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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
It was necessary to make a short trip to the UK for business. The original plan was, fly out Sunday 4th, stay in London Sunday night, do the business Monday and get the night flight straight back. Good idea, except that Monday 5th is a bank holiday in UK, just shows how quickly you forget. So now it was time for a quick change of plan.Took the flight out this afternoon, the train from Stanstead to London and stayed overnight at a hotel in Paddington area. Joan had stayed at home because her passport was with the British Embassy for renewal and this was only a quick business trip together with my good friend Ertugral.
Ertugral and I had a very comfortable night at the Caesers Hotel and fortified with a good breakfast set of to do our business. Ertugral had never been to UK in his life before and I think was a little overawed by the size of the place and the London Underground had him completely baffled. We successfully completed our business and then met Ertugral's cousin who lives in London, as he wanted to take advantage of his first visit and stay in UK until next Wednesday. I got the train down to Ashford in Kent to pay Jill and Les a visit for a couple of days, because the next available flight out for me was Sunday.It was really great to see them both again, all four of us had been such very good friends in UK that we do miss them lots. The other thing I missed was an English pint, so we were able to rectify that quite well on Friday evening. We met up with our other old friends, Ann and Peter, for a drink and they declared that they were coming out in September for 3 weeks, so that's something to look forward to, I'll break the news to Joan when I get back.There was some very sad news, you may recall that Les and Jill had a Badger living under their garden shed. He had been there for almost 2 years and was probably the most pampered badger in Kent, coming out nightly for trays of cat food and peanut butter sandwiches. If they went away on holiday they had to make feeding arrangements, otherwise he got quite cross. He was clearly very old and just living out his life in comfort, well, sadly he died on Tuesday night and Les had to bury him in the garden.
Saturday was a very quiet day, probably a slight need to recover from the pints of bitter and the few whiskies Les and I had, after the pub. It was a nice sunny day, so I was able to walk down New Romney high street and see a few familiar faces, I also called on John and Judith, who had bought our old house, to see how they were getting on. They had bought a small extra strip of land, from the farmer, to extend down the side of the garden, it's also great that they seem to be very happy in the old place.
The afternoon was spent doing a little of the shopping that had been included by Joan, on my list of things to do. It is quite a shock when you go into the big UK supermarkets, you tend to forget how big they are and just how much is so readily available.
In the evening we all three went to Demitrio's, a restaurant we all used to use regularly and which is owned by some Greek Cypriot friends, who have been in UK since the late 50's. They were very pleased to see me and wanted all the Island news. They were especially interested in the fact that the border between the North and the South had opened up for visits.
Yes there are changes afoot. Some of you may have read in the press all the efforts that have been made to reunite the island, which unfortunately came to nothing at the time. Well now both sides have agreed to open up the border for visits, we can only assume to see how well both Greek and Turkish Cypriots accept the possible changes and how well they can get on together, who knows what is in the mind of politicians. Only time will tell if this is the start of a genuine effort to open up the whole island. If it does happen there will be some big changes.
Back to sunny Cyprus, only to find that the temperature had been around 35 degrees whilst I had been in UK.
Joan met me at the airport and we stopped off at Yenihan's for dinner on the way home and a chance to give Joan all the news from old friends.
Back to the airport again this evening. A friend of ours, Alan, was arriving from UK to stay with us for a week. It must be two years since we met up, so it was very nice to see him again. Also another opportunity to stop off at the Yenihan restaurant on the way back from the airport. It was also nice to get away from the toil at home. Now that the new BBQ is complete, I am having to build a cupboard underneath, to store all the charcoal and BBQ tools. Blooming slave driver she is! Pic will follow when I have finished.
