No sign of a job offer, so I decided last minute to join up with some friends to watch Wales play Cyprus in Nicosia. Flew to Larnaca and stayed a few nights. Got straight into the local ways by getting a souvlaki at a nice cafe and went in search of the local social scene. Strangely the bars were all staffed by Eastern Europeans or ex-USSRers, the first I went to had two Ukranian girls working, the next, two Moldovans, the next Romanians, the last one Uzbeks. Was fun chatting to some of them about my time in their respective countries, but the last two became tiresome as they wanted to be bought drinks to talk to them!! The Romanians just ignored me the rest of the time when i didn't buy them a drink, what a stupid way to run a bar! Next evening i met Paul from NZ who had escaped from home for a break after the heartbreak of seeing the Kiwis lose to France in the rugby world cup. He was still devastated. But he was a funny guy and we had a cracking night out chatting a lot with a Slovakian this time, what is it with Cyprus, why is noone who works in a bar here Cypriot?
Phil arrived the next day and we spotted Perry and some other Welsh fans around the town, evening before the game, was good to see familiar faces after not having been to a match during the last 16 months away.
Day of the game arrived, minibus to Nicosia, bit of a walk around the old town, with it's cobbled lanes, tourist shops and cafes. Went to the game and Wales were woeful. Despite taking the lead which gave some optimism, the second half we were very poor and ended up losing 3-1 to an average Cyprus team. Very disappointing. Another enjoyable but subdued evening out with a few people and the next morning I was glad to get out of Cyprus.
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