Today is the first of two consecutive Monday holidays in Cyprus, Greek Independence Day. A traditional Greek holiday, somewhat loosely (and irrelevantly) associated with the Feast of the Annunciation, but only because the dates are coincidentally the same. Really only significance for us is that two of our remaining nine days here are holidays. Add two Sundays and that leaves five business days.
Not that we have any business to transact. Do need a haircut, and all hairdressers/barbers are closed, by law, on Thursdays. No, no idea, although government here has traditionally been fairly interventionist. When we first started coming nearly twenty years ago supermarkets had early closing, village style, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, subject to fines for non-observance. Peripteros (small convenience stores, corner shops, dépanneurs) were exempt, leaving a large one near us remaining defiantly open during a period of protest with a large banner across the front proclaiming it PERIPTERO. That period long gone, though this year for the first time legislation preventing the use of plastic bags is being observed, with no apparent loss of trade as people meekly carry fabric bags as their grandmothers did.
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