Nicosia

Hi! I'm back again...been away for a few days travelling around the island and thought I would tell you about our day out to Nicosia...

Officially North Cyprus and Cyprus are the only two countries in the world (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!) to share a capital city, that being Nicosia. The Turks invaded in 1975 and ever since there has been a high metal fence cutting the city into two. To get from one to the other you pass the sand bags, barbed wire and armed guards, walk down the main shopping street and suddenly (just past McDonalds) you get to a white hut which is the border post: (the customs people on just on the left of the picture in blue shirts)

You fill in a piece of paper with your basic details which they stamp (dont' let them stamp your passport or you won't be allowed back in), walk through no-mans land (derelict shops belonging to no-one) show you passport 100m further on and you are in Turkish Cyprus. This side there is no McDonalds, no starbucks and the buildings are crumbling before your eyes.

We had a turkish lunch then went to explore the narrow back streets and listened to the call to prayer coming from a church converted into a mosque. You can see in the picture the minarettes stuck on the end and the windows have been knocked out and replaced with stone carved geometric patterns:

The Turkish people seemed very friendly and the place had character but obviously much poorer than the Greek side. I have included a video of the call to prayer to try and give you a feel for the place. Hope you can open it, not done this before...

Only time to have a short walk around before getting our pieces of paper stamped again and heading back through no-mans shops.

Visited the Cyprus Museum on Greek Cypriot side so expect to see work based on Chalcolithic clay figures! (but probably in stitch not clay!) Watch this space...art work coming soon!