Cyprus or bust... I did it!

I came, I went and I conquered... Ok what I really mean is I arrived in Cyprus without dying on the plane. I had a lovely time although I had a couple of near misses while in Cyprus and I got home after an eventful journey in one piece with only a couple of tantrums thrown and no punches thrown... Mind you the woman on the help desk at Stansted was extremely near to receiving one, all I can say is that she was lucky that she was at the other end of the phone!

The flight out was very smooth. The oxygen worked like a dream and although we had no in-flight entertainment, the young blades sitting behind us on their way to Ayia Napa, were hugely entertaining! I learnt a lot. I learnt that if a young lad comes and chats you up and you are my age or overweight, you are very probably part of their 'pull a pig' or 'grab a gran' tick list! All very enlightening sitting with the Wisbech Lads on Tour.

When we arrived at Cyprus we were met by the airport staff there and all went very smoothly up until we were handed over to the holiday rep and then things went down hill. Well we wish everything went down hill, for unfortunately for Ann the coach that the rep just pointed out to us at was up a massive slope and she was pushing me in my wheelchair while I was pushing an airport trolley with two suitcases and two heavy hand luggage bags on it in front of my chair... a bit like those long bendy trams that you see abroad, while Ann was trying to negotiate around weary holiday makers and tight corners! Poor Ann had to cope with all this and all while her carefully straightened hair twanged into tight Shirley Temple curls, as when we walked outside into the night air it was hot and humid, a bit like walking into a steam room!

The hotel was a dream. From our ground floor room there was a little walk across a neat lawn to the swimming pool and from the pool a little walk down a garden path to the sea which you could see from the pool. The sea was all shades of bright blues and was stunning crystal clear water. The staff were amazingly kind, there was plenty to eat at every meal time and quite fun entertainment of an evening if you wanted it.

We did two trips, the first to the Troodoss mountains on which we passed some stunning scenery. I soon learnt that the Cypriots had a height thing going on in the days gone by. By this I meant that if they saw a large hill, mountain or even a steep slope, then they would put something interesting at the top of it... I think they must have mountain goat blood running through their veins! They had tried hard with being disabled friendly, but having disabled parking at the bottom of the hill and not at the top wasn't really very helpful, so they have a bit more to learn there me thinks. I got to know quite a few car parks intimately. Quite funny really, as you would meet the same old crocks at each car park killing time while the other halves (Ann included) were sprinting around taking photos and gathering info to relate back to us!

Our second trip was just as eventful, this time to Paphos. When we set off in the morning, by 9am it was 106 and rising. It was the first heatwave of the year. Luckily we were on an air con coach and probably the best place to be until it broke down. We stopped at what could only be described as a lorry stop in the middle of a quarry for a toilet break and when we got back on the coach, yep you guessed it the air con had broken down. So all off back into the pit stop and we waited for an hour for the relief coach to come. It was supposed to only take 30mins to arrive, but it we were talking GMT time... Greek Maybe Time! No problems as a newer coach turned up and on our merry way we went.
15mins into journey air con on coach 2 decided to pack up. Coach 3 was a brand spanking new one and a cute driver too.

As a treat, the guide said instead of admiring Aphrodite's birth place (who incidentally is my twin sister!) from a viewing spot at the top of yet another hill, we would stop at the bottom and see it close up. But the catch was we couldn't cross the road as too dangerous and we'd have to use the under pass... down lots of steps. Not good, but the cries of 'we'll help you', spurred me to go on and try. As we know going down steps is the easy bit, but walking back up those steps however slowly in temperatures of nearly 110 by now is a very different matter. Those who said they were going to help me from the safety of the car park, were suddenly struggling too... Bummer. Aphrodite might have been born there, but I her better looking sister nearly snuffed it there!
Apart from the turning blue and being unable to breathe properly for the best part of nearly 40mins, the saddest thing for me was being about three foot from the crystal cool waters and not being able to paddle like the others, because once again it was on a bloody slope to the waters edge!
But as my very wise son said. 'Mum you did it. There are loads of people who are fit and healthy and can't even be arsed to visit these beautiful places, but at the end of the day, you did it' and I did.

It was a fab holiday. I rested up a lot, swam a lot and got a lovely healthy looking tan.

The journey home was pretty bloody stressful. I don't mean the two an half hours delay in taking off, that can't be helped anymore than the air con breaking down on the coach, but the debate about whether I could use my oxygen concentrator after all on the plane even though it was all okayed before hand by them was stressful... Of course I didn't help matters by accidentally having put the letter from the airline in my suitcase which now in the hold... Or the fact that they put me off the plane at Stansted with no wheelchair and then left us to fend for ourselves, now that was really stressful, all because once off the plane I was someone else's problem. This someone else from the helpdesk wasn't very helpful at all, in fact she could have been done under the trades description act... So stressed was I that I actually threw my cushion, (which was all I had left of my wheelchair by this point) at the wheelchair that the staff eventually brought me from the unhelpful helpdesk lady after I asked her full name and the cushion hit the poor man pushing it! Ooops... he did say that he could see I wasn't actually being aggressive just having a nervous breakdown and that he forgave me when I apologised profusely for being a bitch... in fact he did actually say he was single too!

So that was my holiday to Cyprus... Lovely, really lovely in fact, but I was so glad that come 4.30am I was crawling into my own bed, tanned and probably a few pounds heavier and that adventure will now just be a happy memory.

Lots of love Debbie x