Checking out the Karpass

As in the Karpass peninsula. It's the part of Cyprus that looks like a tail. A photography club invited me and a few others as guests of honor to go with them on a photo excursion. It was amazing. A whole day dedicated to photography!!! We stopped by a gorgous, ramshackle old church; flower-filled fields; a little harbor; and a Turkish-Cypriot village. One of the village ladies let us pose with her donkey and gave us fresh-baked bread with herbs and halloumi cheese. Yum. Another couple invited us into their home to see their hand-made loom. It was wild. The loom was made out of sticks and had a stone for a weight and worked just fine. Our bus got caught down by the water, and all of us had to pile out while the menfolk pushed the bus uphill. Thank God I'm a woman. While we were roaming around, one of the women kept blowing on this little whistle. It turned out there were a bunch of hunters nearby, and she wanted to make sure we didn't get shot! Lunch was a sit-down mezze, followed by an impromptu coffee-cup reading. The guy raised the potatoes, sheep and olives on the premise. Yum. A little plane showed up in my cup (same as at dinner a few weeks ago!). She said that I will have someone fly in and money will come from overseas. Sounds good to me...

Egypt and Beyond

Well, I'm turning native. I drove and parked on the SIDEWALK last night in front of the grocery store. Next I'll start wearing lots of leopard print.

I went to Egypt weekend before last. It was incredible. Saw the Sphynx, the Giza pyramids, Memphis and Sakkara, a carpet school, a papyrus shop, the Egyptian museum, lots of mosques, Coptic churches and one of the oldest synaguogues in existence. It was one of the most incredible trips in my life. And I went there for the weekend. Doesn't it sound cool to say, "I went to Egypt for the weekend?!" We even took a Nile cruise.

The Bridge is Down

Yesterday was amazing-- I witnessed the dismantlement of the Ledra Bridge. It's been a key point of contention between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. One of my colleagues (who ended up on Cypriot TV) and I drove up and watched the workers jackhammer the concrete. The evironment was festive-- lots of kids, old people and local shopkeepers. And then by 10pm last night...it was gone. Unreal.

Ferraris and Tennis Shoes: My Visit to Limassol

This past weekend was kind of entertaining. To test drive my (new-to-me) car and catch some sea air, I drove out to Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus. Now, according to an unnamed Cypriot friend, Limassol is the "New Jersey of Cyprus," so quite frankly, I wasn't expecting much. But to be fair, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed my day immensely.

Beforehand, I went to a Starbucks to grab a cup of coffee and ran into the toddler fashion police. I walked in wearing a sweatsuit and white tennis shoes. This little girl standing in line in front of me gave me a huge smile, and then started scanning me from head to toe. When she saw my shoes, she got this funny look on her face...she was absolutely horrified. The kid was two. It's amazing how even the youngest Cypriot has a defined fashion sense.

When I got to Limassol, I found a great little cafe and sat out on the sidewalk. I was sitting there, wearing my red boots (yes, I changed the tennis shoes and sweat pants), when this guy in a Ferrari drives up. And revs his engine. And I didn't look at him. And he revved it again. It was kind of fun to blow off a guy driving a Ferrari.

Over the Holidays

The holidays were lovely...parties, sight-seeing, and lots of eating. I attended a black-tie 12-course Christmas dinner on the 23rd at Ledra Palace in the UN buffer zone. Cocktails started at 7:30 and we didn't get up from the table until midnight! Dinner was followed by a casino night with lots of blackjack. On the 24th I attended an Embassy party and Midnight Mass. My family and I finally got our webcams hooked up, so I saw my first live shot of baby Meredith! She's GORGEOUS...and very red. On Christmas I went with friends to Kyrenia harbor and ate meze and shopped. The next day, I spent with Demetris' family and friends eating souvla. My friend Federica flew in from Venice that night. While I worked, she explored the town. We met up for tea in the afternoons and would hang out at night. During my first day off, we hired a car to transport us from the Green Line up north to Kyrenia, St. Hilarion's Castle and Bellepais, a Byzantine monastery. It was a perfect day-- we sat and ate meze by the harbor with the sunshine on our face. The next day, we relaxed at the hamam and ate kebab and drank Cypriot coffee in preparation for the Embassy New Year's Eve Party later that night. The next day I accompanied Federica to the airport and visited the Tekke Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam. I was so sad to see Federica go. We had such a great time. That night, I went out with some Cypriot friends for coffee and cards and felt absolutely stuffed.

Hamam

Today some friends and I from the Embassy visited the Turkish baths, or hamam. It was an absolutely amazing experience. The baths are over a thousand years old! We booked appointments for a soak and scrub (10 CYP for the baths, 6 CYP for the scrub). When we got there, our group was assigned our own little "lair" (Lisa's words) where we changed and were given a basket with our own scrubbie, a water bottle, two towels and a little silver bathing pan. We then marched en masse into the heated room and laid out on the heated marble. The areas closest to the core were the hottest. After we had been stewing awhile, we were led off one-by-one into a curtained room where we were scrubbed head to foot for 20 minutes. Literally, the whole top layer of my skin came off. Afterwards, we cooled down with alternating cool and hot baths, and then lounged around and drank tea in our lair. We grabbed dinner at the most amazing little Greek taverna afterwards.

Hitting the north

Today I hit the shopping malls in the north with my friend (and colleague) Ipek. Burberry at about 3/4 off-- eat your heart out. It was the first time I crossed the Green Line on foot. The taxi dropped me off, then I had to walk through this dead zone of bombed out buildings and photos of murdered Greek Cypriots. Weird and disturbing and so very sad.
Ipek picked me up on the other side, and we zoomed off to the outlet. It's a supplier for Burberry and other posh stores. I bought a gorgeous white cashmere coat, a beautiful tweedy brown skirt, a black party dress and a soft, beautiful blazer-- all for under $350. Amazing. Probably the only place where the dollar is strong these days. Ipek and I had a great time.
Tonight I'm going to a cocktail party with my friend Demetris. It should be a lot of fun. His family has been extremely kind to me.