Cyprus Travel Diary Part One

8/14/2019 Cyprus Travel Diary Part One

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Through my husbands work as a professor in the Communications department atUniversity of Tennessee/Knoxville, my family was given the great opportunity of spending a month in the lovely country of Cyprus. While I was there, I wrote a traveldiary, in which I discuss various events, impressions, and items of interest. Bob, myhusband, and my two daughters Dagan and Bradley shared the adventure with me and

therefore featured heavily in my account of the trip.

Summer, 2009:Day One, Thursday, May 28, Cyprus time:

Well, after 21 hours in the air or in the peculiar limbo that is constituted by an airport, wefinally arrived in Larnaka, Cyprus, at around 4 p.m. on Thursday (about 9 a.m. EDT.)All of our flights were on time and we made each of our connections without any trouble.

I would have loved to have seen more of London, but the view flying in revealed a lushgreen landscape that was surprisingly rural outside of the huge city. I guess I was

expecting urban sprawl that would have been visible for many miles beyond the maincenter (think L.A. or Atlanta), but our route in took us over Bristol and the surroundingcountryside (as we were informed by a row mate from London who was returning from atrip to Guatemala.) I was struck by how every parcel of land seems to have beenapportioned and planted in some sort of crop, from hay and rapeseed to relativelyrectangular tracts of other crops that I was unable to identify from the air. Dagan washugely disappointed that we were unable to actually see much of London, but we didcatch some exciting sights of double-decker buses and imposing governmental buildingsas we approached the landing. Of course, once we were actually in the Heathrowterminal, the only way you could tell we were in Great Britain was by the accents that

surrounded us and the vending machines marked in

Euros rather than dollars.Cyprus is a four-hour flight from London. Judgingfrom my initial impression, It is a lovely, lovely place.The air is clear, sun very warm, and no humidity(Yay!). Larnaka airport is right on the Mediterranean,so we had a tantalizing taste of salt air and sea breezeas we shuffled in our obedient lines from the steps of the plane to the shuttle that drove us the 500 meters tothe shell building that serves Cyprus as aninternational airport.


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Once inside and through thecheckpoint, we recovered onlyone of our 8 checked bags(including a heavy suitcasefull of expensive digital video

camera equipment and twotripods), and it was Bobs bag,which shows that theresometimes just isnt any

justice in the world. After finding out that this happensquite often in flights fromHeathrow, we were informedthat the bags could possiblyarrive on the 4 a.m. flightfrom there (which is our time

at the moment that Im writing this), so we filled out the necessary forms and continue toremain hopeful that this will prove to be true. As a queen-sized woman in a world full of princess-sized Cypriot nymphettes, this will be a deciding factor in my comfort level, asyou can imagine, since clothing designed for someone of my 5 11 tall proportions isvirtually unobtainable as far as I can tell.

Bob did a wonderful job of navigating the rental van from the airport in Larnaka to our apartment in Lefkosia. Driving on the left side is no mean trick, especially when youmake right turns! We clung like a leech to the bus which carried the rest of the students,with me chanting relatively quietly (except in moments of tension), right, left, right andstay in the left lane. Im sure my own dad would have appreciated this thoughtfulintervention on my part, had he been present to hear it.

In between moments of navigationary excitement, wemarveled at the landscapewhich was unfolding beforeus. There are some mountainsin this central part of Cyprus,surrounded by rolling hills of dun- and wheat-coloredvegetation. Oleanders, tallshrubs which resemble crapemyrtles, lined the highwaysand were in bloom, leadingBob to speculate that the areamust have received some rainrecently. The air is very clear

with very little haze, and while the sun is very warm, the breeze still has just a tang of chill to it, which makes it very pleasant. From my reading, I have found out that were


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entering the hot season, but that the spring has thus far been unusually cool. During thedays, we can expect upwards of 85 degrees, but the heat is mitigated by the dryness of theclimate, which means that shady areas are quite pleasant even in the middle of the day.

Our apartment is spacious, with two bedrooms and one sitting/eating area, but very

Spartan. Dagan and Bradley are sharing a room, which works very well for them, believeit or not. Two private balconies featuring tantalizing views of parking lots and little elseare quite nice because we can sit on them in the evening and enjoy the cool breezes.Evaporative air conditioners are in each of the rooms except for the kitchen, which isobviously designed for college students as it features a two-burner stove insert, a fridgeand a microwave (no oven.) Certainly enough to get by with, at any rate. None of thewindows have screens, but so far we have not been plagued by any flying insects. It willremain to be seen whether this continues to be the case as summer advances. We maytake showers and wash clothes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 6a.m. the following morning, as water conservation is a huge deal here due to a four-year drought (and counting.) And, more importantly, NO PAPER MAY BE PUT IN

TOILETS. Give that amoments thought and youllrealize why I put it in capitals.

There is a shopping mall right behind our apartment complex,with a huge two-level grocerystore and a very nice DIY kindof home improvement place.Prices here are high (especiallywith the dollar not comparingfavorably with the Euro), so our spending will be modest, but Iwill have to spring for at leasttwo lamps for the apartment.

Bob had a meeting with theother professor and their students, so Dagan, Bradley, and I went to the grocery story,known as Carrefour dont even ask me how to pronounce that since I cant even figureout what language the name is derived from. (French, maybe? And, so what? Would they

pronounce it the French way in a Greek-speaking, UK-influenced country? These aresome of the questions on the meaning of life for me and give you a sense of the tortuouslabyrinth that makes up the processes of my brain.) We discovered that the whole thingof many people speak English really doesnt apply to our local shopping emporium.However, we seemed to manage and I spent my remaining hours before bedtimememorizing a few key phrases such as Thank you, Please, Do you speak English?,Good morning/afternoon/evening and the ever necessary Im sorry. I dont speak Greek, which is entirely unnecessary to tell people since I tend to tower over everyone

by about 8 inches in my exceedingly white-blondeness. I mean, to look at me is to knowthat I dont speak Greek .


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Fun stuff and quite an adventure. I see by my computer that it is currently 10 p.m. your time, which makes it 5 a.m. Friday here. Im pointing this out to help you realize that jetlag is a real and present friend. I plan to put in a full day tomorrow with no naps in aneffort to reset my internal clock.

I look forward to updating the story of GIANT AMERICANS SIGHTED IN CYPRUS asthe story progresses. Did I mention that these people in general are really tiny? One getsthe overall impression that they move more quickly, as well.

Day 2, GIANT AMERICANS SIGHTED IN CYPRUS, Friday, May 29, 2009

Discovery of the Old City highlighted our Friday explorations in Lefkosia. The name of the city, , is the official name, adopted upon the islands inclusion

into the European Union (which requires that all places are known by one official name.)However, here you will hear two names applied, that of Lefkosia (favored by theresidents of the city) but also Nicosia, which is nearly always written in the Englishalphabet. This is because the Brits purchased Cyprus from the Turks (who inherited itfrom the Ottoman Empire) and wanted to change the name to something different. So,they changed it to Nicosia and it was known as that by all English speakers until the Britsgranted independence to the Republic of Cyprus in the mid-1950s.

All this I found out because weventured into a tourist shop in theOld City and, just by happenstance,

struck up a conversation with itsvery knowledgeable owner whoalso happened to be a history buff.He was quite friendly and aided usin our pronunciation and use of Thank you( ) , Please( ) , Hello( ) , and I dontspeak Greek

( ) .

The old city is an interesting warren of small streets that wander around to great or little purpose within the 15 th century Venetian walls, and is the citys most popular touristattraction. Its here that we were able to walk to the Green Line, beyond which the UN

buffer zone and occupied Turkish territory lie. No photos are allowed, for some reason,and the buildings are mostly abandoned. We have heard that one bar, Red, has a wall


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down the middle made of glass, on one side of which lies the Turkish territory and on theother, the Greek. Patrons may drink their alcoholic beverages of choice on the Greek side while gazing upon the dusty and dilapidated Turkish half, into which they may notventure upon pain of prosecution by the Turkish authorities. While the attraction of doing so escapes me, Im told its quite the popular place for young locals who want to

go out clubbing at night or on weekends.

