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[halil]

Well come Zan .

Join us tommorow .....

me .Miltiades and Bananiot aregoing to meet .....

more friends invited ......

[SSBubbles]

[quote="halil"]Well come Zan .

Join us tommorow .....

me .Miltiades and Bananiot aregoing to meet .....

more friends invited ......[/quote



We were invited to join you, alas we have other plans for tomorrow! One day...............................

[halil]

Well come Zan .

Join us tommorow .....

me .Miltiades and Bananiot aregoing to meet .....

more friends invited ......[/quote



We were invited to join you, alas we have other plans for tomorrow! One day...............................

you are always well come bubbles and webbo .....

firstly we will do some donation to cancer tulips than we will be off to .....

i will meet my friends at leadra check point at 11.30 a.m .....

[SSBubbles]

Well come Zan .

Join us tommorow .....

me .Miltiades and Bananiot aregoing to meet .....

more friends invited ......[/quote



We were invited to join you, alas we have other plans for tomorrow! One day...............................

you are always well come bubbles and webbo .....

firstly we will do some donation to cancer tulips than we will be off to .....

i will meet my friends at leadra check point at 11.30 a.m .....

Thanks halil. One of these days, we will meet I am sure

[zan]

Thanks to you all for the welcome and well wishes, even the hostile ones........It all makes a difference

Lena

My sister (Youngest) lives here most of the time now and has been doing so for two years or so. They have built the first phase of their building in which they rent flats to students.


Halil

Thank you for the offer but I see no point in meeting Miltiades. He has no idea of what it is that drives me and I have no desire to further explain to anything further to him. I would love to meet Bannaniot though because although he does not agree with me he at least understands and is willing to face the truth and realities of the situation. A true intellect.

74LB

Thanks for the information. I hope to cover most of the TRNC if I can and will get some sucuk for my sister if I get to go to Mehmetcik. I am staying just outside Girne.



p.s. All.......Why is billy boy |Bobbit suddenly posting more now that GR has supposedly disappeared??????

The double team with Oracle seems all too familiar to me

[tessintrnc]

Hi Zan, I hope that you all have a lovely time x

[zan]

Hi Zan, I hope that you all have a lovely time x

Thanks Tess

[zan]

I will try to give you my experiences and thoughts on a daily basis as honestly as I can. This does not mean that I have something holding me back from telling the truth but an honest realisation that some things will be biased by nature. Your responses will suffer in the same way I am sure…… so here goes.




Letters from the TRNC (Day one/two)

There seems to be a hell of a lot of people not talking to one another in my family at the moment, so contacting people is something I have been dreading ever since we made up our minds to holiday in Cyprus this year. Although I have not been involved with any family feuding, it is harder for those of us in the middle to know who to mention and what response to expect. Those that are involved have an easier time of it because they know who they don’t want to talk to or about. I suppose that it is a good thing that only one sister is out here at the moment and it also happens that we have not been on the island together since 1974. This being so, she was the first person I called as soon as we were settled in our hotel. Her husband picked up the phone and greeted me pleasantly and said they would be in touch in the next couple of days and that my sister was downstairs putting their grandchild to sleep. I was a little disappointed with his scheduling but thanked him and we said our goodbyes. Within ten minutes, my sister was back on the phone welcoming me and offering help and asking when we could see them. Within a few hours she had arranged a hire car to be dropped off the following evening, and said that they would be over the next morning to pick us up and take us to the beach at Yenierenkoy .

We woke the next morning and had our breakfast at the hotel. I must admit that I was dreading this event because the evening meal the night before was just disgusting. What a bloody shame for a place claiming five star status. Thanks heavens the breakfast was much better. I was a little disappointed to see halved hotdogs swimming in tainted water though. My brother-in-law borrowed his brothers larger car and they picked us up at 11.00 AM and we set off for Yenierenkoy. Up past the Besbarmak daglar (Five finger mountains) and out came the Hellimli and Zeytinli (Hellim bread and Olive bread) along with cold drinks my sister had packed.

The drive was pleasant as we caught up on recent events within the family. As we got closer to our destination, my brother-in-law pointed out two cafes on opposite sides of the road and said, “ On one side Turkish and the other Greek”. He pointed out three more places where such an anomaly existed. To be honest, I was quite amazed that so many places existed where GCs had cafes and sat comfortably on the veranda doing what they were doing. I finally plucked up the courage to take a quick picture of them through the windscreen. I say courage because I felt the same way I did in Bali when our guide told us that it was fine to take pictures of a funeral procession at one of their temples. It did not feel right but although I did not take the picture in Bali, I thought of you lot and took the picture here. ( I have just realised that my laptop does not have the right card reader for my camera so until I sort that out I cannot post them)

I have to tell you that my first dip into the sea was just fan-bloody-tastic. Our last holiday was in South Africa and the water there was so cold it set my Asthma off, so my swim with the penguins was short and sweet. We stayed there until 4.30 PM and then decided to go to the tip of Cyprus while we were at that end of town. I wanted to see the Apostolos Andreas Monastery so off we went. On the way we passed a few more Greek restaurants one of which was in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t see the need to write down every single name of these Greek places as they are there for all to see anyway. The other striking thing that we saw was the great big Turkish and TRNC flags flapping in the wind. I have to say that they looked fantastic and were used to their dramatic best. I could almost hear music while they danced. (I can see some of the children on this Forum squirming in their seats as I write about these flags but I promised to be honest). We saw many donkeys along the way and I presumed they are the wild donkeys that I had read about. About a mile from the monastery we encountered a gate at which we paid 8ytl to enter that went to the preservation and well keeping of the donkeys. Great idea.

