September 7 - Nicosia to Agior Vavatsina to Lefkara to Nicosia

Liz and George picked us up around 10 am for our day-long trip into the Troodos Mountains and to the village where Pericles and Liz had a second home and where some of his family still live. Liz sold the home after Pericles died. Our first stop of the day was at a cafe where we could visit a Neolithic excavation of early stone houses. The interesting part is that the stone apparently was moved inland from the sea by the builders. We did not actually visit the site as it was on top of a rather large hill across the street from where we were sitting, and all I could see was more steps. The sun was already hot and Anita passed as well. We were able to see some recreated round buildings of the sort that the ancients probably built. George says they are not right because they do not use the stone from the Mediterranean.













I am finding that walking on relatively flat ground is generally not painful. Climbing steps is very painful still, although coming down is basically painfree. Confusing, and I wish I could figure it out. I guess I will need to be patient and let it heal.

On to Agioi Vavatsinias where I will place flowers at Pericles' grave. NOTE - Liz's house is the A-frame home in the upper left of the photo. Liz purchased a pot of live flowers that she believes will live until the rains begin later this month. Pericles is buried in a plot where he can see his house, and he is in the old section where some of his family is also buried. The cemetery is difficult to move through as there is little room between the raised burial plots. Liz tells me that she was the first to put a concrete enclosure over Pericles and now most of the plots have the same concrete. It reminds me a little of the cemeteries in New Orleans, except that the plots are less than a foot high, not the little buildings in New Orleans.
Liz sold the the house out of respect for the family of Pericles. She felt it would be difficult for them to see her come to the house with another man after she married George. George told me that he wanted Liz to keep the house because it would be a good place to go during the hot months of the year. Generally it is much cooler in the mountains, and this village is the second highest in the country. At the top of the village, which is actually built right on the side of the mountain, we visited with Liz's former neighbor. I probably have photos of her children clustered around Dad when we were in the village in 1993. Dad was doing his magic tricks for the children and other village residents - as usual, he was mesmerizing to those watching.









We ate grapes picked from the vines that sheltered her front patio, plums picked from her trees and a cake made from cheese and herbs. She sent the rest of the fruit with us and included apples picked from the tree right where we had parked the car.


The photo below is taken from high in the village near where Liz's house was, and shows the cemetery at the bottom of the valley.

This is the backyard oven used by Cypriots to slow cook meats and vegetables. The door sitting near the blue salt container is pasted into place with mud that hardens to keep the heat insider after the wood has burned to coals and the meat has been placed inside for cooking.

Anita, who suffers from extreme motion sickness and has worn a patch since we left home, made it through the mountains up to the village, and the time spent sitting in the fresh air cleared her head of minor affects. However, that road was new since I was there before and the curves were not as extreme. The road we used to leave the village had not been improved, and by the time we reached our area for lunch, Anita was not feeling good at all. She did not eat any lunch, just a couple of cokes to settle her stomach. The patch lost to Cypriot mountain roads.

The road was narrow and followed the twisty side of the mountains, and Anita was green. So the three of us enjoyed another mezze that was similar to our meal the night before. Sitting in the outside air was good for Anita and she was ready to leave the mountain at the end of the meal. The food at this lunch was not as good as the meal the evening before, although the quantity was larger. We did have a place of simple sweets for dessert, and we fixed a lunch sampler plate for Anita to enjoy for dinner.













I don't think I would have chosen to eat because they sat in a very hot car for much of the afternoon. She did and does not seem to have suffered any ill effects. I'm happy for her for that. She has been taking good care of me, making suggestions so that sitting is not painful for me.








As we left to go through the rest of the mountains to Lefkara, George kindly relinquished the front seat for Anita so she could be closer to the air conditioning. The road stayed straighter with wider and more gentle curves, and Anita continued to feel better. In Lefkara we will shop for the traditional lace which is made in this village. I brought quite a bit home in 1993, and so am only looking for one special piece as a gift.

I took photos of other pieces in the shop where I purchased my gift and Anita purchased 2 pieces. I had told her of the unusual beauty of this lace and she finally saw what I had tried to describe.