In general, the Cypriots who inhabit or work in the Old City are much friendlier toforeigners than those who live in the New City or suburbs, so we have enjoyed visitingand asking questions of the people in that area. I suppose they are much more used tonosy tourists, and most of them speak at least a passing amount of English, unlike many

in the outlying regions.

After meandering through the quaintneighborhoods, we sat down at an outside tableat Jennys Restaurant and ate a wonderful

meal of lamp chops, Greek salad, pork and beef kebab, and sheftalia (a grilled pork sausagewhich is a local specialty and was the best partof the meal.) Dagan, who recently turned 21,had her first taste of beer, the local brand calledKeo, and decided that it tasted a bit like ginger ale without the sugar, not entirely objectionable

but something she will probably not indulge invery often.

Navigating for Bob continues to be a bit of

nightmare. Weve gotten so spoiled to havingclearly marked roads in the U.S. Here, thesigns are placed parallel to the road you aretraversing and the names of cross streets arent

visible until you have actually turned onto a street. Needless to say, this means thatweve done a lot of turning around and backtracking. I suppose that if you dont knowwhere youre going, you shouldnt be here! Sunday morning, Bob will be exchangingthe current rental car for a cheaper one, thus saving about 740 Euros, which will be astandard transmission. I dont know about you, but while I can drive a stick shift verywell, the thought of having to do so left-handed while still learning to drive on the left-hand side of the road in a place which chooses not to clearly mark its intersections ranksright up there with moving and rootcanals in terms of stress!

Day 3, Saturday, May 30, 2009Bob and I traveled to Larnaka( ) in the morning toreserve a different rental car. Bob had


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rented the Opel for three days, which is a good thing since it turned out to be a veryexpensive proposition to rent for an entire month. We will be exchanging it for a FordFocus, right-hand drive, manual, which will be half the cost. A rental is necessary

because the transportation provided to students taking the university classes is notavailable to Dagan, Bradley, and me due to liability issues. This way, we will be able to

still go on certain tours with the group as well as film shoots (Bob has designated meunofficial still photog for the expeditions) and already we have found the car extremelyuseful. Dagan is particularlyinterested in going to the ByzantineArt Museum in the Old City, so wewill be making a return to that areavery soon.

Supposedly there are buses here for regular transportation in and aroundCyprus. However, I have seen no

metro buses as yet. Im sure theyexist, but certainly theyre not prominent. There do exist thingscalled service taxis in which four or five people share rides. This issupposed to be as economical as

taking a bus, but involves reserving the ride the night before and allowing an extra 30minutes each way for the various pick-up stops. One of these days the girls and I may trythis mode of transportation, as I flatly refuse to attempt any driving of a standardtransmission that I have to shift with my left hand. Of course, I know I should never saynever, but at this time it seems inconceivable that I would attempt to do any such thing.

We had a tour with Bobs class. The whole schlemiel isoverseen by an organization called Global Semesters, agroup based with the UNIC (University of Nicosia, a

private college.) We first traveled to the Cyprus Museumof Archeology and took a flying overview of the itemscontained therein. The tour guide was certainly superior and I enjoyed what she had to say very much, but I willdefinitely need to return so that I may take more time ineach room and enter the rooms we didnt have time to takein.


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Following the museum, we traveled to the Old City for a guided tour. While we hadvisited the area the night before, it was especially nice to be taken down a few narrow

lanes that we hadnt previouslyexplored and to hear from aknowledgeable person about the

history. The only difficulty about thewalking tour was that it took place at2:30 in the afternoon, a time whenmad dogs and Englishmen are theonly people who should venture out.The hot sun was alleviated by a nice

breeze, but Im going to take care thatfuture walks are scheduled for morning or late afternoon!

I stepped off a curb too recklessly

yesterday and injured my left foot.This makes me an equal opportunity gimp, as Im still finding it impossible to walk fullstride with my right foot (injured last year.) Maybe Ill walk slower now and lumber less.However, at the moment, any heels on shoes will be a no go and I must content myself with hiking sandals for at least another week.

Last night was a water night, so after we returned home and ate supper (accompanied byloads of cool drinks), we ended up doing laundry, mopping floors, washing dishes, andtaking showers. We are told that the city has added Sunday evenings to their list of water days, so we will be able to have showers two days in a row! Its the little things in lifethat bring pleasure.

Day 4, Sunday, May 31, 2009The sun rises very early here in Lefkosia. I woke up suddenly this morning, for somereason, and found myself unable to go back to sleep because of the strong sun floodinginto the apartment. When I looked at the clock, it read 6 a.m.

This morning, bells chimed to call people tothe Greek Orthodox churches. Thesechurches are everywhere in Cyprus, as youwould expect, and are the main religiousdenomination. There are other groups here,as well, including Catholic, Muslim, andGreek Evangelical. I have a contact for aGreek Evangelical church which holdsEnglish services, but will probably try to findout about going to one next Sunday, since we


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are still in the very early stages of getting settled in. I also intend to visit a Greek Orthodox service sometime while we are here.

The lack of routine is a bit wearing in some ways. None of us have found our niche inthe household as yet, which while it may sound trivial makes for a regularity that I

think nearly all humans crave. This is perhaps especially important while trying to getused to a new country, since we seem to need a certain amount of comfortable tedium asa base from which to stretch out into the unknown. The mundane will intrude soon

enough, Im sure, as we are stilla family living in a relativelysmall apartment and the dailychores of simply keeping a placestraight will provide its quota of monotony.

Bob and I drove again to

Larnaka airport, this time to pick up the car we reservedyesterday. What a lovely driveit is! I do love the lushgreenness of home, but there issomething majestic and solemnabout the dry brown hillsscattered about with white

sandstone boulders and sparsely growing cypresses, baking under the hard sun in a bright blue sky. Perhaps my childhood indulgences into Mary Stewart mysteries set in Crete,Greece, and Cyprus ( Moonspinners and My Brother Michael ) have predisposed me tofind this scenery compelling, but I love looking off into the distance, marveling at theancient land, and realizing with a jolt that this must be very similar to what Paul andBarnabas saw, only with fewer trees, nearly 2000 years ago. Amazing.

The car we ended up with from the Avis rental lady - whose name is Laso, who lives athome with her 30-year-old son and 87-year-old father, who hasnt felt well for a few days

but is getting better, and who finds she has to yell at the men who prepare the cars for rental in order to get them to do their work - is actually automatic transmission (Whew!),a Kia which will work quite nicely and has a much better air conditioner than the OpelZafira we had before. The reason we were upgraded from the manual Ford Focus is

probably due to Bobs charm and conversation, by which all of the previous informationconcerning Laso was obtained. Extroversion has its advantages. Getting a better car isobviously one of them. Needless to say, I was endlessly relieved that a left-hand manualshift was not one of the extra layers of stress we are going to have to add to our drivingexperiences.

We have just returned from an evening meal arranged by the Global Learning SemestersCorporation which oversees all of the coordination of living arrangements andentertainments for the students who attend these study abroad classes at the UNIC. It


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was a wonderful meal, a buffet, featuring a few Cyprus specialties but also someLebanese and Greek dishes. The conversation was lively among the members of our table, which included the University of Nicosia President and CEO of Global LearningSemesters, Andreas Polemitis, and his wife, Elena Kashi, as well as Thanos Koulos, the

program coordinator of the company. Dagan and Bradley were fortunate in being able to

sit with us, because the conversations I overheard from the other tables of collegestudents seemed to center on clubbing activities (in the old city bars) and comparisons of how drunk each got the night before, sprinkled with "Oh my gaaa!" and "Like,awesome!" Smart stuff, you know?

Only one minor disaster has cropped up. When I returned home this evening and began putting together my camera bag for some shooting tomorrow, it became apparent that my18-45mm Olympus lens has gone missing. Working backward, we realized that Bobmust have left it in a little periptero (convenience store) in the Old City. We will attemptto return to the place tomorrow in hopes that the owner is unusually honest and has keptit for us. I say minor disaster, but this is my best glass and I will be crippled without it

if we cant recover it. Replacing it with a new one is out of the question, even if wecould find one here on the island. The expense would be ruinous.

