By Friday things were looking up. After a rough night of no air-conditioning and vehicle noise from the window we had to keep open so as not to sweat to death, we were off to The Korineum Golf and Beach Resort. At the resort we were met with a friendly check-in experience and given a nice room. The room was a standard room it was fantastic when compared to what we had been experiencing. We only had a view of some trees and the pool, but there would be no traffic or dirt parking lot to stare at. And it has a nice private feel to it as we stood on the balcony. Oh, and the air-conditioning worked.

After checking in, the first thing we did was go to the beach. An actual real beach. Yes, a rocky one, but still a beach. They also had a nice grassy area and a little café for lunch.

The night we went back towards Bellapais Abbey for a lovely dinner and opera at the abbey cathedral. It made for a lovely evening, with the only actual negative being that the taxi driver got us lost on the way back to the resort.

As he was driving, I noticed he was going in the wrong direction, so I said something at which point he responded with a lack of knowledge on where we wanted to go. Luckily, I had a business card from the resort and showed him that. Unfortunately, he still didn’t know the destination. Eventually, he called someone and handed the phone to me, I explained to that person on the other end of the phone where we were going and gave the phone back for that person to explain to him. When we eventually arrived back at the hotel, I had to argue over the bill as he tried to charge us the full amount, including his long period of driving in the wrong direction. We eventually settled on an amount and went back to the room in the nice quiet resort for a nice relaxing evening, looking at the stars from the balcony.

We learned something at The Korineum Golf and Beach Resort, and that was that it is possible to have wonderful service and a beach and a pleasant experience in a resort in Northern Cyprus. Too bad it was only for one night and for our last day we were back at the Malpas.

Back at the Malpas

We rode back from the resort wondering what was in wait for us at the Malpas. Would we be back in the same room, a different but worse room, or could we hope it would be a better room? In the end, it turned out the only useful employee they have hooked us up with a better room with working air-condition with no smells coming out of it, and a nicer view. The shower even drained properly. It was across the hall from our old room. And what an amazing difference that made. So, for our last day, we spent it like our first day, getting massages and relaxing by the pool. HK made the correct choice and went for another bubble massage. I, however, tried a regular full-body 60-minute massage. And I say unfortunately because it was a pretty sad message. She didn’t work the muscles, spending most of the time just rubbing oil on me, and instead of 60 minutes, she gave me 50 minutes with an extra 10 to just lay and relax after she was done. If I wanted to rest for 10 minutes, I could have done that without paying for it.

That night we got another outside table and have our last dinner with a couple of drinks. Instead of whiskey and coke, I went with rum and coke. We ate our food and went over to the bar area to listen to the music they had playing outside to enjoy a couple more drinks.

“This tastes like smoky scotch,” I said after taking my first drink of the second round the waitress brought us.

“They don’t taste any different” HK responded after taking a sip of mine and then comparing it to her JD and coke.

Up to that point, the drinks had been pretty good. One of the few decent things about the place, on the occasions, when we could actually get one, or went to the bar and ordered directly. The drinks were stronger than the low alcohol ones we were used to receiving in Ireland. We decided to forgo another round of drinks and call in a night for an early morning wake-up and the end of what amounted to a mediocre trip. So much potential and such a lovely country, yet so crappy as well.