Cyprus-Forum.com

[Des]

Hi everybody, I came across this forum whilst surfing the net. Looks interesting.
I have an interest in all things Cypriot. I spent nearly three years there in the early sixties as a teenager and remember the place with much affection. Some of the happiest days of my childhood.

My father was in the RAF and our family lived off the camp in Nicosia. We lived in three different locations. First in Kavala Street, Ayous Domedious or Ayous Pavlos, (excuse spelling) then in a little house up alongside the racecourse not far from the White Rose bar which is now the White Rose laundry! Lastly we lived on the Turkish side just behind the Ledra Palace in it's heyday. We would sit out on the balcony on warm summer evenings listening to the entertainers in the Ledra Palace for free. Just down the road was the Royal Air Force club, The Roundel. It's derelict now and in no man's land.

As kids we were well aware of the tensions at the time...1960-63....and though we got on well with most local people, there were always one or two who resented us being there, understandably. An abiding memory was the blue graffiti everywhere...Enosis, Eoka etc. The time we were there was just in between two periods of bloodshed. The war against the British had just ended and the next clash between the two communities began in 1963 just as we were leaving. Sampson was making a bid for power about then.
We were lucky to live in town and were not isolated like a lot of the other service familes on the base near the airport. We lived and played with local kids and made friends with our neighbours both Turkish and Greek. On weekends we would go to Famagusta or Kyrenia. Fabulous places. Sometimes we would go up to the Troodos mountains. To us kids it was all a great adventure long before the arrival of cheap package holidays. Cyprus in those days was still a far away exotic destination. Ordinary Brits took their holidays in Blackpool and Scarborough in those days and the abomination that is Aya Napa didn't exist.
I have many fond memories of Nicosia. My old man sitting out on the veranda with his buddies drinking Keo brandy and sending us kids down to the local shop to get jugs of red wine for pennies. Or mills I think it was in those days. We would run round the shops for our mother to buy an oke of potatoes and for some reason a bottle of Coke always tasted so good in Cyprus and the orange drinks were delicious. Alpha orange, I think. Oh, and Bel Cola, a Turkish copy of Coca Cola.

Our last home in Nicosia was just over on the Turkish side near the river. We lived in a block of flats which is still there. It looked out over the beautiful mountains with Pendactylus? jutting up into the sky. I was back there about 8 years ago and the mountains were disfigured with a huge Turkish flag. No taste.
On my trip there a few years back, I was kind of disappointed to see what progress had made of the lovely old city of Nicosia. The Greek side was all new apartments and glass high rises and every square inch was built upon. When I lived there there were lots of open spaces and empty fields. Not now. All the old houses seemed to have disappeared and were replaced by ugly blocks of flats.
On the Turkish side it hadn't really changed at all. I wandered around the mosque area and the markets and Attaturk Square and it was just as I remembered it. The pace of life was slower and more relaxed.

Another thing, when did Metaxis Square become Freedom Square or Independence Square? The old name was much more suitable.

Do any of the older people here remember my old man's local bar, the Mouflon or the Alkazar?

I hope the regulars here don't mind me joining the forum. I have kept up with most that is happening in Cyprus over the years. I guess living there in the formative years of my life has given me a certain affinity with the place and a love for it. I must go back again soon. I still have an old copy of Bitter Lemons somewhere on my bookshelves.

[Get Real!]

My father was in the RAF...

Get lost bitch!

[zan]

Welcome to the forum Des. Nice memories.

[Des]

Thankyou Zan. Like I said, there were always a few people who would let us know we were unwelcome! Being Irish, I understood how they felt. In fact when we told any local that we were Irish, not English, we always got a warm welcome.

[GorillaGal]

welcome des. pay no attention to Get Real!

[Des]

Thankyou, GorrilaGal. I'll just get the lay of the land for a while before rushing into print!!!

[paliometoxo]

welcome to the forum Des.

Any plans to ever come back to cy?

[BC Numismatics]

Welcome aboard,Des.You will enjoy posting here.There's a few idiots who post here,but they're being told where to get off,as it were.

Aidan.

[Des]

Thanks guys, yes, I do want to come back to Cyprus in the near future. The last time I was there, 8 years ago, I only stayed a week but it was great to go back and see all the places where I used to live. I spoke to a lady in Kavala Street and asked about our old landlady. Sadly she had just died a few weeks before. I asked about a crippled guy who used to sell peanuts and cokes under a tree on the corner nearly 40 years ago.She was amazed that I knew him! He too had died only recently but had remained selling Cokes and nuts under that same tree all those years.

The old open air cinema had gone. We used to climb a tree opposite and watch the movies for free if we didn't have the dough to buy a ticket.

I wandered down to Paphos gate to have a look at the Catholic church where we used to go to mass every Sunday. It was still there! Of course it was but it was still exciting to go inside once again after all those years. Then I had a look at the Venetian walls of the city. They must have taken some building. What history Cyprus has. There were UN soldiers patrolling around that particular area. I walked down Ledra Street to the wall and looked over from the viewing point. I've read stories that there are brand new cars in dusty old showrooms in no mans land down that way, by the green line. They have been there since the sixties untouched in all those years. Maybe that is just an urban myth!
That old familiar smell of lamb kebabs grilling over charcoal wafted on the air. I always remember my first kebabs. They were unheard of in England in those days and the ones we get in London taste nothing like the authentic Cyprus ones. I walked on past the barbers shop where we were regulars. The barber told me all those years ago that he had a brother in London, a very rich brother apparently! Nearly every Cypriot we knew had a connection to London.

On my later visit to Cyprus I was based in a hotel in Limassol. They have built a strip of bars and discos etc way out along the seafront there to cater for the holidaymakers. It was awful. A place to be avoided. I took a bus out of Limassol to a fabulous beach in a bay. It was overlooked by the ruins of a Roman town. Fascinating and what a view those Romans had. They picked the best places to build their towns! Does anyone know the name of that place? About five miles outside Limassol.

Another memory....we once waited all morning outside the Ledra Palace to catch a glimpse of the American vice-President Lyndon Johnson arriving. We watched as his motorcade swept into the hotel forecourt. We were most impressed by the big American car that had a roof tucked into the back. A convertible.
There were a lot of Americans in Cyprus at the time. Navy people who were forbidden to wear uniform. My older sister used to go out with one of them. I think they were all in communications. All very hush hush. I used to go out ot the American club out on the airport road to use the bowling alley, 2 lanes and eat real American hot dogs. Uri Geller describes the club in his autobiography. He went to school in Cyprus. The American school, I think.
My school was alongside the RAF base at the airport. St Georges. I wonder if it is still a school? It was divide up into differnt houses named after monasteries on the island. I was in either Kykko or Bellapaise.

I remember the day Kennedy was shot. I was told by some kids at the youth club on a Friday night. We were all shocked. The next day my mother said all the American housewives down at the shops were crying.

Is it my imagination or do I remember flamingos in salt lakes near Larnaca?

Yes, I must go back again soon and hire a car and travel all over.

OH, before I forget, It was good to see one of those old style Cyprus buses in Limasoll. When I lived in Cyprus they were all the buses you saw. Now they are rare. And the old men in the villages with the knee high leather boots and those black sort of baggy pantaloons. Traditional Cyprus dress. All the old men wore them in those days. I wonder if they still do?

[GorillaGal]

yes to flamingos at larnacas salt lake!i recently made my first trip to CY, and that was the hightlight for me.

my fatehr was also in the military (i assume that is what the RAF is) ands i would love to return to some of the places i lived during my childhood. i think it is awesome that you got to return to CY, and hope you do again, especially since it brings back such fond memories.