Tonight is a bonus water night, which means we may do some more laundry and all takeshowers for a second night in a row! Apparently, Cyprus has received a bit more rain thisspring and Sundays have been added to water days, which means from 6 p.m. Sundaynight to 6 a.m. Monday morning, we will have water supplied to the apartment buildingshere in our area. Once the city water is turned off, tanks on the roof supply a limitedamount of water for only the most necessary of uses, so we all have to conserve and bevery careful not to fall into old habits formed in the lush wetness of our aquifer-richTennessee.

Bob begins teaching classtomorrow, so we have no big plans.First things first. I will go to thegrocery store in the morning to buynecessities, since all supermarketsclose by 8 p.m. and are never openon Sunday. How spoiled weAmericans have become, living in aconsumer society!

Day 5, Monday, June 1, 2009

Were still trying to figure out aschedule for ourselves. The old ways of waking late, being active in the afternoon, andhaving the leisure of going out in the evenings to grocery stores, etc., is no longer applicable here. For one thing, the afternoons are entirely too hot it reached 35 C by1:30 p.m. to be active in any way. For another, the stores here close very early by our


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standards (8 p.m. at the latest). And yet, the restaurants dont expect to serve anyevening meals to people until 8 p.m. and later.

This is especially hard on Dagan and Bradley, who enjoy staying up late and sleeping in.It means well have to adjust how we do things so that we can plan activities for earlier

morning, naps in the middle of the afternoons, and supper late. Another adjustment isgetting used to the water schedule, which requires quite a bit of change in habits.

The lens was recovered! Bob and I went back to the little periptero where we thought wehad left it. There was an older man who was running it that we didnt recognize from our

prior visit, but I asked him if he spoke anglika, which he did, a very little. Wemanaged to get across that we were looking for a lens for my camera that we had left theday before. He said that his son would know, that he was out, but would be back in 5minutes. When the son returned, he walked back behind the counter and emerged withmy lens case, complete with lens. Thank heavens for honesty! Right down the streetfrom him was a photography shop that sold lenses and other camera equipment, so he

could have easily taken it down there to trade. We wanted to give him ten euros out of gratitude, but he wouldnt take it.

People here are often surprised when they find out that we are from the states.Apparently, many people visit the area from Great Britain, which is understandable sinceCyprus used to be a British colony and the British army still occupies the southern

peninsula as part of the independence agreement back in the 50s. We have met a fewCypriots who actually studied in the U.S., one a woman who works at Carrefour (thegrocery) and spent some time at Long Island.

Nearly all of the buildingshere in thenewer area of Lefkosia aremade out of cement, in

blocks that areusually at leasttwo or threestories high,with balconies.Roofs areusually tiledwith terracotta,which was anancientindustry here.

The landscape is sparsely dotted with cypress and palms, as well as the occasional olivetree. As you would expect with the ongoing drought, very few houses have flowers or any sort of a lawn.


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In the U.S., we are so accustomed to landscaping and sidewalks around businesses thatmany of the business districts in this area seem unfinished to our eyes. Weeds often growup through the cracks in sidewalks or parking areas (where these exist) and sidewalkseven in the new area are frequently uneven and crumbling. Even in the upscale suburb in

which we are located there is dust and gravel, which is made worse by the Cypriot habitof parking haphazardly on the sidewalks, curbs, and yard areas. Many businesses are in buildings with rebar (reinforcement rods) projecting helter-skelter from the top floors,obviously in anticipation of more floors being added on.

Prices are steep. Im assuming that wages here are comparable, as we see people buyingall manner of things. However, 3.50 Euros for a kilo of fresh produce not grown locallyis pretty standard. That makes it about 5 dollars or more for us. A fresh pineapple sellsfor 2.45 E and milk, 1.28 E per quart. No skim milk or fat-free anything to be found,either! Luckily, with Bobs stipend and the pay he received for the Jordan work willleave us in good shape, but I can see that well have to practice some strict economy in

between our stocking of the apartment, meals out, and forays into outlying areas. Thank heavens we dont have to add film and developing expenses on top of that, now that wehave digital cameras!

We are all well so far. Bob has his usual fifth-day issues, but weve come to realize thatit has to do with a delicate digestive system rather than the local amoebas in the water or food. As far as I can tell, the food and water is as safe to consume as it is in the U.S.,meaning that it is probably possible to pick up something in an establishment that isnt

practicing the required standard of hygiene, but not common. The water is treated andsupposedly free of bugs, so we will be drinking tap water a lot as bottled water is veryexpensive.

Bob and I are enjoying ourselves tremendously. Its a little more difficult for Dagan andBradley because they havent yet established a pattern of activities for themselves.Dagan has begun some watercolor painting and Bradley is hoping to begin practicing her flute every day, if she can find a practice room at the university. However, its early daysyet and they will eventually sort themselves out so that they feel sufficiently entertained.

This weekend is a holiday, so we are planning to make a run down to Lemessos to seeAncient Kourion (with a reconstructed amphitheatre) and the surrounding area. What awonderful resource the rented car is, even though I find navigatingfor Bob emotionally and mentallyexhausting!

DAY 6, Tuesday, June 2, 2009

We met with the head of themusic department at University of

Nicosia this morning. The


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meeting was arranged by Andreas Polimitis, the vice rector and CEO of Global LearningSemesters, who was interested to discover that I was a musicology doctoral candidate insearch of a dissertation topic. The academicians here are understandably anxious to

promote knowledge of Cyprus in the U.S., since tourism is an important industry here.And, increased tourism from the U.S. could ultimately prove very fruitful, indeed.

The music department is small and began only four years ago. They seem to have anactive orchestral program with about 150 members and even traveled to Germany lastyear for a series of concerts. The head of the music department, Michalis G. Stavrides,was very kind and seemed anxious to help in any way. Already, he has given us his

business card and his cell phone number, and on Friday we will be going with him andDr. Polimitis to meet with the head of the Kykko Research Center, where there arearchives that may contain musical materials. Im a bit overwhelmed and very humbled

by so much help, especially since I know virtually nothing about Byzantine, Greek, or Cypriot music. (Judging by what I turned up in my initial library searches, hardly anyonefrom the states or Great Britain has written extensively on this music.) One suggestion

Dr. Stavrides has tendered is that I look at the influence of Byzantine music on pop musicin Cyprus and Greece. It may be a very fruitful avenue of study, but I will be startingfrom scratch since there is little taught about Byzantine music in standard music historyclasses in the U.S.

Bradley attended one of the classes today, one on Food and Tourism taught by NaeemahClark, the other UT professor who is participating in this study abroad month. This isgood, as I think she will be able to get to know some of the other college students whoare here and it gets her out of the house. Now, if we can just talk Dagan into

participating, it would be great.

We found out that Bradley is welcome to use one of the practice rooms in the music area,which is on floor -2 (meaning 1 down from the ground floor, 2 down from the first floor.)She will be able to walk to the building with Kristi Delgado (another student mentioned

previously) in the mornings and get her flute practice out of the way early. She needs tostay in shape for entering UT this fall because her teacher, Dr. Shelly Binder, is verygood and very demanding.

The University of Nicosia wasestablished about 30 years ago.It initially rented buildings fromthe Kykko Monastery, which islocated near Troodos about 30or 40 km west of Lefkosia buthas vast holdings here in thecity, and since that time haserected a number of buildingson the property. Dr. Polimitisinformed us that the buildings

belong to the monastery and are


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rented by the university, even though the university built them. A rather strangearrangement, I think.

