Nicosia - both sides - hot and sticky

Today we were spending the day with friends Kim and Steve.  They had been posted in Cyprus 20 years ago with the RAF and they have been spending their holiday (a 3 month one at that) revisiting places.  Some have gone, some have changed and some are more or less as they remember them.  Today they wanted to venture across the divide to find a shop where they used to purchase jeans and t-shirts at knock down prices.  This was to be a difficult journey because (a) we didn't know where to park in order to get across the border on foot and we needed to be a close as possible because Steve isn't able to walk that far (b) we didn't know if the shop was still in existence (c) if the goods were 'copy' you can't bring them back over anyway and (d) the Cyprus rally was on so some of the roads were inaccessible anyway.

We made it to the centre of Nicosia parking up by Paphos Gate which is on the edge of the green line and decided to walk to Lidra Street - this was further than we had anticipated and it was blooming hot in Nicosia.

We made slow progress through streets that were narrow, busy and jammed with traffic.  They reminded me more of downtown Bangkok than Cyprus with the majority of the eateries seemingly Far Eastern and lots of girls sitting around street corners!

We had stupidly left any street maps we had in the car and bar knowing we started in Rigani Street were none the wiser as to whether we were making progress in the right direction until we stopped and asked one of the shop keepers where the border was located.

We eventually made it to the top of Lidra Street and stopped for a drink before making our way down to the checkpoint.  I haven't done this trip for years and I forgot how long that road was.  On this side the shops are all recognisable, Western and glitzy.  If you take the trouble to look up above you you will see just how beautiful the buildings used to be with fabulous architecture mostly hidden now by modern shop frontage.

We made slow progress to Passport Control but got there in the end and emerged on the other side which has a completely different feel to it - much more Middle Eastern - lots of tiny shops crammed into narrow streets and the heat was getting almost unbearable.

We decided to stop for lunch and made it to Buyuk Han which I remember from my last visit as being a bit of an oasis and we managed to get a seat in the shade where John and Steve sensibly remained after lunch whilst Kim and I went to investigate all the little artisan gift shops and workshops that are nestled in the Mezzanine first floor.  This was a much more civilised way of doing a bit of shopping!!

Kim and I left John and Steve in the cool and went for a bit of a wander down some of the back streets where we encountered a lively cafe culture and some interesting graffiti.  In places some of the streets had a French look and feel to them.  It is a strange mix of style and culture and it really feels much more 'foreign' than the other side of the border with its rows of instantly recognisable shops.

Some of the really old buildings like the Buyuk Han and the Buyuk Hamam (Baths) are fabulous pieces of architecture and you realise that Nicosia was truly a crossroads - sad that it is the last remaining divided capital but to an outsider like me the two halves seem so very very different it is difficult to envisage how they would meld into one.  This is just an observation from a practical point of view with no politics attached to it.

After a little shopping we returned through passport control and sought the refuge of an airconditioned ice-cream parlour where we got our breaths back and our temperatures down and John and Kim decided to investigate if they could get the car nearer to save Steve having to walk all the way back in the heat.  They managed this and although our exit from the city was a little stymied by the car rally we eventually got back onto the motorway unscathed save for passing through a storm en route.

We our trip home was a circuitous one - we had intended to eat in one of Kim and Steve's favourite eateries on the outskirts of Limassol but we none of us were particularly hungry - certainly nowhere near enough for a meze!

Instead we took a trip to Ladies Mile beach where some eastern European waitress had no idea what a Brandy Sour was despite being the national drink of Cyprus and even though we had asked her if we could bring in a completely non-alcoholic beer in for Steve and she agreed some jobsworth waiter had a hissy fit and so we decided that if this was Cypriot hospitality a la Ladies Mile we didn't want any more of it but not before we got to see several circuits of a Hercky-bird to give them a reminder of life in the RAF.

We had several more scheduled and unscheduled stops before we returned to the welcoming environs of Paphos.  It had been a hot and tiring day and probably a bit more than Steve had bargained for.