Random Larnaka images for the end of May

 Once again, after a couple of posts on specific themes, I still have other images that give something of the flavour of Cyprus.  So here is a selection from May with brief explanations:

Lady Jane investigating some plants on the upstairs balcony outside our bedroom (the only outside place she can get to). Neighbours were doing a lot of improvements and changes to their house and outside areas, and were going to get rid of these plants if we didn't want them. 

The brown metal structures in the Salt Lake Park are now surrounded by a flimsy fence. We still have no idea what they are for. 

Random images around Larnaka

 I'm trying to post on this blog more often, and on one topic - or no more than two or three - at a time. But sometimes there are random things where there's not a lot to say... so here is a small selection of my most recent collection of local photos that don't fit other subjects, taken over the last month or so.

We were given a small papaya plant several years ago, and this is the first year that it has produced flowers:

We have no idea whether it will eventually produce a fruit; that depends on the flowers being fertilised, and whether it's a male or female plant.  The flowers aren't spectacular, but there are a lot of buds.

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

When our sons were younger, we liked the Salt Lake Park for safe bike-riding, though we didn't go all that often. When visitors came with young children, we would sometimes go, too; there was a nice little playground. However, that was demolished many years ago and now the park mostly seems to be used by dog-walkers. 

On early morning walks with my friend Sheila, we take different routes to the Salt Lake trail, depending on where we meet in between our houses. And, fairly regularly, we go through the park - also known as Patticheo Park - as it has a path that takes us to the trail. 

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

It's more than two years, now, since we were aware of something happening in the Salt Lake Park. I took this photo early January 2024:

Evidently something was about to happen. I found an online article which talked about a huge development, with a nature centre and a park and a restaurant. Here's the official announcement about it: redevelopment of the Pattichio Park area. Spelling of names in Cyprus can be somewhat variable, which is why this article calls it Pattichio. I've seen Pattichion, too, as well as Patticheo. 

I don't know when that article was published, and note that it doesn't give any details about the expected completion. Online newspaper articles seem rather difficult to find, but I had seen one which mentioned early 2025 for completion, and another which said the end of 2025. There was a haiatus, when environmentalists pointed out some problems with the potential plans; I'm not sure if that was before or after the article above was posted. In any case, construction paused for a while, and then resumed.

At least, something started happening. This is what we saw in May 2024: 

Gradually, more paths started to emerge, mostly quite attractively edged with stones. Some of them are quite steep, and seem to wander in random directions, but clearly something was being done. Slowly, and somewhat unpredictably, but there was progress.

In December last year we were startled to see this odd-looking metal construction near the entrance:

It went up over the course of a few days, and we discussed what it might be. There's a similar one near the other main entrance. 

It's clear that things are happening, although they all seem a bit random.  Early in February, we took a detour before joining the Salt Lake trail.  Here, for instance, is a pile of gravel:

Here are some new paths, currently fenced off:

This is evidently going to be a new restaurant... eventually:

Here are some steps going to a stone plinth:

No idea what this might be:

A view of the bridge, which was started well over a year ago, and which has at least some planks to stand on, but no way to get to it. We're not sure where it's going, or what it might be joining:

Back to one of the side trails... evidently more construction is happening here:

And here's a deeper hole, fenced off, and stopping access to the path:

We wondered whether there is an overall plan - we assume there must have been.  But are all the contractors working to the plan?  Are the measurements exact?  It seems that so many parts of the park have the beginnings of something, but nothing is finished.  If it all works as it should, then eventually it will all join up, and make an interesting place to walk.  But at present it all seems very confusing, with only random progress, some of the time, on one or two areas.

On February 19th, it appeared that the strange metallic structures were going to be painted grey. But we were puzzled as to why they were only partially painted:

A few days later, we saw a truck nearby, with a young man evidently about to start painting some more. We asked what the metallic structure was, but he had no idea. 

And his paint was brown. So the next time we went to the park, it was back as it was when we first saw it:

Greenery, construction... and a challenge for January...

Rather than continuing to recount my days in tedious detail, I decided to take photos every day, at least when I remember to do so, and write about them. Life in Cyprus has become normal to me, but visitors are still surprised at some of the things they see and experience.

Greenery

In many parts of the world, trees and bushes lose their leaves during the autumn months, and have bare branches during the winter. This is useful when there's a lot of snow, but that's not at all likely in the coastal areas of Cyprus.

We particularly liked seeing the citrus trees everywhere when we first arrived. Now we take them for granted, and this year the lemons on the trees look fairly small and sparse. Perhaps that's because there was so little rain until December. 