Georges waited at a cafe while we shopped and had several beers while we were gone. Liz purchased some sweets for an afternoon snack including some I remembered as soon as I saw them. I'll try to purchase a couple to bring home to share --whole black walnuts and a zucchini candy. We also had small balls of puffed donut like pastry with honey.

The trip from Lefkara to our home in Nicosia was uneventful as we were on major highways all the way. This is one of the biggest changes to Cyprus since 1993 - very modern roads - dual lane divided highways, round-abouts and higher speeds. Just like in Botswana, time marches on and not much is familiar.

Lefkars and Pericles' village are virtually untouched. Liz's home where we spent some of last evening is almost the same. They are scheduled for connection to a city sewer system in 2010. Until then, no toilet paper is flushed - there are containers next to most toilets where you place your soiled paper. Liz and George let us off and went home. We leave for Limmasol tomorrow, overnighting in Paphos before returning to Nicosia on Tuesday evening. Anita is trying to catch up on her blog entries and I will work a bit tomorrow morning on the last two days before Liz and George arrive. I'm going to read a bit and then to bed. I'm tired.

Liz and George are now waiting so I'll say goodby for now. Back again in a couple of days.

September 6th continued

We returned home from the wedding tired but happy to have experienced the event. The music was getting louder and the dancing would have begun soon. However, all of our 'older' ears were beginning to hurt and we all agreed it was time to go.

The next morning (September 7th) we sat on the terrace of our little rooftop apartment eating breakfast and enjoying the early morning sun. Liz and her next door neighbor are coming to collect us to visit the Turkish occupied side of the Cyprus island. The green line that stopped Jim and I from visiting this part during our visit in 1993 has recently been opened for crossings at selected locations, one in old Nicosia.

Our apartment is big enough for two single beds, a TV and DVD player (should we have time and energy to watch a movie), a small kitchen area with fridge and microwave and sink to do dishes. Liz has outfitted us with food in the fridge, and cleaning supplies in the kitchen, plus shampoo and soaps in the bathroom. The shower stall has good hot water and a strong supply. It's square with two sides that open at the corner for entry. It's nice to be by ourselves without feeling like we are constantly imposing on our hosts. They have given us a set of keys so we can go and come as we like.

Down one flight of steps is the apartment of George's sister Xenia and her husband Panayotis. Across the landing is an apartment for one of their daughter's who until recently lived there. She has since moved to another location, apparently wanting some freedom away from her parents. Xenia and her husband Panos are very friendly, Panos has spent quite a bit of time in England, so he is enjoying speaking English with us. Xenia speaks a little English, enough so we can communicate after a fashion.

They have made their computer available to us which is how I am almost caught up with the blog, and Anita is trying. She worked long last evening returning upstairs after I had gone to sleep. Our hosts were out at a wedding party, of which they apparently have 4 this week. Panos just explained that wedding celebrations can have as many as 10,000 guests. Each guest puts some money in a basket according to their means for the bride and groom who can collect 100,000 or more in pounds and euros. Nice way to start a marriage.

Back to our visit to Turkish Cyprus. If we can rent a car after crossing the border, we will head to Kyrenia, a sea port on the northern coast. I remember Liz speaking of this area fondly when she was living with my family in 1965. The town has an ancient castle and an even older abbey. Kyrenia was a favorite place to go on Sunday afternoons or evenings for the cool sea air as it is only about 20 kilometers from Nicosia. If we make it today, this will be the first time in over 30 years that Liz has seen this favored location.

During the coup-d'etat in 1974, George was working in the Presidential Palace (which we saw briefly yesterday) as an public affairs and information aide to then president Archibishop Macharios. The Archbishop was a friend of Liz's family and gave her a blessed cross to bring to America with her. She left his cross with my family when she returned to Cyprus after we graduated. After my Dad died, my brother and I returned the cross to her because we knew how much it had meant to her during the year she lived with us. The cross hangs in her living room now.

George was lucky to get out of the palace alive. You can still see pock marks in the stone work on the outside of the building from the fighting around the Palace that day in 1974. He was taken prisoner and held in a jail for 5 days before being released. Liz and her family fled Nicosia to the mountains where they had a home in Pericles' village. Pericles was Liz's first husband who died of cancer in 1995.