We had spent yesterday showing Alan the delights of Kyrenia, the old harbour with it's many bars, the high street with it's many shops, so today we were able to leave him to wander on his own whilst Joan & I went to our Turkish lesson.For me this was the first lesson, because when the classes started last week, I had scampered off to London. So there I was, dunces cap on, trying to learn a new language. You very quickly realise that the old brain is not quite as sharp and retentive as it used to be, but no doubt perseverance will help. I suppose that the other thing that would help is doing a little homework between lessons. We are just going to have to make the time.On the way back from Kyrenia we had driven to the very top of the mountain, above Lapta village and we spotted the Baspinar restaurant again, which has an absolutely magnificent view down to the coast. We all resolved to give it a whirl this evening.Here we are then, The Baspinar Restaurant. We had a lovely meal, a meze starter with lots of variety, followed by charcoal grilled sea bream, a couple of bottles of nice dry white, coffee and brandy. The food was really good and Joan & I, for sure, will be back, next time we are going to make the effort to be up the top there at sunset, the sight must be quite staggering.
Today we took Alan to the top of the world. We had told him about St Helarion Castle and we can indeed see it from our terrace, so we set off to climb to the top.
The first bits easy, you take the car up to the visitors car park at the entrance, but then----- Immediately after you get through the entrance you are confronted by steps, hundreds of them, just rising up to the main part of the castle and then beyond up to the old Royal Apartments, which are on the very top of the mountain.
It is quite an effort to get to the very top, but if you come over here and it is a clear day, then we would highly recommend that the effort is really worth it. This is probably the fourth time that Joan and I have got to the top, but we still marvel at the effort that must have gone into building the castle so many years ago and the stunning scenery that awaits us.
This evening, Martin and Rose, who have bought a house in Catalkoy, found our website and had lots of questions, came for a visit. Hopefully we have directed them off to Ali at Greenside Garden Centre and can help Martin with other things when he comes back at the end of May.
After they had left we all decided to eat out, laziness I suppose at 8 p.m. We went down to the seafront area of Lapta and decided to give The Cheers Bar/Restaurant a try. When will we ever learn, English run restaurants over here, are to be avoided. The food took absolutely ages to come and then my fish had not been cooked through. A call to the waiter, it was taken away, stuffed under a very hot grill, till it was almost burnt and then served up again with a bit of fresh salad added, not even an apology. The whole of the meal was accompanied by some lady, called Katy-B screaming into a microphone at 50 decibels or more. Never again.
Joan and I decided an afternoon swim and a BBQ with friends was the order of the day. Alan was of course here visiting, Norman and Margaret Reynolds are now settled in temporary accommodation, awaiting their house build and David is over this week, from Kenya, chasing up on his house build, so the whole made a nice little group for a party. Margaret and Norman turned up mid afternoon so we had some fun in the pool under Margaret's supervision. The temperature is now constantly around 32/35 degrees, so the pool is a very welcome addition to any party afternoon.David arrived around 5 pm, he had been following up on few house things, but was in time to help us start on the food and wine. We had a great day and evening in some super company, definitely to be repeated. A late discussion took place on the temperature change of the water in the evening. Just to prove how right they were, Joan and Norman just had to have a midnight swim. It was declared to be very enjoyable and no way influenced by the consumption of alcohol. If you believe that you can believe anything.
A trip to Famagusta was the order of the day, to show Alan the old town and the no-man's land of bomb damaged hotels etc. We closed his week off with a dinner at Errol's restaurant in Ozankoy, always a favorite of ours. Not too late tonight because tomorrow is a 3 am start for the airport run.
Wayne and Tracy, our good friends, who are having a house built in Catalkoy, were due over this evening on the new TWI charter link with Stanstead. There seems to have been a little confusion. Firstly Wayne e-mailed to say they were due in at 4.30 p.m., then I read in the local paper that the flight was due in at 10.45 p.m. so mailed Wayne back for confirmation. Seems that our local paper was right, but the company had forgotten to advise passengers of the change. At least that meant they no long had to get up at 5 a.m. to get to Stanstead. Around 2.p.m. our time, Tracy called to say that their flight was delayed and now due to leave at 5 p.m., so a quick calculation, including the time difference, made the flight arrival 1 a.m. in the morning. Well we had agreed to pick them up! Joan and I duly arrived at the airport around 12.45 a.m. and then sat and waited. Eventually the flight came in at 2.45 a.m. Not a very good start for the new charter flight arrangements and it turned out that many of the passengers had arrived at Stanstead at 6 a.m. the previous morning, because they had not been advised of the change in schedule. Not a good start to your holiday I think. Lets hope that they get it all together, because we really need a good quality/price charter link to this lovely island.