The city area in which the university is situated is known as Engomi, a southwesternsuburb of the city center ( kentro polis ) that has seen an enormous amount of affluent

growth in the past 20 years. If you climb the steps of the little cement amphitheater near the main building of the university, you can get a fairly good view of the surroundinghouses and businesses that make up this community. The overall impression is of clusters of light-colored, square buildings built in several stories, accented by the rosyterracotta roofs, all set against the somewhat hazy backdrop of the small mountain chainthat now sits in occupied territory. The haze must be caused by dust and pollution; itcertainly can have nothing to do with moisture.

The Turks have emblazoned the emblem of the Turkish flag (the red crescent and star using an arrangement of painted rocks) on the side of the mountain facing the city, so thatthe citizens of the Greek Cyprus capital may at all times be reminded that they reside in a

split country and a split city, many of the most historic and beautiful areas of which have been taken away from them. There is a city, Varosia, which supposedly sits in its 1974state, left just as it was when the Cypriots were forced to hastily abandon their homes inthe face of the oncoming Turkish army invasion. Once the Turks took over, they sealedoff this area and allowed no one to enter it. One journalist who was able to visit the citytermed it a Ghost city, and wrote that there were still washing hanging on the line, dirtydishes on the table, window displays in storefronts in effect, a city frozen in time as if itwere part of an old Twilight Zone episode.

According to Thanos, an Athenian Greek who is now part of the Global LearningSemester team, the Turkish army painted the rocks at night and turned them over so thatno one on the Greek Cypriot side could see what they were doing. Then, once therequisite number of rocks had been painted, they went up one night and turned them allover, so that in the morning, all of the citizens of Lefkosia who had a view of themountain could see the monstrous insult. Sometime later, during the night, lights wereinstalled in secret, so that the next night the Cypriots were greeted with another visualaffront that could neither be avoided nor ignored.

You can certainly understand the anger and frustration still felt by the Cypriots aboutliving in a divided country occupied by invasion. Of course, there are many more factorsthat make the situation much more complicated and the Greek Cypriots not entirely

blameless, but its easy to empathize with them.

I hope to get some decent photos of these things, but at present have not found just theright location for doing so. Bob and I drove up the hill into the neighborhood behind our apartment building and there are some promising locations there, so Im hoping to sendsomething soon.

Today, the girls and I were in the apartment when we heard a loud whooshing sound. Werushed to the window in time to see a giant dust devil swoop down upon the empty lot


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behind our building, gather up a tremendous amount of dust, and fling it in a huge cloudinto the air. The dust cloud looked like smoke from a house fire as it rose up about 50meters into the sky. Then, just as suddenly, it was gone. The lot had just been cleared in

preparation for construction, so there was no vegetation to hold the soil in place. Thisevent illuminates the difficulties facing Cyprus if the long-standing drought is not broken

in the near future. Dr. Polimitissaid that environmentalists are predicting that Cyprus will be adesert in 100 years.

Tomorrow, we head for somesmall villages near Lemessos, inthe south of Cyprus, to seecheese-making and a snail farm.Snails are a popular food here andare usually in season (as far as I

can tell from my reading) inautumn. They are not generallyavailable at present or we wouldcertainly have tried them already.Halloumi cheese, a locally

processed goat and sheep cheese, is usually served grilled in some way, often in a doughwrapping and seasoned with some spice or seed. This we have tasted and its very good.

I have picked up a cold, probably on the plane over from Houston to London (there was achild sitting in the row in front of us with a very wet-sounding cough), so while otherwisevery well, I find myself dealing with the nuisances of a stuffy head and an irritated throat.Dagan is in a similar situation, so it looks like well be commiserating with each other over our symptoms for a bit.

Otherwise, all is well and we are enjoying ourselves tremendously! Days are very hot,upwards of 36 degrees C, and the sun is ever-present. Sunglasses and hats, as well asavoidance of the outside from about 1 to 4 p.m., are a must.

Day 7, Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Today, we all went with Bob and Naeemahs class on a video-shooting trip. Thisinvolved shooting at two locations, a snail farm in Kalavasos and a winery in Omodhos.Because the bus was provided by a private service rather than the university, Dagan,Bradley, and I were able to ride along with everyone else rather than having to be in aseparate car.

While Bob and I have already made two trips into Larnaka (to deal with the exchange of the rental car), this tour ventured further south in a round trip of about 200 kms thatwended its way past the Mediterranean seaside and through the foothills of the Troodos


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Massif. We were fortunate enough to have several stops along the way, for quick pictureopportunities and for eating, so that we got a good sense of the countryside south-southwest of Lefkosia.

As Ive written before, Cyprus is a dry

climate and getting progressively drier eachyear. The sun is very bright, with hardly acloud ever obscuring its white heat, and theskies very blue. Often, there is a hazinesswhich obscures the distant horizon due toheat, dust, and - most likely - pollution.White rocks are tumbled everywhere, butare also very visible in piled-up dry-laidwalls, which have been constructed for untold generations to terrace the rockyhillsides for ease of cultivation and erosion

control. The prevailing colors of the land are browns, taupes, and tans, alleviated bysprinklings of silver-greenolive trees, lighter greencarob trees, and a widevariety of dry-land weedswhich tend to a grayishgreen tint. Orange trees ingroves are occasionallyvisible as you zip past on thehighway.

As we neared Lemessos, alarger city to the southwestof Lefkosia and home to thelargest port in South Cyprus,the land became hillier and,though it seems hardly

possible, rockier. Lemessosis spread out right along the Mediterranean shore, so the gray sands of the beaches andthe bluish-brown water were often visible as we rolled south. Later on, as we leftLemessos and headed toward Omodhos, we began to climb into the Troodos mountainsand the terrain changed yet again, becoming filled with dry water courses (which runwith water during the winter months), steep drop-offs, curvy lanes, and cooler air.

Our first stop was the snail farm. We were told thatthe owner, Nick Germanos, was quite excited aboutour visit and had even invited a reporter from a localnewspaper to come and do a story on Germanossinterview by American videographers.

When we arrived on the bus, Kyrie (Mister) Germanos


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and his daughter, Andriana, were waiting, along with the owner of the snail farm, Petros Niokas. Germanos was clad in a white lab coat, had a clipboard with information andwas holding in his hand an enormous snail shell and a pair of snail tongs that arenormally used in restaurants to remove the snails from the shells.

I wont go into all the tedious details of what ittakes to set up the video cameras and themicrophones, but after a decent interval of fiddling about while the rest of us slowlyfermented in the strong mid-morning sunlight,Bob and his team of four camera operators (twosmall handheld) began to film the interview. Bobhad previously appointed a Snail Farm team of three other students in the class to stand withKyrie Germanos during the interview and ask questions.

We received all kinds of information regarding the snail farm industry. A samplingincludes such facts as the following: snails contain no cholesterol; are collected in their second year each June; are found in 3400 different types, none of which are poisonousand two of which are cultivated in Cyprus; and are collected in the amount of four tonseach year from each snail farm unit. The snails have eggs five times a year, 3 times inautumn and once in spring, and lay 95-125 eggs each time. The eggs stay underground

for a period of 22-25 days. Maturesnails are collected each June or July

because the snails close up to protectthemselves from the heat and thus areeasily collected and transported withoutdamage. The snails usually open upagain in September, when the weather turns cooler, and then will close onceagain for the cold period between

November and January. We were toldthat the snail industry is suffering

because of the use of pesticides on crops,which has reduced the amount of snails

from a former 360,000 tons a year to about 37,000 tons each year. Germanos said thateach year the amount of snails cultivated and collected drops, and each year the price of snails goes up one Euro.


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After the initial interview, we all were able to enter the snail farmarea, which consists of green sun-screening stretched high over agarden area containing food for snails - such as artichokes - andsnail houses, which are either wooden or terracotta boards tentedtogether to provide dark spaces for the snails. Mr. Germanos

invited the students to taste a snail, which involves licking it anddoesnt harm the snail at all, and two of the snail farm teammanaged to do so while being filmed. Umm yumm.