Anya, Liz's neighbor came with Liz to pick us us around 9:30 am. We drove to a parking lot close to the border crossing between Greek Cyprus and TRNC (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). On the Cypriot side we simply showed our passports and their identity cards - our passports were registered in their computers. At the Turkish side, after a walk through no man's land where the UN has its headquarters, we were issued paper visas which were stamped and simply placed in our passports, which were also registered. When we asked about a car, we were told to take a taxi, but suddenly one of the police came forward, made a phone call and told us a car would arrive in about 5 minutes.

We were picked up, taken to a petrol station on the other side of the city and rented the car.

We were less than 30 minutes from Kyrenia and made the trip on a modern highway that went through the mountains that encircle the area .

We sat at a seaside cafe and had hot tea and coffee. This was an emotional moment for Liz, to sit at the harbor as she had done over 30 years ago. George did not come because he did not want any 'turkish' stamps in his passport. Neither did Liz which is why she showed only her identity card. After she wept, she told us stories of Nicosia residents driving the short distance to Kyrenia for a very special and delicious ice cream sold during the hot summers.





All this came to an end with the Turkish invasion of the island and the ethnic division of Cyprus.

We walked along the harbor to the castle at the eastern end.






Anita, Anya and Liz went to the castle and I found a place in the shade to sit and wait for them. Much of the castle tour was up and down stairs of stone, and while my leg is doing better going down stairs, it is still painful going up. I need stairs like those in an Eschler drawing.


























We walked back to the car park through some side streets and actually found the location of the ice cream shop. On to a village west of Kyrenia along the coast where Anya was living and forced to leave after the invasion.
This is the Turkish monument to the invasion and its dead soldiers.

We past an army post where her husband was held prisoner for several months. She showed us what had been her home. It was confiscated by Turkish Cypriots who had been her neighbors and friends. They took over the house as soon as Anya and her family moved out, and consider the house and land to be theirs. Anya's house was close enough to the Mediterranean that during winter storms the waves broke close to her house, and the sea came with the waves.

Back along the coast and we stopped for lunch at a restaurant right on the beach. While the food was nothing to recommend, except the omelet I ordered, the location was glorious. Anita and I wanted to go to the beach, but it was reserved for people staying in the hotel. We will spend several days at the southern beach near the end of our visit. Our view for lunch was spectacular - blue and turquoise water as far as you could see. Liz tells us that sometimes the air is so clear that you can see some mountains in Turkey. This is the closest area to Turkey and is where the invasion forces landed.

Our final stop in Kyrenia was at Bellapais, an old abbey dating from 1100. It is mostly in ruins now and although entrance tickets can be purchased to walk through the ruins, we saw almost all of it by just walking outside the tour area. We were there at a perfect time, as the late afternoon sun created wonderful shadows and light areas on the old stones. Openings that once held stained glass windows created their own shadows.






































We stopped for a snack of ice cream, special salted Turkish peanuts and an Iranian drink of liquid sour cream, salt and mint. It's supposed to be really healthy, and if I had been able to drink more of it, I believe my leg would be healed by now. Guess I'll just have to brave the pain until it heals more naturally. Three sips were obviously not enough - maybe if there had been more mint!

We returned to Liz's to rest and chat for a while before dinner. This is 'Buggy' - pronounced boooogie - Liz's beloved pet.

Around 7 pm we decided to leave for mezze at a local restaurant. This is 'small plates' Cypriot style and Anita did not believe me that we would be eating until at least 10 pm.

The restaurant was just beginning to set up its tables and chairs on the sidewalk between the busy street and the building when we arrived. The evening breeze had begun to blow and the sidewalk was the best place to be. Anita, George and I had beer to start.

Our first course was Takini (sesame paste), yogurt, potatoes with parsley, bread, feta cheese, salad and olives. I enjoyed the olives, although I don't usually eat them because they are not salty as American versions.
2nd course was cheese ravioli, mushrooms, meat balls, pork cooked in wine and coriander and pita with halloumi cheese (a Cypriot cheese I learned to like during my first visit).

3rd course came with chicken and steak kabob, sausage, lamb, minced meat sausage.
4th course was lamb chops, more sausage, grilled liver and pork. Liz and I switched to coke around the 3rd course. I took photos of each course to try to remember everything.

At approximately 10:30 we headed for home and bed. Anita is reading as I am finishing this journal entry.