She has lived there, is now a neighbor to Liz, and agreed to be our guide. Liz does not want to take her car due to insurance liability. Neither does her friend so the journey depends on finding a rental car for the day once we cross the border, somewhere in Old Nicosia.
Last evening, Anita was feeling better, so she joined Liz, George and me to attend the wedding celebration. We learned that Mike (Liz's twin brother and father of the bride) was one of the only men in a suit and tie. His daughter has been married in a civil ceremony about a year ago. They have a young daughter who was well looked after by all her grandmothers, aunts and cousins. In order to baptize her in the Greek Orthodox church, the couple needed to be married in a church ceremony. They went to the groom's hometown in Greece last month for the church wedding and their daughter's baptism.
Now was the celebration with their friends and Mike's family. Of the 100+ guests, there were less than 10 for Mike's family. Mike and Liz are twins and have an older sister, Roulla who lives right next door to Liz. Liz has no children, Roulla has 2 and Mike has 2. One of Roulla's daughers, her husband and 3-year-old daughter were at the party. Their 2-year-old daughter was unhappily left home with a friend.
The party was quite casual with only the wedding party in sparkling dress and suits. Most men wore pants and sports shirts. Anita and I fit in with the simple black and white jersey dresses we brought simply because they packed easily without getting wrinkled. We had a large buffet dinner around 9:30 pm - several cold vegetable salads, pastas and a variety of meet - a couple of chicken flavors, beef and chunks of 'old goat'. I was pleased to find the goat as I have not had it fixed the Cypriot way since 1993. My dad went to his grave refusing to believe he had eaten goat at our welcoming feast. He convinced himself it was beef because it was tender and brown. What give this meat away are the oddly shaped bones - no cow I ever saw on a plate has these bones.
More later today.
