My Erasmus experience in Paphos

03/02/2020 – 26/02/2020

It all began the 3rd of February, the day of our departure for Cyprus. It all seemed like a dream to me. At five in the morning we met in Monfalcone, where our transfer was waiting for us. As we arrived at the Marco Polo airport, we met the rest of our group for the first time. Luckily we got to know each other immediately. After that, a long flight was before us. I liked Paphos from the very first moment. It is a breathtaking city for how beautiful it is. On our first day we went to see our workplace and we first met our managers. We worked in a five-star hotel named Olympic Lagoon Resort Paphos. I worked as a SPA receptionist and sometimes also as GYM receptionist. We worked for 8 hours per day. I had three amazing colleagues. They were very patient and kind to me. The first day they welcomed me with a warm hug. The first days of work I did not have so much work and it was a little bit boring. Despite that, the other days I had a lot of things to do. Some days my manager left me alone at the reception and tested me, and she was happy that I learned things very fast. She told me that I am very good at dealing with customers. This made me very happy, because it wasn’t so easy and I put a lot of effort into it. During these three amazing weeks I had three different timetables. For example, sometimes I worked from ten in the morning till six o’clock in the afternoon, sometimes I worked until the closing time of the SPA and the last week I worked in the morning and I had to open the SPA and all the massage rooms. My job was to fill the lockers with bathrobes, towels and slippers, open the massage rooms and heat the essential oils, change the scented candles and much more. Sometimes I was in charge of turning on the sauna and the steam bath. I like this type of work, because it is relaxing and at the same time tiring. During our days off we went to explore the city. We saw the Tombs of the Kings, which are underground tombs of the 4th century BC, the Kato Paphos Archeological Park dating back to the Middle Ages, the Aphrodite’s Rock or Petra tou Romiou (Rock of the Roman), the Coral Bay, the Medieval Castle of Paphos and much more. During our stay in Cyprus, I celebrated my 18th birthday. My friends made me feel like at home even if I was far from my family. At midnight all of them entered our apartment with a birthday cake. I was so surprised and excited at the same time that I started crying with happiness. I think that this was the best birthday ever! Unfortunately, our last day came. We were sad to leave Paphos, but happy to see and hug our families again. The worst thing was to say goodbye to my friends after having lived together for three weeks. I think this adventure has been very useful, since it has made me grow internally and I learned to manage myself in difficulties. Despite this, I am very satisfied as I had the opportunity to improve my language skills in Russian and English by speaking almost daily with clients and I really hope to have that kind of adventures also in the future.

Nikita Cancellari