Green Monday

In the rest of the Eastern Orthodox world they call it 'Clean Monday' but for some unknown reason the Cypriots call it Green. Whatever, it's the first day of Lent and so they start their fast which means no meat and lots of vegetables, and its a public holiday. As you might expect though, they don't stint on the vegetables and they allow themselves to eat fish instead of meat. Another curiosity is that they are allowed olives but not olive oil. In Larnaca they have a 'town picnic' and people take their barbecues and stuff out to Tekke by the salt lake for a shindig. Ironically, there is a Muslim shrine at Tekke so who knows what they make of all these mad Christians having a knees up on their doorstep.

We went for a more low key approach and spent the day with El Presidente's cousin and husband at their Auntie's house where we indulged in a slap-up feed of the vegetarian variety. Jolly nice too. I tried for the first time a pickled edible weed called mangalos (pictured). Quite strong and fibrous, and resembles the thistles that keep invading my lawn.