I never would have thought that I would need a passport to go between different areas of the same country, but today we spent almost an hour going through passport check between Northern and Southern Cyprus. Although we learned about the conflict between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots during our pre-departure classes, the tenseness between the two groups did not fully sink in until we were standing in the abandoned city of Varosi. This city was abandoned in 1974 during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This caused the Greek inhabitants to flee and it soon to be fenced off and taken over by the Turkish government. Now it is a ghost town with shops, hotels, and houses left untouched. This was a little bit scary to see because I could imagine how 50 years ago this town was inhabited by all of these people but they had to flee so quickly and leave all of their belongings. This reminded me of when I learned about the Holocaust in Hebrew school. So many jews were forced to leave their house, town, and belongings similar to the Greeks in 1974. Before coming to this town I could not fully grasp the severity of the evactuation.
After our visit to Varosi, we traveled to the city of Famagusta. This was very different than Varosi as it was inhabited and a seemingly popular tourist destination. Famagusta used to be the second largest city of Cyprus (before the invasion) due to the popular port in the city. However, after the invasion deeply impacted the economic state of the city. One of the spots that Dimitra took us to that especially stuck out to me was the Cathedral. This was built in the 13th-15 century under French rule. This holds a special place in history as it was the second crowning of the King of Jerusalem (after the first in Nicosia). Once we were set off for our free time, we ended up (unknowingly) at a Meze for lunch. We sat down and they just started bringing us food. However, it was honestly some of the best food that we have had in Cyprus so I have no regrets. It was really interesting to see the difference between a Turkish and Greek Meze because this gave me insights into their culture. For example, there was no fish in the Turkish meze as they just Brough us out a huge plate of meat kabobs. Greek on the other hand had a variety of different entrees some including fish and others meat. After our ginormous lunch (pictures attached), we went to Fig Tree Bay which was honestly the most gorgeous water that I have ever seen. Although I definitely prefer the Greek side of the island, I am so glad that I was able to see parts of the north.
We have been lucky enough to be guided by both Smaragda and Dimitra during our cultural site visits. Since they both live in Cyprus they have been able to give us information about Cypriot culture and history that cannot be learned in a textbook. For example, yesterday while we were sitting at the fish tavern Smaragda was telling us about how nobody in Cyprus really speaks greek; instead, they speak Cypriot. However, Cypriot is not considered a language, instead a dialect, so it is not taught in school or can be learned through an app like Duolingo. In the past, many Greek Cypriots spoke Greek instead of Cypriot because Cypriot seemed like a less classy language than Greek and they did not want to seem like they were no sophisticated. However, the recent generation has taken less care to this and now Smaragda rarely, if ever, speaks Greek. Another thing that Smaragda mentioned was all of the stray dogs. As soon as we entered the northern area of Cyprus, we saw so many dogs with little things (almost like earrings) attached to their ears. Later she explained that despite the fact that the dogs are strays, they are actually taken care of by the shelters and the earrings in their ears are tags that help keep track of them. The shelters caring for stray animals reminded me of what Dimitra told us at the beginning of our tour about the Mosques in Southern Cyprus taking care of all of the stray cats. One of the things that I will definitely miss about Cyprus will be seeing cute, furry animals wherever we go!
