Another day, and another breakfast out. This time we went to To Kafe Tis Chrysanthi’s, which is a place Carmen had used for breakfast on numerous occasions last year. It was quite the coincidence that I’d photographed the building during my day trip, and she’d eaten there a couple of years later. Unfortunately the early signs were that Carmen was getting the same cold I’d got. The warm air had made a big difference to my own cold, and after nine hours of sleep I was feeling ready for Sunday’s race.

It was already quite warm when we headed out. We both had a Cypriot breakfast which consists of grilled lountza (a grilled pork that looks and tastes like a chunky bacon), Loukaniko sausage, grilled tomatoes and halloumi, and a fried egg, all on a toasted brioche bun. I had a lemongrass and ginger tea with mine, whilst Carmen had a shot of lemon and ginger to try to help overcome the start of this cold. It was a sizeable breakfast, which with tip came to €30.

We wandered around the Agora, and found it was for the most part a fresh food market with fruit and vegetables on stands out in the courtyard, with some we didn’t recognise. There was also a stand inside where they sold local cakes, and baklava. The stalls in the courtyard seem to be a Saturday thing, as when we passed by there again on Monday they were gone.

Having missed out on looking around inside yesterday, we headed back to the Church of Saint Lazarus and this time was in luck. Whilst we’d both prepared by making sure our knees and shoulders were covered, it turns out that they actually have cloths hanging up outside you can use to cover up before going inside. I headed straight to the tombs.

This time I was able to take a better photograph of the tomb of Saint Lazarus of Bethany. According to Eastern tradition, Lazarus lived in Kition for thirty years before his second death and had been buried here. When the marble sarcophagus was found in 890 CE, Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium had Lazarus' remains moved to Constantinople. From there, there is some overlap with the Western tradition as rather than arriving in Marseilles alive, it is said during the sack of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204, during the fourth crusade, they took the relics back with them, and later lost them. However, fifty years ago a fire destroying most of the interior of this church led to some remains being found underneath this church, and they were identified as being from Lazarus.

After a quick look around the rest of the church to make sure I didn't want any other photos, we headed back out into the sunshine. There wasn’t really much else to do, so we walked back along Finikoudes. It was only 10:00 and the sun was already so hot it didn’t feel like it’d be possible to run a marathon in heat like this even though I know I've done one in worse more than once before.

After spending a couple of hours sitting around back at the AirBNB we headed out once more to look around the Archaeological Museum of Larnaca. The entry for this is free, and re-opened just two months after I’d last visited after it being closed for several years for major renovations. At the entrance they handed is our free tickets, and a map.

There are two wings to the museum with the first one containing mostly pottery and similar items from the Neolithic period through into the Chalcolithic and Bronze ages. The second wing then continues on into the Iron Age, and contains a lot more references to Assyrian, Persian, and Egyptian influences, as well as Greek and Minoan. There's some stairs at the end of this one that leads down into a darkened room. As we stopped inside clunk the lights turned on, startling Carmen, and it revealed a number of stone sarcophagi. It is unknown who was inside them, but they're known as 'Larnakes', which may be the source of the name for the modern city.

We were sure we’d heard rain whilst inside, but once outside it didn’t look like it had been as the paths looked dry. We soon felt a few spots of rain though, and it was clear there was more to come. We hurried around the stone work they have on display outside, and then hurried back to the AirBNB. Carmen's shoes aren't great on wet surfaces, so as the rain got heavier, we also needed to be careful.

I collected my coat from the house, and headed back out alone so I could get some apple pie from Zorba’s Bakery as something to have with a cup of tea for a late lunch. Surprisingly the rain had stopped when I stepped back out, and didn’t return for the short duration I was out. Several hours later it did, and came down heavy during sunset.

The next few hours were more time spent sitting around watching videos, trying to keep off our feet as much as possible before tomorrow’s race. Eventually though, it was time to head out to have a meal with Carmen’s fellow pacers at Vivid. We found that didn’t do gluten free so moved to The Brewery next door where everything was so much more expensive. For a carbonara and a drink each it cost us €52 combined. Anywhere else we'd looked, we could have gotten a meal for half of that.

They sat and talked, mostly about their pacing experiences whilst the last couple of pacers arrived, having only just landed from Milan shortly before. Pacing talk continued on after that, but they did confirm their plans for the morning: meet at the Sun Hotel for 06:00. I set my alarm for 05:00 there and then so I'd have time to digest breakfast before heading out.

Once we were all done, we said goodbye to the others, and walked out onto the beach to watch the sea. Just this short distance away from the street it was so much calmer, and quieter. This didn't last long though and we headed back to the arcade in the hope of getting to play air hockey. You can only use €1 coins though, and €2 coins will not do. As we didn’t have any of those on us, we walked around the fairground first, and then back to the AirBNB so we could prepare for race day.