There aren’t many things that make me spring out of bed early on a Sunday morning. But that’s just what I did last weekend. The reason? An eagerly awaited day trip to the Troodos Mountains to mess around in the snow with fiancé and friends.
But by the time I got there how wished I had stayed in bed.
Apart from spending almost three hours getting there – partly our fault as we were supposed to meet the rest of the gang in Agros but were so late they had headed off for Troodos without us – it took us another hour and a half to actually find the rest of our group. But our bad planning was not the real cause of the disaster. No, it was our stupid decision to make the trip on Sunday. Those mountain roads were heaving with traffic. The journey was excruciatingly slow. What is it about Sunday drivers? Are their driving skills having a day of rest too? And when those are combined with snow, the result is chaos.
I can’t help but rant. Especially when you see people parked in the middle of the road, creating an even bigger mess than there already is, so they can jump out with their families and make snowmen!
We finally reached Troodos. We were supposed to meet the rest of our group on Olympus peak, which we had no idea how to find. Driving up and down, left and right of Troodos Square, asking people who all gave different directions, we finally came across the police station.
Perfect, we thought. We were just going to go in and ask for directions, and finally catch up with everyone else; simple as that. Well actually it wasn’t. The very helpful policeman kindly told us to go back to the square and ask one of the policemen there. Needless to say, we never did get to Olympus. Instead, we eventually caught up with our friends on their return to Troodos. One was suffering from an on-coming cold, another had had his car bumped from a skidding idiot who had driven his snow-unfriendly car up to the peak – and tried driving off leaving behind him hundreds of euros worth of damages – while the rest were ruing the moment they had decided to leave the beauty and tranquillity of Agros for absolute mayhem.
After spending about two and a half minutes in the snow with my fiancé , we decided to go to Jubilee Hotel – apparently one of the most well-known and ‘prestigious’ inns of Troodos – for a warm brew and maybe something to eat, before heading back home.
Even that proved painful. We waited at our table for what seemed like ages, while three members of the hotel’s staff hung around behind the bar refusing to make eye contact. We decided to go to the bar, where again, we were completely ignored. Did I forget to mention that the place was practically empty as everyone was outside “enjoying themselves”?
We gave up, got in the jeep and headed back to Nicosia, with a strong sense of failure in the air.
The lesson? If you want to go to the mountains and enjoy the snow, don’t do it on a Sunday!