This, for instance, is a normal sight at this time of year, although usually there are rather more lemons on the local trees:

More road works in our area

It's more than seven years ago that builders started digging up roads in Larnaca (and, we assume, other towns around Cyprus) in order to instal the new sewage pipes. The ones for storm drainage seem to have taken effect, and despite an extremely wet winter we have not seen any flooded streets in our neighbourhood.

Our street had its pipes installed in September 2011. Richard asked one of the builders when they expected the houses to be connected to the massive new mains drainage system, and was told, 'about five years'. He thought, at first, that the builder (whose English was not entirely fluent) had mistaken the period, and meant 'months'. I was more cynical. I reckoned five years was probably an optimistic estimate.

It turned out that I was right. Five years later, we had heard nothing. It wasn't until this time about a year ago that we received our official letter telling us that we needed to get our septic tank sealed, and the connections made so that we could be joined to the main drainage. The letter was all in somewhat complex Greek, but Google Translate is pretty good these days, and I can type Greek almost as fast as I type in English.

The main part of the letter said (in translation):

Please be advised that the sewer council of Larnaka (SAL) has completed the construction of the drainage system in your area and you can proceed with the connection of your premises after first submitting a request and obtaining the required permit. The application should be submitted on the attached form.

The SAL undertakes that the construction license will be issued as soon as possible, meaning that the application will be complete and accompanied by all required documents and documents. Then, with your own contractor and on the basis of the license you secure, build the private construction of your building. The Technical Inspector of the SAL will carry out an on-the-spot check on your contractor's (or your own) presence as soon as possible after your call. If the private building sub-building meets the technical specifications of the SAL, the Technical Inspector will issue the consent to link your property to the sewerage system.

Submitting an ΙΥΟ license and obtaining consent for a connection is also mandatory even where the private system is built.

For your convenience, we attach all the information you need to submit your application for an IYO, that is, the application form and the technical specifications. We furthermore inform you that the relevant information and these documents can also be found on the website www.lsdb.org.cy

If you have submitted an application for the construction of a IYO and you have obtained an IYO construction license and a certificate of consent for the connection of your premises, please ignore this letter.

It is noted that the connection of your premises is mandatory and must be completed within six months from the date of notification, ie until 08/06/2018.

It all sounded rather confusing, and we didn't do anything for the first few weeks. But then gradually our neighbours started having extensive (and very noisy) digging done. So Richard contacted a friend to ask who she used as a contractor. We were given a contact number, and a helpful guy came over to look at what we have currently. He explained that first we had to employ an architect to draw a detailed plan, then that had to be submitted to the sewage board for approval. They would grant a license, and we could then employ a builder he would recommend to do the work.

He told us that there was a long queue for this, and no, it couldn't possibly be done by the end of June, but that didn't matter at all. We said we would be away for six weeks over the summer, and he shrugged and said that nothing would happen in July and August anyway, so we didn't need to worry about it till the autumn.

A very competent architect came over, took extensive notes, and went away. A couple of weeks later she brought us the plans and charged us eighty euros. It seemed like a reasonable fee for some highly detailed drawings. She said that she had already submitted the plans to the relevant board, and gave us the reference number.

Summer came and went, and by the end of September we had heard nothing. So Richard phoned the number we were given by the architect. He was told that yes, our application was in process, and we should hear something by the end of the year.

Sure enough, last Monday there was another letter in our mailbox.

This one (according to Google Translate, again) told us that our application had been accepted, and that we had to go to the sewerage board to collect our license. It would cost us 60 euros, and after collecting it we should employ a builder to make our connections. At last!

It was rather a busy week, so it wasn't until Friday that we went to the sewage office. It was a bit complicated to find, but well-signed:

The letter told us to go to the first floor, so we did that, and handed over sixty euros. We were given a receipt and told to go to the second floor, where we were finally given our sewerage connection license. It says that it was actually granted on December 17th, but the letter was not written until January 3rd, and did not arrive in our mailbox until nearly three weeks later - we have no idea why the internal Cyprus post is so slow, but this is not unusual.

Richard phoned the original contact in the afternoon, who said he would come over with the builder soon, to give us a quote, and then, hopefully, the work can start.

All of which is great, even if it has taken significantly longer than usual.

But... this is Cyprus. Nothing is ever straightforward.

On Tuesday, there was another letter in our mailbox. This one was just a brief notification:

The word 'ΟΔΟ' means 'street', so we were amused that instead of putting in our street name, whoever filled this in merely put 'ΣΑΣ' (which means 'your').

