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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Not a massive amount of news from us this week apart from the very changeable weather situation. One day we are sitting outside having breakfast and the next we are trying to avoid gallons of water flowing down the streets of Kyrenia. The first four days of this month was the Bayram holiday for the local people and I seem to recall that every time we got a nice long weekend break in the UK, it persisted down, until the day we went back to work. So you see, some things are exactly the same here as in UK.
The weekend has been quite lovely, Joan even got her shorts out and spent time clearing up the winter debris in the garden and even washed her own car, I managed to repair some of the trellis work that had been damaged by the gazebo, in passing, so we are all ready for the growing season to start again.
We have recently been frequenting a new restaurant for us, called The Padishah. It used to be a lunch time only restaurant, but it has changed hands and now serves a reasonable wine list and some wonderful local dishes. The restaurant is easy to find, it is 50 yards up the little side street, opposite The Colony Hotel. On Saturday night we went there with Michael and Barbara and we all really enjoyed the lovely food, at a ridiculously low price.
As for all the other questions I am frequently asked about reunification and joining the EU etc. the answer is still very much the same. We don't have an answer, but we do have a new coalition government and maybe they will have a slightly different approach than the previous government. The newspapers are full of every politician in the world sticking their noses in what is essentially a local problem and I have a problem understanding why Mr Bush, Jack Straw, Mr Verheugen, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all should be so adamant about us acquiescing to the Annan plan when not one of them has ever lived here and understood the local peoples problems about living together. But then I suppose that's politicians the world over, forget to listen to the people once they have that warm seat in parliament.
Oh yes, on the subject of frequently asked questions, if I am a little slower than usual getting round to answering your e-mails, please accept my apologies. I am having to be very careful with incoming mail of late, we are getting dozens and dozens of e-mails, from new sources, all with potential viruses attached. Thank goodness for Norton anti-virus and some spam filtering software, which seems to be filtering lots out, but if it looks dodgy then its the delete button that gets some action. On the same vain, if I have inadvertently deleted an e-mail from someone and you have not had a reply, then I am sorry, but it was not intentional
Joan and I are preparing to go over to Istanbul for a few days. We leave on the 7 a.m. flight tomorrow morning and have booked a hotel in the middle of the old town, near the Blue Mosque and The Grand Bazaar. The real reason for going over is the big boat show which is on in Istanbul at the moment, although I suppose that Joan might want to do a little "window" shopping! We have never really lost our interest in boats from the days we lived in Holland, who knows one day and a big lottery win we might just indulge again.I have during the last couple of days, made some climbing frames to go along the dividing wall and to encourage the bougainvillaea to form a sort of hedge. The frames are around 2 meters tall and the plants around 20 centimetres, but with the growing season due to commence over here soon, we should get a nice colourful hedge and it will form a nice backdrop to the pool. Well that's the theory anyway. There should be some nice pics after the weekend, weather permitting and something fresh to put in the diary
Well we arrived in Istanbul right on time and were met by the hotel taxi as promised. One small snag, its snowing and quite heavy too. Because we were staying in the old town area we decided to don our cold weather gear and venture out into the Grand Bazaar. We did remember, from last years visit, that there was this rather nice pastry shop that did fresh blueberry muffins and hot chocolate, so that had to be worth a stop on the way. The Grand Bazaar is an intriguing place, a great mass of alleyways with hundreds of shops all set up to trap the unwary. Each alleyway is given over to the same type of shops, so in one whole area you get dozens of jewellers all selling similar things, a tremendous sight, but because of this structure the traders pop out of every doorway and hustle you to come in and "just" look. You can buy leather coats, designer shirts, anoraks, glassware and porcelain, just about every conceivable thing you can think of and I feel sure that all the labels are the genuine article!!!In the evening we walked, through the snow, to the next little area of Istanbul which is renowned for its seafood restaurants. We actually went into the first of the restaurants we came to, had a very nice meal and bottle of wine, but vowed to venture further in to the whole area on the next evening
