Today on the bus ride from Limassol to Famagusta I learned a lot of new information from Georgia. The one thing that stands out most to me is the development of the current relationship between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. It started out with a positive relationship where the Greeks and Turks were friends and neighbors. They also used to team up and fight common enemies together for their collective benefit. Then, this solid relationship went south in 1974 during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Although the current politics are still very complicated and I don’t fully understand the state of the current relationship between Greece and Turkey, I thought it was very interesting that they used to get along so well.

Walking around the abandoned part of Famagusta was one of the most emotional places I have ever experienced. It was very sad on its own, just knowing that people used to live there and just seeing the city so dead. However, it made it a hundred times more sad to hear all of Georgia’s stories about growing up in this town. The fact that she lived through the Turkish invasion and had so many sad stories about this place made it so much more emotional. I was especially touched by her story about the woman that got engaged to a Turkish spy without realizing it. It is still crazy to think that I have actually met someone that lived through such a tragic event happening to her home town.