Happy New Year

I’m back.
And where I’ve been is here.
I have a picture of where to put here but blogger won't upload it - so please imagine a picture of Cyprus - thank you.
We went on the spur of the moment on New Year’s Eve because the exs wanted their children and I was sad so Himself whisked me away. We spent a jolly New Year’s Eve in Pafos smashing plates with Greeks. Twas very entertaining and nearly as good as Cherrypie’s party!

We then took a little hire car (a Hyundai AtoZ - I don’t recommend you ever voluntarily go in one of these [and in fact ‘going’ is something that it does only v e r y, v e r y s l o w l y ] as himself is 6’4” he had to drive with his knees, and his head out the window) and drove to North Cyprus.

We had a nice map which we picked up in the South, but what we didn’t think about sufficiently is that the Turks have renamed the towns in the north. So there were no helpful signs to the places in the north
a) because the Greeks don’t want you to go there and
b) they’re all called something different.

Also there are only 4 crossings. You probably knew that but we didn’t. I blithely navigated us along a road which I could see crossed over and into the arms of a very annoyed Greek soldier with a Big Gun. He waved it in our noses so we turned round and whizzed off as fast as we could, he accompanied us at a fast walk poking his gun at us.

“shut the damn window” I muttered from the footwell.
“it might annoy him and then he will shoot me” said my brave boy.

Eventually Soldierboy got fed up and we reached about 15 mph and headed for the mountains.

The AtoZ is not made for mountain roads. After 3 hours we were both car sick and mountain sick (and a little bit homesick). We headed for Morfou (Greek) otherwise known as Guzelyurt (Turkish) because it looked like a bigger road crossed there. And indeed, there was another barrier and a very jolly Greek policeman (no gun) who asked for our passports. He studied them very carefully, returned them and waved us on 10 feet to passport control. The jolly policeman overtook us on the way and was sat behind the desk in passport control before we got there. He asked me very seriously for the passports he’d just handed back to me and studied them most carefully. He then passed me visa applications to complete comprising of just our names and passport numbers. I filled them in, had to ask for the passports back to copy the numbers and passed them back. He studied them very carefully compared them most vigilantly to the passports, stamped them and waved us on 5 feet to the insurance booth. Taking a hire car from south to north requires additional insurance. A different, but equally jolly little man relieved us of £20 (in yer actual sterling - who knows eh?) furnished us with an unintelligible scrap of paper and we were moved on another 10 feet to the Jolly Turkish Policeman. He’d been watching the whole proceedings from the outset but waved us to a halt, studied our passports most carefully, double checked the visas and inspected our insurance. He gave us a big grin and waved us through to the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
They all looked like Tom Conti - I quite enjoyed the experience, especially as there were no guns.

I had another picture, of Tom Conti as Costas, but that wouldn't upload either.

Northern Cypriots are as lovely as their southern counterparts - it is such a pity about the politics.

Anyway North Cyprus probably lucked out with the looks. It is stunning. Kyrenia / Girne harbour is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Here you are looking at the Harbour, that's the castle or fort in the background, and doesn't the mountain range look fabulous with the sun shining on it like that?
They have beaches where turtles lay their eggs, they have wild donkeys and they have mountains. Despite being a Muslim country you can buy a beer and a bacon sandwich for next to nothing and the sun shone everyday. What more could one ask?

Unfortunately they are building holiday complexes and villas on every conceivable piece of land around Kyrenia. Regulations are now coming in place to prevent uncontrollable expansion but much damage to the environment has already been done. Fortunately, the worst bits are confined to a smallish area and the most recent construction seems to be better controlled.

However, the country is poor and the sudden influx of foreign money and tourists has gone to their heads somewhat. They do seem to have a predilection for neon signs and casinos! I hope it won’t be too spoilt and become another Costa del Awful complete with chip shops, bingo and yobs but the signs do seem to be there.

Once again, I can recommend the olives, I didn’t find a tortoise and it wasn’t turtle season so I couldn’t have one of them either. It was a lovely place to visit and when I’ve bought my villa I expect you all to visit.
And this is my villa - do you like it?