Our original plan had been, relax around the old town on Thursday, find one of The Big Shopping Malls on Friday then do The Boat Show on Saturday. So today was Friday, shopping day. During the night the snow had come down really heavy so we asked in the hotel about a taxi, but as the hotel was at the top of a couple of very large hilly streets, there was no way any cab was going to get to us. The man on reception gave us alternative directions, walk to the part of town were we had found the restaurants then get the train to the outskirts area where the shopping mall was. Great idea so off we set, we walked all of 3 miles in the snow and wind, (see picture of Eskimo Joan) found the station, only to be told "big problem, train yok" which in Turkish means you've got no chance. So we set off back down on to the road, a passing cab was hailed and the man said "no problem". Now where have we heard that one before, we got about half way there, when a traffic policeman stopped all the cars at a major crossroads and said "yok". -There's that word again.- So the cab took us in to the centre of the newer part of Istanbul where we bought some warm dry socks and did a little window shopping. We did find this leather goods shop with his windows all dressed up for Xmas, either he hadn't taken the decorations out or he was incredibly early for 2004. We then spent a pleasant hour in a small Italian Bistro over a pasta and more hot chocolate, then we got the bus back to the hotel area and dug out the books we had brought with us and uncorked a bottle of wine from a local supermarket.In the evening we ventured out to the restaurant area again and this time we found a real super place. We had calamari and deep fried mussel starter, sea bass and a mixed salad, fresh fruit, coffee and a bottle of wine all for £14 each. There were one or two small parties of locals in there, so the band surrounded their tables and played some great music. The owner was an incredibly friendly guy who kept sending over glasses of Raki for us, so we walked home all toasty and warm
Things had improved a little this morning so we got ourselves a cab and set off for The Boat Show. There were some really nice boats on show, one we found quite realistic in size and price, a real nice boat for keeping on a med harbour. Others were just a case of dream on, or keep doing the lottery. I think though that it is just a dream we can't let go, since the days when we lived in Holland and had our own boat, realistically we will just have to go back to Europe now and again and hire one for a couple of weeks.
As the whole Boat Show wasn't really as large as we had been led to believe and we had seen it all by 12 noon, we took the opportunity to find the shopping mall, known as Galleria, as it was part of the way back to the hotel. I suppose it was just like a UK mall, apart from one thing, the full size ice rink in the entrance way, surrounded by the food concourse. We even had a KFC lunch and watched the skaters and surprisingly spent nothing in the shops. Think Joan must be sickening for something!
In the evening we walked to the same restaurant again, this time through the small village type areas rather than along the main road. On the way we came across this beautifully lit old mosque which really stood out in the snow.
The owner was real pleased to see us again and made a real fuss of Joan, think she's scored a hit there. We had a glass of Raki each, to wash down the starter, which was a lovely big bowl of prawns and mushrooms in a creamy sauce with a tomato salad. We followed this with the sea bass again, recommended because the fish stocks were in short supply due to the bad weather, with of course, the obligatory bottle of wine to help the fish swim again. We were just contemplating whether to have some fresh fruit when two large crepe pancakes appeared, rolled and stuffed with banana in honey and topped with fresh mandarins. On the house said the owner, - well done Joan, he likes you. They were nothing short of delicious, what a way to round off a very enjoyable few days.
Well we heard from the Insurance company, this time in writing, no pay out on the gazebo. What makes you think they might lose the premiums on two cars and the house next time around.
Speaking of the gazebo, today we had the sort of weather that did the damage last time, but this time the twister stayed out at sea, which is the norm of course. If you look carefully you can see just how much sea water this thing is lifting and understand what happened to our wood hut, as the insurers called it.
This evening we, together with Michael and Barbara, tried a new restaurant, The Grapevine. At least it was new for Joan and I and came with their recommendation, as they had been there last year for lunch.
