Cyprus Adventures: Day 7: Car Rental Drama and Jen and RJ's Arrival

To start the day I did my 4 mile run, which worked out because I planned on picking up the rental car on my way home. I had requested to pick up the car at 8:30 am, when I arrive there is a hand written sign with the hours now 9-13:00....which online it says they stay open until 20:00! When the store, Thrifty Car Rentals by Dollar, finally opened I went to the rental car place the lady was absolutely rude! First she did not acknowledge that I walked in and I was the only one in that office. I explained to her that I made a reservation online and was there to pick up the car. She then asks for my papers, which I wouldn't have anyway because I did it online. She then explains that I had to print out the email as that is what it states in the email...which it does not. Now I did not have my phone on me so I could not pull up the reservation code however I asked her if she could look up my name in the system as I have my driver's license with me. She refused! She quotes "no papers or number no car". Now at this point I am 2 miles away from home and I was thinking how I would now have to walk another 2 miles to go home and then 2 more to go back to get this car. I was pretty furious, not to mention the other 4 I did running. Fortunately I did not give them my credit card number so they can not charge me. In conclusion, DO NOT go here to rent a car when coming to Cyprus.

So I left the store and started walking home and then started to notice all the car rental places up and down the road. Which at this point I started to just go in and out of stores to find one that was reasonable. One store wanted me to give them 400 euro on top of the money for the car in cash, so that was a little shady and I left. I then stumbled upon Oasis Car Hire. They offered a reasonable deal similar to what I was going to get from Thrifty and the car is practically new. So I was sold, not to mention the customer service was SO much nicer. I have now officially driven on the right side of the car on the left side of the road!

Backwards car.....or maybe we are just backwards??

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out this Japanese car because everything, including the radio, was in Japanese. Thank goodness for Google translate because that helped me at least figure out the AUX cord. I then went to the Amathus beach for awhile and then off to pick up Jen and RJ. There are a lot of roundabouts here, kind of like Jersey, but was quite confusing. But I was very happy I was able to conquer the roadways, although I think Roy was going to have a heart attack in the car the first few minutes.

We got back to the house and Jen and RJ were up to going out to dinner. We went to a sushi restaurant in the Royal Appolinia. We got a ton of sushi and it was scrumptious!