"Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon"

This is going to be a quick blog post (I hope) because it's already almost midnight and I am leaving for Greece and Italy at 5:15am! I can't sleep yet so I figured I'd update instead of staring at the inside of my eyes.

Anyways, since my last post I've experienced a lot of culture and different aspects of Cyprus. Tuesday night was the beginning of a 6 day festival in Nicosia called Septemberfest, which is a celebration held at night right next to the Venetian Walls. It is filled with Entertainment, local food, gelato, and of course beer.....sound familiar? If Musikfest was the first thing that popped into your head then you're a Lehigh Valley reader and you're right! And if you're saying "What's Musikfest?" then just ignore my last comment and take my word for it. Septemberfest was on a much smaller scale seeing as there was one stage, but still it reminded me of home: only Greek and in Cyprus-haha. On this night of culture and food, my friends and I were listening to the Greek music and observing the locals dancing in the Greek style. Not long after, the circle expanded and we were welcomed into the large circle surrounding the dancing individual in the center. The person in the center kept changing every so often, and I watched as their dance style was all about careful foot placement and precise arm movements. It was really fun to watch and I wanted to try it. At one point the middle was empty, and my peers encouraged me to give it a try. I was worried about offending the locals since I wasn’t of Greek heritage and had no idea what I was doing, but I slowly approached the center and gestures of encouragement came my way from the Greek Cypriots; I felt welcomed. I danced in the center with a huge grin on my face because I felt a little silly but also excited; it was great to see everyone clapping their hands and having the locals smile back at me!  When I exited the center I got a round of applause, and I was glad I decided to ignore my fear of embarrassment and gave it a try. Later on in the night, another Greek dance broke out where there was a smaller circle of people holding hands inside a larger circle of the same. A bunch of GLS students and I decided to jump in on the fun once more, and we had a great time spinning around in circles, holding hands and kicking our feet alongside the local Greek Cypriots. Septemberfest was a night filled with culture and fun, and because I got to interact with so many Greek Cypriots and they were so welcoming, this was one of my favorite nights of my Journey to Cyprus thus far! I also got to try some Cypriot made nut bars (which were amazing!) and something called

Souzouko which was almond wrapped in a flour/honey mixture and looks like a candle since it's made like one around a wax string (it was chewy and weird). The best food there by far: NUTELLA GELATO!

Me dancing in the middle of the Greek circle

On Wednesday we had An Overview of the History of Cyprus class, and the professor filled in some gaps that I didn't know about and  gave us some fun facts. He informed us that it is illegal to park on the sidewalks and to drive while using a cell phone, yet Cypriots do them anyway because they'd rather pay the fine. I also learned that the giant Turkish flag display on the Kyrenia Mountains is the largest flag in the world and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for that. This flag is a message from the Turkish Cypriots to the Greek Cypriots that 'it is great to be Turkish'. The flag is made out of Limestone and needs to be repainted every so often to keep its' red and white color.

A picture I took of the Turkish Flag in the Mountain

  As I explain the situation between North Cyprus and South Cyprus, I'm sure you're confused because I can't explain it all in writing because it would take me a while. (Ask me about it in detail when I return!) For a brief overview, see my last post. My fellow GLS students and I were as curious as you are about the North. My post title for today is inspired by this curiosity with lyrics from "I'll Make a Man out of You" from Mulan. We have a trip scheduled to the North later in the semester, but we decided to head over there today and check it out. The process was pretty simple but rather strange. From South Nicosia (the Greek side where I live) we walked down Ledra st. and just kept walking until we reached the buffer zone. There is no indication that you have reached the buffer zone besides the signs indicating the passport control ahead. So we continued down the street and got to the Turkish checkpoint. The street is nicely organized on both sides and has a strange feeling but not a threatening presence. All we had to do was fill out a visa paper with our name, passport #, and nationality, and show them our passport in order to get by. We were told not to let them stamp our passports because they are technically not allowed to stamp since they are not recognized as a state by the rest of the world other than Turkey. If they did it would be illegal and make our passports invalid if anyone recognized it. To get around this, they stamped our separate paper visa instead.

Entering the Turkish Checkpoint, does it look scary to you? Not me

 Once we were in North Nicosia, we could tell we were on a less economically sound territory based on the look of it. The Turkish Republic of Cyprus cannot import or export goods since they are not recognized as a state, and thus they only import goods from Turkey or make their own.We did find some pretty nice parts of town like the one pictured below, and there were some great shops with low prices for obvious reasons.

A nice town square in North Nicosia

 After walking around a while we found the residential area of North Nicosia, and it was sad to see how most of the Turkish Cypriots are forced to live compared to the homes of the Greek Cypriots. It really makes you hope that the unification effort could be made into a reality so that the economy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus would be better. I am hoping that other cities in the North are more fortunate than North Nicosia. On a positive note, the children in the North were very friendly and spoke all the English they knew to us. Two boys on bikes stopped and did tricks around us, one of them spoke very well. The two children pictured below were walking with their mothers, and the mothers saw our cameras and gestured for us to take pictures with them. They were all very kind even though neither of us could speak to one another. Another group of girls shouted: "hello, goodbye, please, thank you!" in our direction, and we think those are the only English words they knew and didn't even know what they meant. We all said "merhaba" in return (which means hello) and that's the only Turkish word we knew! It was sweet to see them all in such positive spirits even though their living situations are not the greatest. It was also nice to see that taking their picture meant the world to them, where as on the Greek side I feel like they feel violated from pictures.

run down houses of North Nicosia

Turkish children with me and my roommate, Anya

The group brave enough to visit the North

 Passing back into the South was as easy as going through. We showed the Greek Passport control our visas and passports and they stamped our visas. No biggie. Crossing to the other side wasn't scary or threatening as it is sometimes made to believe. The hardest thing about crossing to the North was seeing how close poverty is to the flourishing economy of the South. It was very weird to see such different atmospheres in the same capital city of Cyprus but from opposite perspectives of the Green Line Buffer Zone. I am looking forward to going back to the North and traveling outside of Nicosia to see more of the other side. I am fortunate to live in America, and I'm glad that Cyprus has at least gotten to the point where crossing the buffer zone is a possibility.

Sorry if I just depressed you, but that's the reality people. And even though the area was a little shocking, it was a great experience in understanding more about the world and myself. And I am looking forward to continuing my journey as I travel to Greece and Italy for the next few days. I'll be back in Cyprus soon, and classes start on October 2nd. Keep up with my travels! I hope you're enjoying my blogs.

Till next time!

-Courtney <3