This evening was the official opening of the new Castle Pub. We went along with Margaret, Norman and Richard to sample the goodies. A very enjoyable night, I think! Somebody please tell me that, late in the evening, in the company of The Unwin's office gang and the gang from Lardy-Da's, I didn't really get involved in those B52's followed by Tequilla Slammers, my head tells me it was true.
The summer really seems to have settled in now, in fact the locals say that it is too hot too soon, at least all the gardening people do, because young plants are getting burnt off, before their roots are properly established. Joan had been busy planting pots, around the garden, over the last few weeks and now we have had to bring them all under the house, into the shade, as we have already lost quite a few. Margaret and Norman came around this afternoon for a swim and BBQ. They brought their neighbour, Richard, who is here establishing his development company. All enjoyed the usual swim, even Margaret was tempted to go in for the first time. During the afternoon we had a visit from our good friends Serdar and Makbule, with their lovely baby, Ayben, who was born on 26th April. Joan and I had been to see the baby and the family, only four days after she was born, but only very briefly as Makbule was still very tired at that time. Now we had photo opportunities and Joan got to hold the baby. You can be sure that there will be more photos as she grows.
Norman has sent through some of the pictures he took last Sunday. As there are some nice shots of mother and baby and of a very contented Ayben, I thought it would be nice to include them on our site.
After a long hot day, slaving over the cupboard I am building under the BBQ , Joan and I decided to go to Jashans restaurant for our evening meal. Jashan's is an authentic Indian restaurant run by Riaz, three speciality chefs; and his very friendly staff and for those who are not lovers of Indian food then there is an extensive European side to the menu. Having said that we both chose Indian prawn dishes served with mixed vegetables and mushrooms, washed down with a bottle of Angora white. The food was wonderful, not too spicy, just how we like it and we discovered, talking to Riaz, that he has a website - www.jashanrestaurant.com" target="_blank">www.jashanrestaurant.com">www.jashanrestaurant.com - so for those of you who want to look at the menu, log on. Guess what? There is now also a link on our website link page. Good food deserves a mention and those who have read more of this site, will know that I feel the same about bad food!Jashan's is easy to find. Go west out of Kyrenia, turn left up the Karaman road and you will find them just passed The Hideaway, on the right.
All this week, there has been an International Music Festival in Bellapais Abbey. Tonight was the turn of the Turkish peacekeeping force military band. Tonight was also free entrance and never being one to miss a freebie, off we went, via Cafe Dukkan on the high street.We got there in time to see the end of the final practice and were very pleased to get there early, as the Abbey filled up very quickly, long before the start of the concert.The entire concert was very enjoyable, as they played a real mixture of light music for all tastes, from classical to modern disco style. There were one or two memorable solo performances and if this was the standard, then remind me, to take more notice of the full program next year and maybe pay for a couple of evening concerts.
May has been a very good month. We seem to have been very busy with a mixture of visitors and trying to get all those jobs done around the house, whilst at the same time starting to enjoy the improving weather. Today, our good friend Serdar, celebrates his birthday, so together with little Ayben, off we all went up the mountain, to the Baspinar restaurant, to have dinner together. Once you have made the effort to drive right up the mountain to this restaurant the effort is worth it, the view is amazing and the food quality is very good. For animal lovers there is also the most amazing thing. The restaurant cat was playing with a little white rabbit some months ago, outside on the terrace, so Calil, the owner brought it inside and now it lives in the big open fireplace. It seems very content and just loves all the attention it gets. What is going to happen when they need the fireplace in the winter we don't know.
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