We reached the Apostolos Andreas monastery and ran out of tarmac but a dirt road lay ahead of us and two more flags flew in the distance on high ground. My sister and BIL (Brother-In-Law) had never been that far up the point before either so we decided to go for it. On route my BIL said that the power lines had been newly erected and that Jews had bought up the entire area. New road, albeit not finished, power lines??……….. In my mind, all I could see was £1,000,000 homes on each side of the road all with sea views, instead of the brush that was there now. A rich mans paradise with no through traffic. Clever these Jews!!

We came back to the Monastery and stopped off. There are signs of work beginning to restore the run down buildings but am not sure if the scaffold posts are just there to shore up what is falling down instead? I could imagine the peace this place had once upon a time before cars. I could imagine monks and priests locking themselves up in their individual rooms that are lined up like open prison cells, facing the square. The priests and monks are now replaced by Turks who have industriously set up stalls and sell their wears which include cheap Christian artefacts as well as the usual junk, clothing and souvenirs. I went into the church and was surprised to see how small it was. I nodded to the priest sat by the back door and gave him a smile which he returned. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for this man sitting there day in day out wasting his life away watching over some man made relics that are the possessions of a church that say we must not worship icons. I am sorry but the building is not the greatest I have seen and apart from the few paintings and tacky chandeliers hanging from the ceiling I could not see what the fuss is about. Having said that of course I realise the religious and historic value of such a place so please don’t bite my head off. Yes I do believe it should be restored and looked after. I didn’t like the touristy feeling that the traders had brought to the place either but I know deep down inside that some sort of commercialism will take their place so why not. The Vatican is awash with souvenir shops selling “I love Jesus” badges anyway.

A car pulled up as we were getting my youngest son some new sandals because the ones he had where tearing his feet to bits. Two middle aged men got out and where visibly Greek. They were not totally confident and hardly looked up. They disappeared into the church and I left them to it. I saw them here and there and one walking on the what looked like very dangerous rotting first floor balcony. What were these guys doing here? I couldn’t help but feel that they were there to reinforce the news that the Turks were not looking after their churches. They did not seem like they were on a pilgrimage or anything like that. They were just going too fast around the buildings and did not seem as if they had come for some inner peace. Of course I am only guessing but these are my thoughts and observations. I felt sorry for them because instead of coming to pray and take something positive out of their trip they seemed to be there to dwell on the negatives of that which is the Cyprob…….

Taking the wheel I drove us back to Lefkosa to where the hire car was to be delivered. I drove to our hotel to pick up my driving licence and from there my BIL took over because I was driving too slow and we would not make our 9 PM appointment with the car people. (Bloody cheek)

My BIL took us to his mums house where we were to meet. It was pitch black by now but the old girl was sitting outside at the front listening to a religious channel on her TV. She is a very religious woman and has her head covered. She is a TC by the way. Her house is a GC house and was given to her in exchange for the house she left in the “RoC” in 1974. It was very dilapidated even then apparently and the roof leaked badly. I don’t know the reason for the disrepair of the house as I don’t know her well enough to pry. She brought out some apples and proudly announced “ These are Cyprus apples” and went back in to make some Turkish Coffee. My BIL cut some grapes off the vine and we sat and waited for the car, eating some lovely fruit. The coffee was just as good and just as we finished the car people turned up. Papers were signed and moneys paid. We kissed the hand of the old woman and left to get something to eat. It was now 11 PM and we were starving despite having eaten the fruit. We drove a short distance and stopped off in the middle of Lefkosa at a place my sister called the “soup kitchen” and whose name I have just realised I did not even look at. We four adults had soup, which was delicious, and my two sons had Chicken shish kebab and sheftali. The little one just picked at things. The restaurant is owned and run by mainland Turks and after the first taste I was in the same mind as I was when they took over most of Hackney. Great food at a great price. At the beach, a portion of chips for the little one cost us 7ytl. Then she wanted more and my two sons had a portion each as well. At the Turkish restaurant we all got fed for 45ytl.

It is now 4 AM and I am tired and losing my concentration. Although I will post this in the morning, because I can only get WiFi in the main hotel itself, I will say goodnight and leave the last little part of day one/two for tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Zan

Good morning All.

[umit07]

Hoşgeldin Zan , hope you have a great holiday. Just be careful driving in this heat , lots of crazy drivers about.

[roseandchan]

have a good holiday zan.