So far Cyprus sucks.

9 AM: clearly I was grumpy when I worte the following. Have now had breakfast and feel much better. Let's see what the day will reveal.

4.50 AM
You know how it is, another packed flight squeezed in beside a giant with nowhere to go? After a day wandering around Istanbul I was tired, I suppose jet lag caught up with me a bit, and Istanbul airport is huge and as unforgiving as possible. I must have walked a mile from check in to the departure gate. The flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Ercan at about 9 PM.

Famagusta is about 60 KM from the airport, but I was met by a nice man with a comfortable car who drive me to the hotel. I was even called by the man from the travel agency organising the conference to assure me I could spend even more money woith him when I got to the hotel – oh yes, and to welcome me to Cyprus.

OK, I’m tired and cranky and my feet hurt. I confess. I have seen nothing (and I mean nothing) of Cyprus yet – to was too dark on the way here. The hotel is one of those massive resort style places, but it has seen better days. There is only one power point I can access in my room and it is in the entry hall miles from the table. All my gear needed recharging on arrival (damn my dependence on electronics). There is my phone, my camera and my computer to start off with. Oh yes, and I can’t use my hairdryer because the bathroom has no outlet at all unless I use an electric shaver. Grumble grumble grumble. And no internet!!! I have come to depend on the internet when I travel alone, it connects me to t he world and stops me form being lonely. IN 2007 when I found myself isolated in Coventry one weekend I played scrabble with Naomi and got sent hugs by various folks on Facebook, which saved my sanity.

So, it was late when I arrived, I was hungry and exhausted and just too tired to tackle the problems my room presented, so I fell into bed. Ouch, this room has the hardest bed I have ever slept on, when I laid down every part of me that touched the mattress screamed out for my cushion topped mattress at home, and just hurt like hell. God I sound like a whinger. I solved the mattress problem by hauling the doona off the second be and laying it over the mattress, then covered myself with the first one, ah, comfort.

Woke u p at 4 am, found the plug had fallen out and stopped charging the electrics. Bugger. Today I will tackle the lack of internet and power points and work on finishing my presentation for Monday.