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To the left, a decaying wooden stairs in the middle of the
town on the way to the bus to take us to Famagusta.
See map where it is. To the
right, a fancy collection of commercialized road signs in an interesection. |
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Our bus for the day. Nice and new. The ruins
from pre historic times. The Romans made use of them as well and fixed them
up. |
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Top of the amphitheatre used by the Romans.
Our excellent guide, Helena giving pointing out one of the details of the
theatre. |
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Martin on top of the theatre. Next to the
amphitheatre there was a gymnasium, a place where the Romans used to
exercise and bath. |
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Some of the columns are erected after being dug out beneath
the sand that covered them for centuries. Martin
took a video of these columns.
Top of the columns were from the Phoenician times, long before the Romans. |
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Shit house, Roman style with running water. A civilization
can be judged on the way they get rid of their crap and the Romans were good
at it. Entrance to the sauna. The Romans liked to have a
bath and to relax in the sauna. |
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Here is the bottom of the sauna. Or rather hot bath as the
Romans would call it. Sauna is a Finish word. It was fired by charcoal
underneath. The openings can be barely seen. A fig tree from
1299. Respectable age for a tree. |
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The Muslims or Ottomans invaded Cyprus in the 1595 and made
this church from 1222 into a mosque. Martin standing in the
cubical where they put their ass in the air and pray to Mecca. |
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Just so you are sure. Direction for use while praying. Women
are fenced in in a corner of the church. The entrance of the
church with the Turkish and The Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) flags
outside. They are almost identical, only the colors are reversed. Where the
Turkish flag is read the TRNC-flag is white and vice versa. |
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A street in the Turkish part of Famagusta. Rather new.
Then it was time for a Turkish beer, EFES. Tasted like most other nice
beers. |
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A nice touch. Whatever you ordered, you got a glass of
drinking water. On to the beach where the bombed out hotels
of the past are still standing, totally looted for everything like doors,
windows, toilets and plumbing. |
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The Turk means business. Keep out or we shoot you. And they
have. According to locals, the Turks slaughtered 6500 Greeks in 1974. 2000
Greeks are not accounted for. Missing presumed dead. Nice
hotels? The Turks are too dumb to get to a settlement. Since Turkey wants to
join the Common Market, EU, they have to solve this silly situation. |
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Nice empty shell. For some reason, there are
a lot of Russians in The Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). Here is one
of them. |
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This was the most beautiful stretch of beeches of all
Cyprus. No a ghost town and no go zone. Dumb. The water is
just fantastic. With a little reef just off the beach. Would be fantastic to
swim in. Martin loves swimming. |
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This is the watch tower for Turkish soldiers. Every time a
tourist raises his camera, he blows his whistle. They are so thick headed
trying to prevent tourists taking photos. You can go to Google Earth and see
his shit house on the Internet. But the Turks don't know that. In any case,
Martin shot a video while there.
Lovely beaches for the few. Mostly Russians. |
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The watchtower flying the Turkish flag. The
empty shells look impressive. |
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Again, the guardhouse with chairs from 1974 rusting in the
sand and sun. Then it was off to town. Driving through the
streets where the left hand side of the road was Greek houses abandoned in
1974 when the Turks forced all the Greeks to fly. |
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Nice houses, but after being looted and left to themselves
since 1974, it's not much left or worth having. Another
shell. |
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The ominous sign on the fence. Don't go there or we put a
bullet up your ass. Sad. How the Turks can waste valuable
property. |
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At some time, this was a real great mansion. No just a
derelict empty shell. And the funny part of it all, on the other side of the
street, you had nice houses, well maintained of thriving. The Turkish
speaking Cypriots live here. On the way back, we drove
through an English military camp. The control 3% of the surface of Cyprus. |
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Here is the radar keeping watch on the Middle East for the
British. At last back home to the Barbara hotel, it was time
for mousaka (Greek dish to the right) for lunch, 90 minutes nap
and 1500 meters swim before visiting the Internet café. |
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