The Grapevine is easy to find on the right of the road, leading from the roundabout down to The Colony Hotel, between the first and second petrol stations. The menu was very varied and definitely European, with Steaks, Veal Escalope, Chicken Kiev etc. but the prices for food and wine were very reasonable and the quality excellent. The thing that also makes this restaurant, is that it is in an old Turkish House with all the traditional arches and wood beams and the outside terrace looks as if it will definitely be a lovely summer setting. The four of us had a very enjoyable evening, after Michael and I had first been allowed to watch the England v Scotland game down at Billy's Bar, before the girls picked us up.
Sort of a normal week really, but we did receive a couple of photos that are worth sharing with you. For the last 2 weeks Fiona Norton has been over here, without her husband and on a shopping spree for things for their house, which is nearly ready. She joined some of us on a few nights out and I went over to Nicosia with her one day to find a fridge/freezer and washing machine.
One evening we went over to the Padishah restaurant, which I mentioned back at the beginning of the month and Fiona took this picture for posterity. An enjoyable evening with the usual quality of food at the usual good prices, a definite must for visitors.
Just had to show you this other "Twister" photo, also taken by Fiona, from off the balcony of her house. The power of these things is quite frightening and we don't get them very often, also thankfully they mostly stay out at sea. That big plume of water underneath is actually water being sucked up out of the sea and probably a few fish with it.
This evening we went, together with George, Susan, Michael and Barbara, to the St Andrews church quiz evening. We made up the team called The Lapta Layabouts. Must admit it was good fun and for us our first time at a quiz evening. It shows up your depth of general knowledge, or in our case the lack of it, but the team came fourth, so no wooden spoon, mostly thanks to Michael and Susan who are clearly good at these things. A couple of beers at O'Sullivans rounded off the evening.
The weather has started to get a little warmer during this later part of the week, so we took advantage and started to do some of those end of winter jobs around the garden. Joan had me making a couple of trellises to allow her honeysuckle shrubs to climb over the front wall. George introduced me to his local carpenter who is coming to give us a price for a replacement gazebo, so hopefully I can make a decision, DIY again, or get him to do it so that I can get on with the other things that need attention, before the weather gets too hot.Whilst we were out in the front, the local Shepard came down our road with his sheep and goats and showed us his little baby lambs. Joan couldn't resist stroking them and mum was looking quite cross at one time. This evening we took Derek and Sandra to The Grapevine for dinner, our treat for Derek's 60th last month. We should have gone to The Address restaurant, as this is one of Derek's favourites, but Joan had spent the last couple of days trying to get a reservation and their phone lines had been down (this is Cyprus!). Unknown to us the lines came on in the afternoon and everyone had beaten us too it; full house. No problem, we all enjoyed The Grapevine very much and Derek & Sandra had never been there before, so it was a result after all
Leap year day and an invitation to lunch up in Karaman village. Our friends Barbara and Bruce have recently returned from a visit to Australia and they invited us up for Sunday lunch. The weather was pleasantly warm and so we were able to sit out on their terrace for pre-lunch drinks, this before Barbara surprised us all with the full Xmas dinner. It seemed that they had bought the turkey etc and then changed their minds and gone out to eat on Xmas day, so we reaped the benefit, including the Xmas pud and brandy custard.Finally to close the month, I feel the that I have to pass comment on the Chandler's recent diatribe on their website, why, because I have received many e-mails asking for an opinion and also some calling us nasty Anglo-Saxon names, although I don't understand the reason for this as it has absolutely nothing to do with us, except possibly of course because we are that boring website that nobody reads. Frankly I find it very, very sad that two supposedly mature adults should resort to this sort of action, but then again we are not overly surprised. It was as result of this sort of vitriolic talk, about many people on this island, that our friendship with the Chandlers broke up and many other of their early friendships too. As for truth or fiction, we know only part and therefore are not in a position to pass further comment, we can only speak as we find and we find that both the Unwin's and Australian Construction acted professionally in our case
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