On November 15th, I had a 9:45pm flight to Heathrow, London where I changed planes (afterLol a layover of course) to Larnaca, Cyprus. I was joining a friend (who I met at the Larnaca airport) to attend a Global Woman conference. The conference was on The Power of Positivity and was put together by Elisabeth Villiger Toufexis who is the regional director of Global Woman Cyprus. Global Woman is an international organization that celebrates all women entrepreneurs across the globe with over 30 chapters in 30 countries.

Now before I speak more about the Global Woman and Cyprus, I just want to add that I am also a member of the International Page Turners, a book club of 5 women (within the Global Woman community) who have met over Covaid and were now going to meet (Yeah!) for the first time since 3 of them live in Cyprus with Maggie(from Scotland) and myself from New York and we all thought it would be a great idea.

So after traveling for 20 hours, here is what greeted me at the airport in Larnaca. I thought I was going to meet a driver holding my name up but instead the 3 Page Turners who live in Cyprus, completely surprised me. And was I surprised!!!

So after this amazing surprise it was off to the hotel, that Maggie had selected which was great!

We stayed at a small hotel that Maggie found on Booking.com that I completely recommend. Its name is Chrielka. It’s at a great location near the beach and Old City, it’s lovely, fair priced and has a wonderful staff.

Here is the beach graced by the Mediterranean pretty much across the street.

OK. OK.Lol. I’m so in love with Cyprus that I’ve completely forgot to give you some information about the place.

Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populated island in the Mediterranean and it’s located south of Turkey, east of Greece, north of Egypt and west of Syria. It’s capital is Nicosia and Cyprus is the product of volcanic activity under the sea -Wow-over 90 million years ago. Cyprus provides a huge source of copper and it’s famous for halloumi, it’s unique cheese!

Other than that! Let’s get back to some of my favorite images that I will hold in my heart forever…

So on the 17th (I got to Cyprus the evening of the 16th) Maggie and I took a walk to the Old Town where we shopped and had lunch ( a healthy grilled chicken salad as shown below, the likes that I have never experienced and that I miss it already!).

Then that evening Elisabeth put together dinner at a Greek Taverna for all the women who had flown in for the conference from all over the world. It was amazing!

The next day was the conference which also celebrated the 3rd birthday of Global Woman Cyprus and it was fabulous.

After that very full day, Elizabeth had organized a bus tour on the 19th to visit the Archaeological Site of Kourion. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, the ancient city-kingdom of Lourion was founded by the Argives, the inhabitants of ancient Aros in the Peloponnese. It’s only later that writers associated the place-name with the name of the founder Koureas, the son of the mythical King Kinyras.

Then it was off to the Village of Omodos which is a small village located in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus in the Limassol District. Here we walked the Village and had a group lunch at Katoi Restaurant. Amazing!

On our last day in Limassol, Maggie and I walked to the Marina and met our other International Page Turners, Rebecca, Anna-Maria and Anna for our last lunch together.

What a week it was! New friendships, Zoom mates became real mates, Cyprus — I will be returning and I can’t say enough about Global Woman and Elisabeth Villager Toufexis . But a special shout out to the 4 International Pages Turners!! May we all turn pages togethers for a very long time!