It was an early start. Too early. It’s the sort of time that makes you question why you do things like this, but at the original time of planning, it hadn’t quite been so bad. Plans don’t always go the way you want them to when they’re dependent on outside influences, and that’s what happened with out flights to Larnaca in Cyprus. I’d not slept for more than four hours due to the start of a cold keeping me awake as well.

Two months ago, I got a notification that our flights had been changed. We’d be flying out forty-five minutes earlier, and getting back on Monday slightly later. The change in time today impacted us the most as it meant needing to leave out no later than 04:20 to drive to Gatwick Airport. It seems this always happens with flights to Cyprus. Hopefully this would be the last time I go there. Carmen could at least nap in the car on the way there, but I needed to be alert. I was driving after all.

Once we'd parked up in the long stay car park, we took the shuttle bus to the south terminal which takes less than twenty minutes from zone C. By the time we’d dropped off our luggage, and had sleepily made our way through security, it was 06:00 and had about an hour until boarding. My first thought was getting a cooked breakfast, something I usually do if it's an early morning flight. The options for getting one was from Big Smoke, or a Wetherspoon pub. I’d avoided using that chain since the appalling behaviour of the owner during the pandemic. The Big Smoke was nearer and had available seats, so we went there, and Carmen treated us both to a full English breakfast with apple juice. For some reason places like this insist on using streaky bacon though, so wasn't as good as it could have been.

This didn’t leave us much time before the gate was called, yet we were still one of the first there. It was a full flight, and between having a cold and the lack of sleep I knew the next four hours were going to make it feel like a long flight. I was pretty sure Carmen had been able to nap a couple of times during the journey, but the best I could do was close my eyes and try. It was mid-afternoon when we landed, and in under an hour we were on a bus to the town centre, and the AirBNB where we’d be staying for the next few days. Just as we had for the last few trips, we booked a place with a kitchen so we’d have the option of cooking for ourselves if we wanted to. The bus cost us €2.50 each to get there - it’d gone up by one Euro in the last year. To get the 425 bus you have to ignore the signs for the buses in the airport and instead head upstairs towards arrivals, and the car park. It was over twenty minutes to wait for it, presumably as we'd just missed one, and then took about fifteen minutes to get to where we got off just before Central Station. I thought this would be a shorter walk to the AirBNB, but the roads to get there weren't great without pavements.

The AirBNB host was very helpful, and told us about a 24 hour bakery, and a 24 hour supermarket that were both very close to the end of the road, so maybe a five to ten minute walk away. My intention was to run once we’d got sorted, but when visiting Zorba’s Bakery we bought sweet and sour chicken and rice, and a dessert each for today and tomorrow for €19.10. I didn’t want to let it get cold, and knew I wouldn’t be running after I’d eaten. It was dark out now anyway and I didn’t have my head torch on me. This meant my second run of the week wasn't going to happen, so would have to make sure my run tomorrow would.

Instead we relaxed for the remainder of the day, and I did my best to stay awake until it was a respectable enough time to finally attempt to get some sleep at a time that would help me adjust to Cypriot hours for the next few days. A shower did help a little, at least for a while, but I knew a run would have been exactly what I needed, and regretted missing it.