Over the green line; coming home

Welcome back -

This will be my last entry for this trip. I arrived home last night after a fairly brutal 36 hour marathon from Cyprus, via 7 airports, by taxi, bus, plane, and finally, the Margaret Redmon limo service ("Cheap at half the price.") Since I can't sleep and there's not much else to do at 5am, thought I'd add my final segment.

Over the next week I'm determined to add photos to all the entries that don't have visuals to go along with the narrative. The time involved in downloading photos from internet cafes with slow connections just wasn't worth it. As soon as I complete this I'll send out a final notice to each of you. I'll probably review the photos already up and edit those as well.

Cyprus was a long way from Ireland where the trip began almost three months ago. I was closer to Damascus, Aleppo, and Jerusalem than Athens. Though the ruins were Roman, Greek, and Byzantine, there was an Egyptian or Assyrian cast to many of the busts in the archeological museums and the landscape was drier, the soil almost white. And the geezer was a bit more weary. Miles pile up. I'd stayed healthy, the knees were fine, but I'd come to the end of my emotional energy.

Still, I'm glad I'd made it that far. Cyprus, like Sicily, has a wealth of interesting sites to visit, the weather was sunny and warm enough to stroll the beaches, and enough British tourists to ensure a wealth of fish and chips shops, pubs, Indian take-aways and

other remnants of the Raj. Larnaca, Limassol, and Pafos are full of British retirees who've purchased vacation properties here. Even the geezer was young compared with some of these characters. The sheer number of wrinkles, wattles, canes, sup-hose, and extremely bad outfits made me promise myself never to retire where people retire. I love having kids around, not just geezers.

The real purpose of coming here was to cross the Green Line that divides the island and visit the sights of the Turkish North. As soon as I reached Nicosia and found a place to stay I wandered North through the city till I reached the Green Line - the barrier that makes Nicosia the only remaining "divided city" in Europe. It's been that way since 1974 when "Those Turks!" (or "Those Greeks!" depending on whose version you're hearing) initiated hostilities. Not a lot of deaths resulted but there was serious dislocation with tens of thousands of people losing their homes in the North/South and being resettled in the other zone.

The next day I headed around the city walls to the Ledras Palace Hotel where the UN has its border station for pedestrians. Getting across the line isn't difficult or dangerous these days, but walking along "murder mile", past deserted buildings with bullet damage, sandbags still in place, razor wire strung is an eerie experience. Needless to say, I enjoyed the walk a lot. North of the line, in Turkish controlled territory the contrast was strong. South of the line Xmas decorations were up in force, Xmas carols on public speakers. North of the line it was the cry of the muezzin, rug, copper, and D&G ripoff vendors.

In the North I visited the old city of Famagusta, another city with a lot of history and as many reconstruction projects as Noto in Sicily. Also the old Roman city of Salamis and the nearby shrine of St. Barnabas. Thoughout Cyprus were churches converted to mosques; mosques boarded up; little exhibits explaining the villainy of the opposing side. Further north was the stunning little town of Bellapais where Lawrence Durrell wrote Bitter Lemons. Also, the harbor of Girne where I decided it would be a good idea to buy an old two masted schooner and start my own charter operation. As soon as I can get a few investors ....

This has been a great trip. I've seen a lot of amazing places ... Bonifacio, Monreale, The Grand Harbor of Valletta, Berat, Butrint, Kotor Fiord, the Mostar bridge ...; spent time with a lot of kind and memorable people ... Keith and Clark, my Bosnian Cab driver, the Hobbits of the Isle of Man, various other travelers, The Swede; eaten some fine food (calimari, olives, bread, cheese, sherbet, coffee a la Cyprus/Greek/Turkish, cherry strudel, berry crumble, cheese of every description, wine from a jug, and, not to forget, more than a few scoops of gelato); taken a few risks, arrived alive, thought some more about the Great Questions (without coming up with any Great Answers), accomplished what I set out to do. A well spent 3 months and I'll remember where I was the Fall of '06. You can't always do that. And on top of it all, I got to see the Mona Lisa smile of the old woman in Sarajevo. That alone was worth the effort.

That's it for now. What's next? South America? The Baltics and Eastern Europe? The 'Stans of central Asia? I need to think about it. Till then ...

Good travels!

The Geezer

Dec 9, 2006

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