Saturday 5th May

After another great breakfast we walked down to the intercity bus stop at a leisurely pace before returning for Jane to complete the packing. We caught the 11.30 bus for Nicosia which took just over an hour to traverse the hilly relatively bare limestone countryside. The suburbs of the city were somewhat prepossessing but we arrived at the bus station at about 12.45. We walked along a narrow road to our accommodation & dropped off our bags as the room wasn't ready for us.

To our surprise the streets are narrow & the shops were a very mixed bag. Our accommodation is about 200 metres from the 'Green Line' which separates the Republic of Cyprus (Greek) from the Turkish part of the island in the north. Many of the buildings on the south side near the border are empty and look quite rundown. Tomorrow we will cross over to have a wander.

Ledra street runs parallel to our street & is apparently the major shopping street. We wandered in & out of the shops & d*** bought some shoes & Jane a cooler pair of trousers.

Returning to book in we found ourselves on the 2nd floor but with a big airy room & a good bathroom.

Again we set out to explore the area & came across a wonderful church with an incredibly ornate iconostasis from the 18th century. The workmanship is very impressive.

From there we walked into a restaurant & took the advice of our waiter to try an excellent lamb dish which turned out to be very slow cooked hock with 2 potatoes served with the meat falling off the bone & a great Greek salad served with pitta bread. Enough meat for about 4 hungry people. A tremendous meal, not cheap but memorable.

Sunday 6th May

Had a very pleasant cool night & good sleeps before getting up about 8.15 only to find nearly everywhere closed. We found a nice café for breakfast & had Cyprus (Turkish) coffee & local cheese pies which were like pasties.

After looking in on an Orthodox service for a few minutes we walked to the border point & into northern Nicosia on the Turkish side which proved to be just a matter of showing our passports at each checkpoint. The first thing we noticed was the groups of young men & the almost complete absence of local women of any age. Most of the buildings appeared to be as run down as on the Greek side & we were quite disappointed until after a light lunch we moved east & came across the Buyuk Khan, an old stone 2 storey building around a large courtyard similar to a caravanserai we saw in Turkey. On both levels there are small craft shops selling a wide range of hand made items. Just nearby was the Selimya Mosque, formerly Santa Sophia Cathedral built in French Gothic style but with 2 added minarets. Unfortunately, we didn't go in as there was a service. We wandered past some more fine stone buildings & some very sad ones too before making our way back to the crossing point to return for a rest.

Later we went out to the Venetian walls which are being restored & settled for a slightly less elaborate meal than last night.