Sir,
I feel compelled to comment on the wonderfully thought and written article by Nathan Morley,
“The joys of an Ayia Napa winter” (Sunday Mail, December 28).
My husband and I, at the breakfast table on a frosty first day of the year, began talking about our next trip to Ayia Napa due to take place at the end of February. It was a lovely day outside, the sun was shining and soon we would go out for our daily walk. However, the temperature was -10C and the sun so low in the sky that you had to hurry to catch a glimpse of it – the daylight this time of year lasting for about five hours.
Then we had this really good idea to look up your newspaper on the internet because we were wondering what is happening in Cyprus and we felt this urge to get there as soon as possible. For many weeks now we have been living in darkness here in the northern part of Europe and we long for the sun with its warmth.
For some years my husband, luckily retired, has spent two months in Ayia Napa every winter. Last year I visited him to see if this place he had talked so well about could please me as much.
I have to tell you that I immediately fell in love!
The feeling of off-season that Nathan Morley writes about is very much to the point a description of my own experience of delight. The wonderful open view over the beautiful sea, the white beaches so easily attainable from the little path following the coastline and of course every beach and cliff nearly totally abandoned. The silent streets only filled with echoes.
Growing up in a little Scandinavian town by the coast, like Mr Morley, I remember from my childhood the difference between a lively atmosphere during the summer and the emptiness of winter. But this is the point of it all; the summer town’s “winter dullness” gives you a feeling of ownership and belonging. The town is mine again, the tourists gone away but we who belong here, stay.
So having read this charming article I fully understand why I want to go back to Ayia Napa also this year and the next to come. The very fact that this town still gets dull in the winter time gives me the opportunity to rediscover that wonderful feeling of not being a tourist, while away.
I would like to add that my husband and I also take great pleasure of reading your newspaper and by doing so learning more about your wonderful island in the sun, its history, culture and politics.
Eva Bellsund
?rebro, Sweden
