Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

Our good friends, Ertugral and Ayse had invited us around to their home to celebrate the New Year. Ayse had prepared a superb dinner and then we watched some local television to get an accurate time on the year change. Strange really, very similar programs to those in U.K., apart from the language that is.

During the evening, grandson Ertugral Jnr turned up to help with the celebrations. At 18 months old, he is in to everything and needs watching every moment of the day.

We popped the champagne at midnight to celebrate the start of our first enlargements/new%20year%202.htm">new year in Northern Cyprus.

Just after midnight, Ertugral went out onto the balcony and was confronted by a strange sight. In the night sky there was a complete circle of what appeared to be small white lights, it just looked like we were being invaded from some place in outer space. It was quite some time before we realised that there was a Turkish naval vessel, moored outside the harbour and that they were probably projecting lights into the sky as some form of New Year celebration. They sure had us thinking for a while.

Joan and I left around 2 a.m. and it took us almost 1 hour to get through the centre of Kyrenia. The roads were packed and people were just wandering around, looking at the tree lights and decorations that had been put up by the council. In other areas, cars were pouring out of the big hotels with casinos and special functions for the evening, so in the end we eventually got home around 3.30 a.m., had a large brandy apiece before bed. A very pleasant first new year in our new home.

FINALLY, A VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND READERS OF OUR WEBSITE.  SEE YOU AGAIN IN JANUARY 2003.