnings arrived! The surrounding roads and pavements are still a mess, but hey!

2. That thing in the Archaeological Park

WTF?

Paphos was the European Capital of Culture in 2017. Kato Paphos- also the resort area - is dominated by its archaeological remains, which are impressive, and our visits there are the subject of a subsequent post. As our frequent bus trips with their long detours took us near various bits of the "park" we were intrigued by disjointed but similar iron structures. 

We speculated for days before Mr Google informed as that it was "The Kato Paphos Bridge". The rationale for this is shown in the current free (French) plan of the archaeological park! The North-South road is a key and very busy route that bisects the site. The bridge will link the two parts for paying visitors as a pedestrian path (not as once suggested a monorail!) During the works the road through is closed causing hold-ups and bus detours, and only the western section of the park is open. Greyrocks found this out when trying to make their visit.

We had thought we could get in at a gate halfway up, but No! We had already unknowingly experienced another effect of the closures, when we decided to take a stroll down memory lane by locating "The Handkerchief Tree", which featured in all our three previous visits *Xmas 89, 90 and 91). This is part of the St Solomon's Catacombs, and will be incorporated into the park "when the work is over", but is currently free and reasonably accessible. Our two photos and this Trip Advisor comment say it all! 

Where's your Hankie?"

   3. Apartment Blocks in "Universal"

We are now into our second week at the "economy" accommodation that follows the "luxury" half of the seven week stay! It is in a part of Paphos known strangely as "Universal". It is not near the sea, the bus service is hourly (with gaps") , shopping is limited to quite a lot of convenience stores, and we have only recently found a restaurant-bar within a ten minute walk. But we like it!!! It is definitely another instance of "work in progress", with dozens of building sites - mostly apartment blocks with glass-fronted balconies. We have not expressed an interest!