Today, we traveled across the green line to get to the Turkish side of Cyprus so we could eventually get to Famagusta and see the ghost town Varosi. From the bus ride from Limassol to Famagusta, when we approached the Green Line, Georgia explained some of the precautions the Turks take to protect the green line. She explained that minefields were set up in some of the fields for people who tried to cross illegally and these minefields were actually required to be disabled in recent years but the Turks never disabled them. Also the Turks had illegally setup military outposts that they setup after they were required to cease setting them up. Really just looking around and listening to what Georgia has to say around the buffer zone was really interesting to me that the Turks still take this buffer zone so serious even when it has been 50 years since the Turkish invasion.

Walking around Varosi, it was really breathtaking and sad to see the abandoned town. It is crazy to think that people were thriving here just 50 years ago and now not a single soul is left. Walking down the streets and hearing Georgia tell a story about each and every one store and house and then just looking at it and the windows were cracked, walls were crumbling, and the grass was overgrown, was really just crazy. Her talking about the studio in which she got her diploma picture taken for instance or her getting emotional about seeing the house she grew up in really made me try to feel what she was feeling but I could also never know what something like that feels like. Then I think the most moving story was the story about the Europa Furs shop and the lady who fell in love with a Turkish spy and didn’t even know it. That was just wild to me. It all kind of just set in the true reality of the ghost town when we got to the beach and I just looked out on the coastline to see all the buildings. I couldn’t help but think how big and city like it was but then to remember that no one even lived here anymore.