Turkish Cyprus

As promised, here is the story of the first part of our trip, in Northern Cyprus, otherwise known as the Turkish occupied territory of Cyprus (or something long of the like). The very first part, even of that, however was the car rental adventure. We had agreed before leaving that we should try to find a convertible - that's in fact what we rented, and almost took, until we took a look at the trunk. The space in which, along with that of the two-door vehicle, largely insufficient. So we took a Rav4 instead, which proved to be quite useful when we got lost off-roading, finding our way across the northern coast. I'm getting ahead of myself though, that wasn't until our second day on the island, and the first one is definitely worth recounting.



This is me driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car - Cyprus was, after all, a British colony. After seeing the gears in the manual convertible, I couldn't helped but be a little relieved our replacement option was automatic drive :)

After arriving in Bellapaix, driving through tiny streets and settling in possibly the cutest hotel I have ever stayed in, we ventured down to Kyrenia, whose harbor is said to be one of the beautiful one in the Mediterranean. I can't say that I've seen enough Mediterranean harbors to confirm or infirm that statement, but from the ones I have seen, I'd have to agree.



The ambiance may have the great impression I got from it. We had unknowingly landed on the Turkish Cypriot independence day - the downtown area and harbor were crowded with people dressed nice, children running around, and music playing. After asking what the occasion was, we still weren't sure what happened on independence day, apart from selling cotton candy - so far so good we thought, this could only be a sign of good things to come. So, doing like the locals, we bought some cotton candy and waited, like everyone else seemed to be doing.




We didn't have to wait very long to find out what we had been waiting for. We were treated to a very excited snowbird show, with trails of coloured smoke and everything! We stood by the water, watching in awe at the acrobatic maneuvers the pilots were giving us. Gasps and oohs and aaahs followed :)




After walking around the harbour and making our way back home through the traffic of crowds after an event like that, we made it back to Bellapaix, and ventured out to find a restaurant to eat in. This little gem of a restaurant you see below is what we found. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it is situated right beside the Bellapaix Abbey, beautiful in night lighting. We were lucky to be seated at the table furthest to the right, which also gave a great view on Kyrenia below. A great finish to a great first day, and a great start to a wonderful journey on this tiny island, where the people were welcoming and friendly, the food tasty and the viewpoints breathtaking.