Cyprus-Forum.com

[Gasman]

Oh I didn't put a closer up shot of the one legged thingies! Here it is!

[bill cobbett]

Oh I didn't put a closer up shot of the one legged thingies! Here it is!

Yes, now I see them closer up, pretty sure these are offerings from pilgrims with health problems in their legs.

[Gasman]

Bill, what I did right after leaving there was to drive to the very tip.

Gawd never again! It had been raining heavily and it is not a made up road - just sort of sandy clay mud and stones and got so bad I seriously started to wonder if I'd wandered off course! Reached it eventually to find nowt but a Rock with The Two OBLIGATORY FLAGS ON IT! Nearly ruined the suspension on the little car and it took two car washes to get all the shite off the underside of it!

Here it is - definitely DON'T bother!

[Gasman]

And if any of you recognise yourself or a pal here - tell him thanks a bunch from me! That sodding blindingly luminous stripey jacket he had on ruined more than half the piccies I took! He featured largely in lots of them and I didn't notice him at the time lol!

[Gasman]

Last one - a wonderful character (it's hard to find piccies that don't feature yourself or your nearest and dearest to post and I don't generally like to have any people in the ones I post but I am sure this dear doesn't use the internet - and NO I am not the little old lady!)

[bill cobbett]

Last one - a wonderful character (it's hard to find piccies that don't feature yourself or your nearest and dearest to post and I don't generally like to have any people in the ones I post but I am sure this dear doesn't use the internet - and NO I am not the little old lady!)

Think the old dear is a well known figure in the Monastery, been there for decades.

[Gasman]

Ah - that would explain different people (like the lady in the piccie) greeting her as if she was a dear friend or relative. I suppose they've met her there on their previous visits.

Interesting about the icons with the leg. I was baffled!

And yes, it is much greener there at any time of the year. I know GCs who refuse to ever go North on principle because they refuse to have to show their passport/id within their own country. My view is that it would benefit all those who feel strongly about the 'problem' (especially those who've never been there in their lives, like some of the GC crossing police I spoke to) to go see every inch of it for themselves.

Nothing written about it accurately describes it (unless it is about some famous tourist haunt (like Bellapaise or the old walled Famagusta).

Years ago, on my first trip there, the thing that struck me most was the sheer number (and size) of the Turkish military zones and vehicles and those horrible signs with the Che Guevara type bloke with a gun on them and the amount of land that was 'forbidden territory'. Along the road from Famagusta to Karpaz, you can turn left into some small roads and be merrily travelling down them for a kilometer or two and then just have to stop and turn round because you can go no further - no previous warning signs.

Then, on subsequent trips the vast number of new developments springing up just about everywhere. and more recently the number of them that look abandoned half finished and have stood like that for years in some cases.

If I were a GC who felt strongly about all this (and I do know a small number who don't but they say they would fear for their life if they let it be known to their fellow GCs) even if there was no requirement to show passport at crossings, I would not enjoy seeing the place with so many HUGE statues and monuments to Attaturk and big relief plaques and house sized flags showing him that are in your face everywhere - even in the tiniest of off the beaten track villages in some cases. And, of course, the sheer number of blerdy FLAGS!