Today we woke up and got to head to the Turkish side of the island. It took about two hours to reach the Turkish side. Once there, we were stopped by border control to check our passports. One fascinating thing I that they did not stamp our passports. I learned they did not stamp the passports because they were prohibited. This is because the Republic of Northern Cyprus is not internationally recognized as a country; in fact, turkey is the only country that recognizes them. After passing border control, we had a little difficulty navigating the road. The roads were very narrow, and we were on a coach bus, so some issues arose when we tried to pass cars going the opposite way. However, after navigating the tight roads, we reached the medieval town.

In the medieval town, we were able to enter a mosque. The mosque used to be a Christian cathedral. It was fascinating to see how the Muslims changed the cathedral to make it a mosque, such as painting over the traditional Christian paintings in many Christian and Orthodox churches. After visiting the mosque, we were allowed to roam around the town. When walking, I could observe all the ancient architecture and see how the city was designed in ancient times.

From there, we went to Famagusta, the ghost town. Famagusta became a ghost town because the Turks and the UN blocked it off since the Turkish invasion in 1974. Walking through Famagusta and seeing how fast nature took over the city taught me the devastating effects of a divided country. Had Cyprus not been divided, Famagusta still would have been thriving today as a popular tourist town cause of its beautiful beaches. However, that was taken away by the division, reducing it to a newly opened tourist attraction to show people the lasting effects of the war in 1974