At some point, I wandered out to where the bus driver was standing in the shade of his bus to ask his permission to take his picture and got involved in a great conversation withhim. Apparently, the prerequisite to be a tour bus driver in this country is a garrulous andverbose disposition, which our driver had in spades. Never mind that he had littleEnglish, he just loved to chatter and our long day of bus travel was accompanied by themusic of his lilting Greek, from which I could pick up place names and little else. At one

point, I think he was naming off all of the churches we passed, for I kept hearing Agios

followed by a long variety of names. Agios is the Greek word for saint.Our drivers name was Panagiotis Tsaeles, a villager from the town of Athienou,southeast of Lefkosia and very near to the green line, which is the invisible border marking the occupied territory(called green line becausewhen the country was dividedup by the mediators of theconflict, the border was markedin green ink on a map.) KyrieTsaeles is 59, had five children(one of whom died) with hiswife, after years of saving wasfinally able to purchase his ownhome with his wife and his 30-year-old daughter, and has threeadult children who areschoolteachers. He said that hishouse is small, only two

bedrooms, but that he has roomto park four cars and his bus. He drew out a map of his home village, showed me wherethe Turkish occupied territory was in relation to this, and pointed out that the "green line"cut right across between Athienou and Lefkosia, forcing him to drive 40 km. out of hisway to skirt the Turkish border in order to go to the city. His daughter works at Larnakaairport, which lies not far to the southeast. At this point in our conversation, I was calledaway by Bradley and Dagan to go see the snails, and I was unable to hear the rest of hislife story.

The Mediterranean shore around Lemessos ( ), particularly GovernorsBeach, is a very popular weekend location for many Lefkosians. When compared with


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the white beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, or the wheat-colored beaches of the Atlantic, itis not as beautiful in appearance because the sands tend to a dark beige-gray and the

beachfront is fairly narrow. However,little tavernas and kiosks are dotted alongthe seaside, providing refreshing shade

under which to take refuge from the heatof the midday sun. The breezes, whencombined with the dry air, make eatingoutside under a canopy or sitting andsipping a coffee quite pleasant, and youhardly miss the air conditioning at all. Ifind that a hot coffee in the middle of theday is not something I desire, so I oftenopt for a chilled juice (orange, pineapple,

or carrot, freshly squeezed) or bottled water.

The main road into Lemessos itself appears very much like a stretch of Daytona or Myrtle, with souvenir/t-shirt stands and scads of Bennigans, MacDonalds, Burger Kings,TGI Fridays, Pizza Huts, and KFCs. However, if you venture just a few blocks north intothe old city area, away from town, its possible to find a nice restaurant that serves good,solid Cypriot fare while enjoying the flavor of an old Mediterranean city atmosphere,sans the glitz and kitsch of the commercialized strip.

In Lemessos, the four of us ate at a quiet restaurant in a very old building, MegaroRestaurant at 6 Angyras Street. The restaurant is surrounded by the narrow streets, old

buildings, and typical souvenir shops that one can find in the Old City of Lefkosia, but Ifind the atmosphere very pleasing and I particularly enjoy watching the people. Weordered Cypriot dishes, including the wonderful traditional grilled sausage (sheftalia),Greek salad, grilled swordfish filets, and a traditional pork dish where the pork has beenmarinated in wine for some time (at least a week) before being cooked.

We were given a generous two hours for our lunch break before needing to meet back atthe bus in the center square, so we had time to stop by the Lemessos Medieval Castle(really more of a fortress),where Richard the Lion Heartwas married to Berengaria of

Navarre. The fortress was builtin the early 13 th century andserved as a prison during theOttoman occupation in the1500s. We hope to make areturn trip so that we mayexplore the medieval museumcontained in the building andclimb around the ramparts and

parapets.


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From Lemessos, we wended our way northwest toward the little village of Omodhos,where Linos Winery is located. The land rises rather sharply from Lemessos into theTroodos mountains, and our poor bus had a difficult time of it in numerous straightascents, even stopping once to prevent the engine from overheating. We were forced to

turn off the air conditioning, but luckily the air cools rather quickly as the land getshigher, so we were not overly uncomfortable. Many impatient cars zipped around us onthe narrow, curvy two-lane road, honking their horns to express their frustration at havingtheir progress impeded by a tour bus creeping along at about 10 or 15 km/hour on certainstretches.

The land becomes more rugged as you climb further into the mountains. Terracing iseverywhere present; although not as many of the terraces seem to be cultivated in cropsas they must have been at one time. Blinding sun glancing off of the white limestonerocks makes sunglasses a necessity for those of us with light-sensitive eyes. Thevegetation looks very similar to that in the lower elevations of Cyprus, with perhaps a

few more tall cypress spears piercing the skylines and fewer olive and carob groves.Linos Winery is a small operation that can befound perched on the edge of Mount Afamis.We were able to tour the winery with the owner,Ktima H. Herodotou, who is in the direct lineageof the family that has run the winery since 1825.The grapes used in the production of LinosWines are carefully chosen from vineyards inand around Omodhos Village, which is famous

for its ideal soil andclimate for viniculture.Annual production is200,000 bottles. A certain amount of a traditional candy,Sousoukos, (which is made from grape juice, flour, mastic,rose water, and almonds by repeatedly dipping a string into avat of the warm mixture and allowing it to cool, much in thesame way that candles are made) is produced and sold eachyear.

I struck up a conversation with Kyrie Herodotous son and heir, who informed me thatthe name of the winery was changed in 1986 to Linos, to symbolize pressing something(lino ), and wine ( inos ). His grandfather donated the original wine press to a local winemuseum in Omodhos, but the vineyard label still features the old press.

Following the tour, all of us were able to sample one of the wines, a white dry winewhich has been award winning for Linos in European competitions. Bradley and Daganeach took tastes, but decided that wine was definitely not a beverage either would make ahabit of drinking! I, on the other hand, found it very pleasant and purchased one bottle totake home.


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After our wine tour, we stopped briefly in the ber-picturesque village of Omodhos totake a gander at the Monastery of the Holy Cross, established 210 A.D. but housed in amuch later building because the original was destroyed in an earthquake.

Omodhos is another village where wewill want to return as a family, in order to wander the quiet stone streets, situnder a canopy at a local taverna, andabsorb the peaceful atmosphere. Hereeverything is clean and orderly, andhouses often feature window boxes of

brightly colored flowers. Were toldthat it crawls with tourists onweekends, so perhaps well be able totake an excursion on a weekday.

The trip back to Lefkosia was a bitlong because the bus driver felt that he needed to descend back to Lemesos and retraceour route rather than attempting the shorter, but much steeper, route through the Troodosmountains. Judging by our laborious ascent on our way to Linos, I believe he made awise decision.

Monday is the beginning of Pentecost and so isan important holidayfor all Cypriots.This means that all

businesses will beclosed with theexception of

bakeries, peripteros(convenience stores),and archaeologicalsites. We have threedays in which towander withouthaving to be back for Bob to teach classes.

Ive made a list of sites I would like to visit, compiled from a very handy booklet,Chypre, 10,000 Ans dHistoire et de Civilisation , which we obtained from the CyprusTourist Office (CTO.) They were all out of the English ones and didnt have any inSpanish, so because I can read French passably well I opted to take one. It has

proven to be extremely useful. Bob, in particular, wants to sit down and map out a tripfor us this weekend, so we will be reviewing all of the historic sites listed (translated by


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me) and find a route that hits a good number of them in one or two loops.

Day 8, June 4, Thursday, Lefkosia, Cyprus

Today, we left in the morning to visit the Byzantine Art Museum, which is located rightnext to the Presidential Palace in the Old City.Dagan has a special interest in Byzantine art

because of her art history classes, so we spentthe morning gazing at very old icons that had

been relocated from their original locations invarious churches around Cyprus in order to

preserve them from deterioration or theft.

I have often seen full color plates of these typesof icons in very fine art and history books, but

being able to be in the museum and gaze at theicons at close range taught me an importantlesson about the necessity of seeing artwork in

person. For one thing, colors and textures cant be brought across adequately in the pages of a book, no matter how good the photo may be. For example, on a good number of the icons, the halos around the heads of the saints or Christ were three dimensional,raised out from the flat surface of the painting in a textured treatment. This wassomething Dagan had never heard mentioned or discussed in her Byzantine Art Class,and yet the overall effect is quite different from your standard flat icon. One of these wasthe icon of St. Nicholas from the church of the Virgin Hodegetria, 15 th c.