We were less amused that this turns out to be a notification that our street is going to be resurfaced.  Finally.  Over seven years since it was given its temporary resurfacing after the initial digging for sewers.  And then we will be employing someone to dig part of it up again in order to make our connection.

Sigh.

On Wednesday and Thursday last week the former surface was dug up and the rubble removed, leaving it like this:

Some other streets in the neighbourhood have also had their surfaces removed, so we assume they are finishing that process before starting the resurfacing. It will be very nice to have roads that are less bumpy, and look smarter...

Until our builders arrive and dig it up again. 

Walking by the sea-front, for a change...

As I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, the Salt Lake trail was due to be sprayed against mosquitoes. I don't know if this happened on the rainy day when Sheila and I got drenched to the skin, but the notices stayed up, and the second spraying was due on Thursday and Friday.

I've been waking fairly early, assisted by Sophia, so I texted Sheila and set off to meet her. The sun was just poking through the clouds at about 6.20am as I crossed one of the local streets:

It wasn't as dark as it looks in the photo, but it's quite a dramatic effect. 

Since we couldn't walk along the trail, we walked through part of the park and then down to the sea-front. The sun was shining by the time we got there, and it was interesting to see some of the ongoing construction work, as the promenade is - slowly - upgraded. I had thought these concrete wavy things were going to give the edge of the beach an interesting shape:

But apparently they are just supports.

An interesting feature of the new pavement (sidewalk) that is being constructed is the set of grooves, clearly marked (yellow in the photo) and easy to feel with the feet - or, I imagine, a stick - when walking on them:

We've been told that these are to help blind people to keep on the path - and thought they were an excellent idea.

Except that in some places they come to an abrupt halt:

The notice in Greek says 'Entrance forbidden', which is clear to those with sight, but could be quite distressing to someone using the grooves to navigate along the path.

But at least there was some fencing there, albeit rather flimsy. 

More worrying was this:

It's not obvious from the photo, but the drop down to the sand must be almost a metre. And there's nothing to stop someone from walking right off it, and sustaining a nasty injury. 

But, as they say, 'This is Cyprus!' 

We kept walking, and probably managed about 10km in all. By the time we were back it was nearly 8.30am and the sun was already too hot for my tastes.

Thankfully the clocks go forward in Europe tonight; we lose an hour, but will then be able to enjoy lighter evenings - and cooler mornings. At least until Summer really sets in. 

Construction work almost finished in our street... maybe?

Life seems to have been dominated, recently, by the sewerage pipes being put down in our neighbourhood. It's noisy, and dusty, and means that people driving to or from our house have to find new routes almost every time, since different streets are closed off in the area.

The first digging in our little bit of street happened just over three weeks ago. A day later, the noise was considerably worse and the disruption extensive. Then we had a little peace, until they started digging trenches across the road, to join (eventually) with our septic tanks.

As I explained in the last of those posts, the workmen then roughly covered over the holes, leaving the road bumpy but useable. As it remained until a few days ago, when the diggers and other noisy machines came back. Slightly to our surprise, they dug up the top couple of inches along all the channels (lengthways and crossways) that had been roughly surfaced, and removed all the excess rubble. it looked rather neater than it had done:


But made the road, once again, unusable for cars. And it all seemed remarkably inefficient... why put the rough surface down, we wondered, if they were going to dig it up again a week later?!

The following day, all was quiet. At least, it was in our street. We heard the ongoing rumble of digging and other construction work in other roads nearby.

Then, after the time when the workmen usually finish, they arrived with just one machine, and painted some kind of tarmac along all the new shallow channels. Perhaps they needed to seal them in some way:


There were barriers and diversion signs at both ends of the road, but they didn't stop an intrepid driver who drove half way along the street, bumping noisily in and out of the channels, making me wince each time and wonder just how much damage had been done to a rather new-looking car.

However, almost opposite our house the driver got stuck in a slightly wider hole, and had to reverse out after rather a struggle. Then performed something like a 23-point-turn to turn the car around... which was finally achieved to the accompaniment of applause from several of the neighbours who had gone out to watch.

The following day, the workmen returned, starting at 7.00am as usual, and working through the day. This time, they managed to fill in all the shallow holes on one side of the road, meaning that cars could at least get along it without bumping up and down too much:


I took that picture just after several of the neighbours had been out with their hoses, washing down the street, as Cypriots love to do.

And today, at last, the road itself is completely done. At least, the surface is smooth.

Well, fairly smooth.

It would have been too much to hope for a complete re-surface, but it definitely looks better, although it's hard to tell from this photo:


- the only thing now lacking is access into driveways, where the pavement is still rough and unfinished.