Ayios Ioannis Part 2
The Old School
The final destination in our village exploration was this rather grand building.
Shattered Dreams
The first thing to note is that every single window seemed to have had its windows smashed.
Open Plan
Inside the building, actually, I should say first of all that you need to tread carefully if you wander inside. There is a lot of broken glass about, unsurprisingly. But there is also a host of avian life. If you startle the birds and they fly past you, you could easily tread on a painful shard of glass. So watch where you are walking.
Calling Cards
Anyway, inside, you can see that it used to be a school. Several chalk boards still adorn the walls, now covered with graffiti. Are these messages from former pupils? I guess we shall never know.
Certainly, there has been a level of vandalism here which suggests the settling of some sort of old grudge. There are many, many small glass panes in these windows. And each one has been individually broken.
But what's the weird graffiti on that wall about? It looks like a series of Sky Scrapers or something, to the right of the blue K. Or possibly they are score cards. Who knows?
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Related Blogs:
Ayios Ioannis - Part 1
We haven't explored the further reaches of the Diarizos Valley much, especially not the hilltops that head towards the Xeros Valley and Paphos Forest. We've been rectifying that recently, and in this blog we want to take you on a visit to Ayios Ioannis. We thought it would be a smallish village, but we were in for a surprise. This blog is large, so we have split it in two parts. The second part will be published in a day or two.Abandoned Villages - Vretsia
Cyprus has more than it's fair share of abandoned villages. The troubles caused the displacement of both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.The environment itself has caused other villages to be abandoned for reasons of safety. Whatever the reason, the abandonment caused emotional pain and suffering to the affected people. So is it right to right a series of blog articles on them? I thought about this for a while, but decided that yes it was. Cyprus is a land built on antiquities, and these villages are just the latest example. I had no problem blogging about a Necropolis after all. However, some of these villages, and especially Ventris, do still get visits from the displaced families. So if you do decide to visit these places on the strength of these articles, please bear that in mind, and treat them with respect. The urban exploring motto "take only pictures, leave only footprints..." nicely sums it up.Abandoned Villages: Zacharia
Nestled on the side of the Stavros tis Psokas valley, it is easy to miss Zacharia. To get to it you have to drive through the nearby ghost village of Melandra, and you might be tempted to end your adventure there. But if you persevere, you will find another abandoned village waiting to tell its tale...Good Pages To Visit
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