In addition, you can get a very real sense of age when you are in the room with them.The oldest icon we saw was that of the Virgin and Child, from the church of the VirginPhaneromeni, created between the 8 th and 9 th centuries.

Many of the icons have very characteristic poses that are patterned after formallyestablished conventions. Icons of Christ Blessing always show Him with His right handraised in a blessing gesture and His left hand holding a book, written in Greek in theicons. I have a feeling that this is representative of the Book of Life, but since it was inGreek I have no real way of knowing without doing further research.

There is a saint here of whom I have never heard, St. Mamas, who in each of the paintings is riding a lion, holding a staff in his right hand, and carrying protectively alamb in his left. I looked him up online to see his story. This must not be the same St.Mamas shown in the Online Catholic Encyclopedia, who is listed as a martyred saint of Caesarea. Heres what I found about him online at a Cyprus website:

Legend has Mamas as a 12th century saint who lived in a cave near Guzelyurt.The Byzantine duke of the time demanded taxes from the local population.Mamas refused to pay the taxes as he lived in a cave. The Duke commanded twoof his soldiers to arrest Mamas and bring him to Lefkosia. As the soldiers brought


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Mamas to the city to be punished, their paths were crossed by an aggressive lionwhich was ready to pounce on and tear apart a lamb. Mamas, witnessed by theterrified soldiers, saved the lamb from the lion's paws and continued the rest of the journey, entering the city on the back of the lion, carrying the lamb in hisarms. On seeing this sight, the Byzantine authorities were so impressed that they

decided to exempt him from paying taxes for the rest of his life. Since then, St.Mamas has been the patron saint of tax avoiders.

One fascinating display at the museum was that of 7 fragments of mosaics that werestolen by the Turks from churches in the occupied territories and sold. These mosaicswere recovered by Cyprus and are now on display. They are lovely things, exuding softgreens, golds, muted oranges and rosy pinks, and a variety of slate blues and browns. Imsure that at one time these tiles were brighter in color and have faded over time andexposure, but I found them lovely and the thought of how many more of them were lostat the hand of the Turks very painful to contemplate.

We were not allowed to take pictures, but they have a set of postcards that I intend to buy before we leave at the end of the month.

Following our museum visit, we walked into the main shopping areas of the Old City inorder to eat lunch at a souvlaki stand, and then returned home to take refuge from theafternoon heat, and didnt re-emerge from the apartment until after supper, when Dagan,Bob, and I had a nice walk in the brisk evening air around our neighborhood.

Day 9, Friday, June 5, Lefkosia

Today, we met with Dr. Polimitis in order to drive over to the Kykko Monastery researchcenter, where I met with Andreas Jakovlyevic, one of the head researchers there.Andreas is originally from Serbia or Slovakia, I never quite understood which one. Theresearch center is quite impressive, with a number of buildings housing libraries,document restoration facilities, and offices. Dr. Jakovlyevic is a true academic, aByzantine scholar and Director of the Research Centre of Kykkos Monastery based atArchangelos Monastery, Lefkosia. He specializes in scholarly descriptions of monasteries, churches, icons, mosaics, and frescoes, as well as cataloguing archives andmanuscripts on the island.

He was working on a manuscript from which he was typing a transcription, and veryexcited about it all, showing us the old book and a few pages from it. Instead of acomputer, he uses an old IBM Selectric typewriter because he can obtain a type ball thathas old Greek on it. He said that he has one student who found a supply of IBM ribbonsfor the machine (which are no longer made in the U.S.) in Great Britain, of all places, andhe hoards them carefully in fear that someday, he will run out of supplies.

Because he uses only a typewriter, he has never quite made it into the 21 st century, usingneither email nor Word, so I will never be able to email him but will have to settle for


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snail mail or telephone, instead.

This evening, our familytrekked back to the Old City

and the Famagusta Gate,where active fightingoccurred during theoccupation in 1974. Bulletholes are still all over thewalls there. Nowadays, thegate interior houses artexhibitions and other events,so we were able to walk around and look atcontemporary prints and

engravings that were ondisplay.

Shopping, home and a latesupper finished out our day.

Day 10, Saturday, June 6

On Saturday, we decided to make a run into Lefkara, the village renowned for itslacemaking and silverwork. Accordingly, we rousted Dagan and Bradley out of bed far earlier than they are accustomed to rise, somehow managed to goad everybody intogetting ready, and sped off in our little blue rental, a Kia Optima.

On the way, we intended to stop at an archaeological site about which I had read, AncientIdalion, which is clearly marked on the A1 (the Cyprus equivalent of an interstate) near the town of Dali. This archaeological site is supposed to be one of the most important inCyprus, with rich finds housed in museumsaround the world. Legend has it that theancient city was established by Chalcanor, anAchaean hero of the Trojan War.

As we exited the A1 and drove east, we had a bit of trouble due to the lack of adequatesignage along the way. At one point, we saw asign that said the site was 2 km away, but thenwe never seemed to see it as we drove whatseemed far more than that distance. Just as wewere contemplating turning around, we saw a sign for an ancient ecclesiastical site (just avery old, small Greek Orthodox Church) and decided to have a look.


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It turned out that this little church, which stands alone in a rocky field, is still used andwas unlocked, but no one was around when we arrived. We got out, took pictures, and

decided to venture in to the tinysanctuary. Now, I have to admit,

I gave in to temptation and took photographs of the inside, sinceeverywhere else we have gonehas sported big signs prohibitingany photography and there werenone here. Dagan and I quicklysnapped a couple of shots of theinside of the sanctuary andscrammed back out, feeling a bitlike Thelma and Louise as wemade our getaway. However, it

was a lovely little spot, andalthough Bob said that he saw inthe rear view mirror as we drove

away several people converge on the place (I guess to make sure we didnt steal anythingor vandalize), Im glad we took the time to stop in. Thats our big crime for the day, Isuppose.

Finally, we found the site for Idalion (after driving through Dali and getting turned aboutin very narrow streets, on the side of which everyone seems to park). Unfortunately, itwas closed, since it was Saturday, so well have to return to it another time.

We decided to take a different route to Lefkarathan the main road all of the tourists take.

Now, you may think that this is a risky business, in a foreign country, but the roadshere in Cyprus are usually quite good, if narrow, and the people who live in the areaaround Lefkara are very accustomed to tourists.Instead of going down to Larnaka and headingup into the hills toward Lefkara, we decidedinstead to cut south at Kornos. What a greatdecision, and Im not being sarcastic when Isay that! The road was absolutely beautiful,winding around and around through hills andgullies, narrowing at one point to a one laneroad, but giving us a view of the rurallandscape that we would never have gotten tosee otherwise. We stopped near a wildlife

preserve to take some pictures. It was great fun!


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Lefkara is a lovely little villagethat has preserved its 18 th centuryappearance, with somemodifications. Buildings built outof the local limestone rock and

mortar are usually tall rectangles,topped with the ever present pink terracotta tile, and adorned with

balconies from which geraniumsand oleander of every color cascade. Lemon trees are verycommon, growing in tiny yards or any open space not occupied bystreets or buildings. The lanes arequite narrow and picturesque.

Since it is renowned for its lace and silver, touristsflock there from Larnaka, Lemesos, and Agia Napa(the big tourism centers in Cyprus), and Lefkarahas little lace and silver shops lining all of its mainstreets. The people who run the shops were just

beginning their busy season and hadnt gotten jaded yet, so wewere hailed fromevery shop andcorner to Comein and see the

lace. Offers of fresh lemonade or coffee oftenaccompany these invitations, as well.

I would like to say that I resisted all of the overtures, but fortunately or unfortunately I ended up going into acharming little shop with a very friendly owner named Christoforos Loizou, who hashoned salesmanship to a fine art. When he learned that I had been looking for a silver crucifix in the Greek Orthodox style (as a memento of our time here), he immediately

produced a lovely little version madelocally with the traditional filigree design.It has touches of the Byzantine style, so Ifound it irresistible, especially after heinsisted that I allow him to put a chain on itand that I try it on and look in the mirror.The price he made for the package (reducedfrom what he said he normally charges for each piece) was expensive, but verycompetitive, so I bought it for 37 Euros. Inever spend this kind of money on jewelry,


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but this will be (I hope) my one great indulgence for this trip and I will treasure it always.

When I asked his permission to take a picture, he was very gracious and began asking uswhere we were from and how long we were going to stay here in Cyprus. From there,our conversation ventured to the subject of faith (Im sure because I bought the crucifix)

and he enthusiastically began to tell us all about his local church, the Church of the HolyCross. He told me that they have a little, tiny old man who is now the cantor of thechurch (and has been for many years), who is so infirm that members of the congregationmust help him to find the pages containing the chants he must sing. For this, Mr. Loizoumarveled, the old man gets paid 600 euros a month, because the Church is very rich. Inspite of this, no young people seem to want to learn to be cantors, because many have leftthe old ways and are extremely lazy.

He went on toinform us that hischurch has anactual piece of theoriginal cross. Thereason Kyrie Loizouknows this is thatwhen the relic was

brought to thecommunity manyhundreds of yearsago, a piece of thewood was placed ina vat of water, whichimmediately beganto evaporate intosteam until the vatwas dry andcontained nothing

but the piece of the cross. And no matter how many other pieces of wood were tossed inthe same vat with water, none of them did the same thing. This relic was then housed inan elaborate silver and jewel reliquary and placed in a prominent place inside thesanctuary. He gave us two postcards of the church and the relic, and urged us to go visit

both.

Unfortunately, the church was closed and we were unable to go in and see it. I wouldhave loved to see the inside of the lovely building, but we had to content ourselves with

peering through dark-green-and-blue stained glass panels on the door. I was especiallydisappointed to have missed the relic, about which I had heard so much fromChristoforos Loizou, who spoke of it with such simple faith and love. Perhaps, before weleave, we will be able to return to the village and find the priest, to ask him to allow us togo see the inside.


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Day 11, Sunday, June 7

This morning we traveled to Kalymnos Beach, which is about 23 kilometers east-northeast of Lemessos. Neither Bob nor I are particularly enthusiastic about beaches, butthe girls have been dying to spend some time there, so we decided that today was the day.

We invited one other student, Kristi Delgado, to accompany us.

As Ive mentioned before, the beaches along the Mediterranean coast in Cyprus arecharacterized by narrow stretches of gray sand, punctuated by areas of white limestonerock that reaches out into the water. The water was bluer here at Kalymnos than atGovernor Beach, where we had stopped briefly on our Wednesday trip.

We paid 6 euros for the use of two beach lounge chairs and an umbrella, and I dutifully parked myself in the shade while Bob and the three girls went snorkeling in the clear,cool water. A gentle breeze made it very pleasant, so I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Itwas a good thing that we got there early, because shortly after we arrived, the beach

began to fill up and the rental umbrellas were all taken. Apparently, on holidayweekends there is a great exodus from the cities as people head to the beach for fun andrelaxation.

After about 2 hoursat the beach, wedrove intoLemessos to eat,walked around andlooked at someshops and stands,and then drove the81 km. back to our apartment inLefkosia, wherewe were veryhappy to sit in thequiet, air-conditioned rooms,

prop our feet up,and sip cool drinks.

Day 12, June 8


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After our exertions of the past two days, we spent the morning and afternoon loungingaround the apartment, each engaged in various activities. I tend to wake up around 7 or 7:30 each day, while Bob and the girls prefer to sleep in for quite a while, when given theopportunity. Common wisdom seems to have it that a morning person is nearly alwayswedded to an evening person. That certainly seems to be the case for Bob and me!

The weather gets very hot in the mid-afternoon, which is a time that the wise avoid,usually holing up in some cool spot to wait out the hours from about one p.m. to about 4.We ventured out at 4:30, this time with the goal of entering into the occupied zone of Lefkosia, for which passports would be necessary.

Its a very strange feeling to pass through the border. On the Greek side, there areofficers but no checkpoints, as the Greek Cypriots view the entire country as their ownand bitterly resent the fact that the Turks are requiring passports for entry into theoccupied zone. However, once you pass the dead zone (the area between the bordersheld by the UN, in which you MUST NOT take photographs), you are required to stop at

the Turkish checkpoint. The goal here is to avoid having your passport book stamped because of the fact that the majority of the world view the occupation as illegal and astamp from Turkish Cyprus might make entry into other countries difficult. So, the very

bored young man sitting in his air-conditioned office reaches through his little glassopening to hand you a sheet of paper (visa) on which you must write your name and

passport number. Once this is filled out, he consults his computer and makes entries, presumably of the information contained in your passport, humming some Turkish poptune while clicking away. Once finished, he firmly thumps the stamp of a red rectangular entry symbol onto the paper and hands it back to you. He has enough English to sayThank you, but that is about all.

On the Turkish side, men in army uniforms are visible everywhere. They stroll throughthe neighborhoods, ride in clusters in the backs of covered jeeps, and zip through onmotor scooters as the shoppers flow in a stream from one shop to the next. All signs arein Turkish at this point and very little Greek or English is heard. However, you can hear the music of other languages Turkish, Russian, Eastern European, French swirlingaround you as you pass through the narrow lanes.

Turkish is a very complex language, containing sounds for which we have no symbol inour alphabet. To my untrained ear, it has a similarity to Russian, with lots of lyucombinations and the g sound that exists in the ending consonant for our wordgarage. We asked one shop lady how to say thank you, but alas unless I canwrite it down in International Phonetic Alphabet, I will never be able to remember or reproduce it. They have adopted, however, the French Merci, so we will resort to thatwhen attempting to be polite. Otherwise, the language and signs are completelyincomprehensible to us.

In this area of North Lefkosia, the people seem to be rather friendly, probably because agood part of their income relies on tourists coming over from Greek Cyprus. The menare not behindhand in staring and occasionally making what I assume is their version of a


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catcall, which is a sharp Ts sound. I observed them doing this for any woman theyfound attractive, regardless of her nationality or dress. Bradley, Dagan, and I areapparently rare birds in our appearance, because open staring from nearly everyone wasthe rule rather than the exception. I have no idea whether we appear hideous or attractiveto them.

We were thrilled to be able to view theCathedral of Agia Sophia, which is now theSelimiye Mosque. This building is the largestand oldest surviving gothic church in Cyprus,erected in the beginning of the 13 th century and

possibly constructed on the site of an earlier Byzantine church. It is a huge structure andimpossible to capture in one photograph, butlovely in its lines and conformation. Wewomen were unable to enter it, since women

are notgenerallyallowed intothe mosques,

but we wereable to peer into theaustere interior. The floor was covered with a carpetfeaturing diagonal lines to help the men line up to facethe east when the muezzin leads the call ( adhan ) to

prayers. The call was electronically amplified from oneof the minarets of the cathedral/mosque (added when itwas converted into a mosque during the Ottomanoccupation in the 16 th century.)

After we wandered for a bit through the shops and anopen market, we found a caf that seemed suitable for eating supper. The tiny caf is runand owned by a man named Mustafa Seyten, and so is known as Seytens Place. Weordered a grilled chicken dinner ( schwarma ) and sheftali (the grilled sausage known inGreek as sheftalia that is so traditional to Greek Cyprus.) The food was wonderful butquite different from that found on the other side of the border. The sheftali was madefrom lamb but contained no pork because this territory is Islamic, and Mr. Seyten madehis sausage fresh every morning. Lemon wasnt served with the meal (as in the Greek side), but a side dish of pickles and hot peppers was placed on the table and the food wasserved with a generous dollop of unsweetened, thick white yoghurt.


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Mr. Seyten was a chatty man who seemed disposed to enter into conversation with us,especially when he learned that we were from the states. He has two children who attend

universities in California (hecouldnt remember which ones)and are studying to become

doctors. He talked about manythings: the cats that sinuouslywound around our ankles andthe table legs, begging for food;the Greek women who come toeat in the caf but drink so muchwater that they end up eatingvery little and leave most of thefood on the plate; and about hisdaily routine of making the

sheftali . He asked for our

names, repeating each one after we said it, and boasted that thenext time we visited his caf, he

would be able to call each of us by name. He had difficulty pronouncing Dagans andBradleys names, but seemed to find Alicia very beautiful and said it several times. Thename Bob, of course, is quite simple and must sound mysteriously truncated in a landwhere names are usually more than two or three syllables.

After we said our goodbyes to Mustafa Seyten (Bye Bye is said everywhere), wewandered into the Buyuk Han, an oldinn that has been converted by theEVKAF Administration (an Islamicadministration which accumulates

properties known as evkaf ) into acultural center for arts and crafts. Itwas a lovely building, consisting of alarge courtyard surrounded by a two-story structure built in the shape of anopen square. In the center is what looksto be a springhouse, an attractive littleround building roofed with a dome. Itmust have been a beautiful place to staywhen it was still an inn. We arrivedrather late in the evening, when theshops were beginning to close up and restaurants just beginning to get busy, so we willtry to return on another day and get there earlier.

On our way out, we stopped once again at the Turkish checkpoint and presented our passports and visas, this time receiving a blue exit stamp, administered with sharp thudonto the white paper.


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Day 13, June 9

This afternoon, Bob and I went to another grocery store that bills itself as a hypermarket,

named Metro. This was much more in line with what weve been searching for, sinceCarrefour seems to be overly upscale and pricey. Nevertheless, when you take intoaccount that the dollar is worth .7 of the Euro, things can be quite expensive.

Some produce, at last, is affordable. Tomatoes are 65 to 80 cents a kilo (2.2 pounds), potatoes about the same, cucumbers about 85 cents/kilo, oranges quite cheap at 1.30/kilo,and lemons about 1/kilo. These are grown in abundance here in Cyprus, which accountsfor their affordability and their wonderful flavor. Other produce is actually much moreexpensive than were used to paying, and fresh broccoli is not to be found at all.

Were hoping that weve bought enough of the staples to last us for the remainder of our

stay, so that well only need to run out for milk, cheese, bread, olives, and produce. Itsamazingly difficult to decipher certain products, such as laundry detergent, because someof them have bleach in them and some dont. Few of them have any English on them atall and the pictures on the boxes or bottles are seldom helpful. The practice of having atleast two languages on products isnt the standard here as it is in the U.S. If somethinghad anything Latin based - such as French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese I wouldeasily be able to cope, but Greek is indecipherable to me even though I can sound out theletters. I simply must spend the next year learning to speak and read some Greek.

Since we are obviously not from here, the checkout ladies (nearly always women) arenever surprised that we dont speak Greek and they keep their comments very simple, if they say anything at all. It really is easy to cope with shopping, getting gas, and other tasks simply because English-speaking tourists are not all that uncommon here, althoughthey are certainly much more common in the beachfront cities of Lemesos, Larnaka, andAgia Napa. Luckily, also, the people are patient with us.

On Wednesday, we will take a trip to a farm where Halloumi, the traditional cheese madeof goats milk, is made.

Day 14, June 10

Today marks two weeks here in Cyprus. I find it hard to believe that two weeks have passed already. So much seems to have happened, and yet hardly any time seems to haveelapsed!

I must say that the film class Bob is teaching has been a great opportunity for Dagan,Bradley, and me. We have had the chance to visit and see little known aspects of Cyprusand her people, things that we would have not been able to arrange had it not been for the


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wonderfully kind administrators of Global Learning Semesters: the snail farm, thewinery, the meeting with the director of Kykkos Monastery Research Center, and the tinycheese factory that we visited today.

Thanos, one of the tour arrangers with GLS,accompanied us on our trip and acted asinterpreter. After aslight delay in thearrival of one of thetwo vans that was totransport us to thefarm, we finally gotunderway and drovethe ten- minute trek tothe village of Tseri,situated on theoutskirts of southwestLefkosia.

This village, we weretold, used to be wayout in the country, butnow that the northern half of the city and of the country has been closed off due to theTurkish occupation, the city has grown enormously in the other directions. The result isthat a rather pac-man-like swallowing of formerly tiny hamlets has taken place as thesuburbs of the city have continued to expand, albeit irregularly. Tseri is a rather randommixture of new subdivisions, sporting their white concrete rectangles and balconies, and afarming community of grain elevators, large livestock sheds, and small farms all

appearing as if they had been flung in clusters andclumps out of a fertilizer bucket by a not-very-experthand .

The little farm we visited today belonged to a ladywho had fled south in the face of the Turkish army

back in 1974 and established herself as a producer of halloumi, the traditional cheese of Cyprus. She wasaided by a lady who could have been her sister, her daughter, or her friend, specifics that we were unableto obtain due to the language barrier. Their nameswere, as closely as I can approximate, KhrustallaIasona and Pantelitsa Khristaki, and their little cottageindustry seems to flourish rather well.


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Halloumi is made by taking strained goats milk, heating it up to kill the microorganisms,cooling it to lukewarm temperature, and then adding a bit of rennet (mixed with a small

amount of water) to cause the milk toemulsify. The thick parts float to the top of the liquid. This step is complete when it

doesnt stick to a hand inserted into thecurds (similar to a custard being readywhen the knife comes out clean.) Then, themixture is strained, gathering all of thethick parts and removing them. These

portions of the mixture are compressed (toremove more moisture) and formed intosmallcakes,which

are then set aside. The remaining milk is used to make

a second type of cheese, anari, which is more like acottage cheese more liquid and softer. This is a lowfat, light cheese, very mild in flavor.

The cakes of halloumi are then placed in small plastic bags into which holes are cut, the bags are put back

into theremain milk stock after the anari has

beenremoved, and the halloumi is cooked for another length of time, about an hour. Thenthey take out the halloumi, remove it from the

bags, add salt and mint (and sometimes other spices) and fold the cheese over it. At that

point, they can do several things: the warmhalloumi can be eaten in its present form; it can

be stored and dried for slicing and grilling; or it can be replaced into the remaining liquidin the pot, the pot capped tightly, and stored for up to a year.

In order to avoid the heat of midday this time of year, the woman gets up every dayat about 3 a.m. to milk the goats andthen makes the halloumi in theearlier part of the morning. For thedemonstration and the filming, sheactually made a second, small batchat a time when normally her work would have been finished.


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The two women were very gracious, offering warm pieces of tsipopita (a type of cheese pie) water and orange juice, and then served up the fresh cheese once the process wasfinished.

Halloumi is eaten at any time here in Cyprus: often for breakfast heated on toast, at lunch

and supper, and also as a snack particularly with watermelon, which they say is a perfect combination. We had already bought some halloumi at the grocery store and hadeaten it at meals, but the fresh halloumi was quite good and I thought had a better taste.The anari was so bland that it would serve quite well for combining with other foods inrecipes (in the same way that ricotta cheese is used in lasagna and other pasta dishes.)

As you can tell, the process of filming the cheese making took some time, so we wereable to explore the farm a bit during the downtimes. Dagan was thrilled to pet the farm collieand the goats, especially a friendly baby whodidnt seem at all afraid of us. We had an

opportunity to see a demonstration of themilking process, as well. All in all, it was afascinating procedure and one that in other circumstances as regular tourists we wouldnot have been able to witness.

Itwasonlyin thefinal

partof the

interview with the two women that it becameapparent that they were refugees from NorthCyprus. Speaking through Thanos, theinterpreter for the occasion, the owner of thefarm stated that she wanted to get a message toall of the governments of the world to help the Cypriot refugees to be able to return totheir homes and their lands, which have been taken away from them by the Turkishoccupation.

Documents

Cyprus Travel Diary Part One