Randal and I did our first "Thursday Deks Walk" Thanksgiving morning and we can’t wait to go next Thursday.  We had a great time.

Ru

Deks Walk # 1

Deks Restaurant and Bar

The walks are advertised as starting at 9 am (as long as there is no rain;)  but  it being our first walk, Randal and I got there early. There was no one there but the front porch of the restaurant was open so we each chose a book from the racks and made ourselves comfortable. Everyone always meets at Deks, but not all walks start at Deks. Denise said Randal and I could drive with her and leave the motorbike at Deks. This morning’s walk actually did start just across the road from Deks.

Deks activities.

Shortly after 9 am Denise arrived. An xpat Brit married to a Turkish Cypriot, I believe she is part owner of the restaurant. She leads the walks and also teaches Turkish Tuesday mornings. I’m planning to go Tuesday morning, but there is “homework” so we’ll see. I’m going to get stuff together for the Christmas Bazaar they are having December 11th. We’d collected stuff to give away on our journey up the Red Sea, but as we shipped the boat instead, we still have those things. I’ll give the money to the charities Deks contributes to; the local clinic and a group of 5 donkeys that had been rescued and given shelter by some Americans? Brits? I can’t remember. But they can’t be let back into the wild because they are too old, too blind and one just born among other things.

Mick, Julia, Denise, Randal and me.

Mick and Julia left their spouses behind but each took the family dog. Both couples, one Scottish and one British, live in North Cyprus. This photo was actually taken on the way back but it shows the path we took most of the way up to the church and statues. We had been told the hike was up to see an old stone church but nothing much was said about the statues so I expected regular old church statues.

Trails are marked just as the dirt path we motorbiked back in August over the mountain roads.

The stone church.

This is the back of the church. Just through the arch a small bit of fresco is still visible.

You can just make out the shape of the people and the books they are holding.

The man on the left has a white beard and mustache and you can just make out some of his face.

The fresco was up too high to really see it well.

This recent icon had been hung on the wall.

The stone remains of something, perhaps a house is just near the church.

Denise explaining Cypriot history to Randal while Julia and Mick water their dogs that, once they’d been let off their leads, had been running like mad the entire way up.

We left the church and continued up into the hills to find the statues.

The statues!

I was not expecting these stone statues that looked Roman or Egyptian to me.

Denise said that no one has studied the statues so their origin and history is not known.

Denise is explaining which way is up because it takes a while to understand what you are seeing.

This statue is lying on her back; at least Denise thinks it’s a woman.

How not to take a photo and have shadows obscure the stone carving.

It looked to me like a soldier with a helmet and his right arm bent to hold a weapon.

Farming must have been difficult.

An old stone house off in the distance.

This land had been church land and now is owned by the Turkish government and leased out.

I think the land is beautiful with its openness and stone walls.

And the views overlooking the Mediterranean

This walk took us to the right: wonder what’s to the left?

  Hope everyone had a Thanksgiving with family or friends which is the best part of Thanksgiving.  We had dinner on BeBe with Bill and Judy and there was enough food for all of you to have joined us.  We had chicken and cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce that both Judy and I had bought somewhere once upon a time, roasted vegetables, peas, rolls, gravy apple cake and caramel ice cream.  There was champagne and wine but I stuck to my "no wine" pledge and had diet gingerale.  More room for food!  Luckily Randal and I had joined the Deks hike up into the hills that was about 4.5 miles.  I’ll share those photos next email. 

  No big shopping day here.  We did go into Yeni Erenkoy for a new watch battery.  I’d bought my watch in Kota Tinghy years ago for less than $10 and it has worked like a champ ever since.  I guess it deserved a new battery. 

    There is a cheese factory in the village and maybe one day we can see it.  Shops sell the local cheese.  Interestingly, olives aren’t readily for sale because everyone grows their own so there’s no market! 

Ru

 

A new hike and lunch at Deks, Wednesday, the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.

This morning Randal and I went off on what hopefully will become a daily walk somewhere. We left the marina and walked north rather than up the hill toward Sipahi and the basilica. We looked for some paths up into the hills which are covered with scrub, stone walls, or farm fields. Eventually we found one that led up the hillside to two abandoned homes, an abandoned church and an active farm. After our walk we motorbiked down the road for lunch at Deks a local restaurant and bar that caters to xpat and visiting Brits. You can get roast beef or fish and chips. But you can also come for free Turkish lessons, the weekly hike into the hills, bingo night to raise funds for the wild donkeys and there are even books for loan or trade. I had done an early load of laundry; if it’s sunny I do laundry because there will be rain every so often. I left it our while we walked my logic being if It looked at all like rain we wouldn’t be going for a walk. By the time we got back it was dry enough to bring in and hang for the last bit. I’m learning to do small loads so if I do have to hang it inside there will still be room to walk around.

Off the beaten path..

The stone walls were used to create terraces for farming. Now you see scrub and stones.

An abandoned stone home in a beautiful setting overlooking the Mediterranean.

This was a back window: now grass grows and the wood roof has decayed away leaving it open to sun and rain. The wood could have been taken off the doors, roof and windows to use for another purpose.

Who lived here?

The owner of Deks told us that much of this land was owned by the Green Orthodox Church and had been rented out at very low rates for long life time leases. When the Greeks abandoned the land, the Turkish government took over the Church land and continued renting it out, now to Turkish Cypriots at the same low rates. When we asked about walking around through the hills, she told us that the Cypriots didn’t mind and would more likely invite us for tea.

We kept walking and found this dirt road that led up to an abandoned church and another house.

Across the way, on the sea side of the main road is where we’d had our picnic lunch Monday.

Abandoned Greek Church

Another abandoned roofless home.

The marina is visible from the top of this hill.

On the other side of the church is an active farm with a herd of sheep. A truck passed us on its way out and I called merhaba (hello) and they waved and said hello.

Lunch at Deks of lentil, carrot, ginger soup and cold meze of cheese, yogurt, olives, sundried tomatoes, peppers, pickled beets and bread. The olives came from the orchards of the owners of Deks and they were wonderful, olives and the owners come to think of it. The owner, Kip, explained to us the whole process or picking and curing and flavoring the olives. The less perfect olives are pressed for oil. Normally Deks sells jars but this year the harvest was so small due to the weather that they have none other than what they serve in the restaurant.

Books to share even if one now has a Kindle!

We ate outside on the sunny porch.

Just next to Deks on the road is the 15^th century Ayios Thrysos Church. (The tour book from the local tourist association say 15^th century BC but that couldn’t be possible for a church.) Next to Deks is the small Byzantine Church Randal and I had visited when we were first in Cyprus. Today I noticed the door to the Ayios Thrysos Church was open so we went inside.

“Whitewashed with no fresco and empty except for a few wooden pews and the shell of the iconostasis.”

These cardboard icons represent what the frescos must have looked like but many have been taken from the churches.

On Thursdays at 9 am a walking tour starts at Deks and anyone can go. There is no charge and it’s led by Deks co-owner, Denise. Randal and I joined the Thanksgiving morning tour and that’s my next email.

7:34 am  7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time

So this morning is bright and sunny and I have yet another load of laundry washing.  Randal suggested that since it was sunny we should motorbike to Dipkarpaz and eat at our favorite restaurant. I said we’d be eating a big dinner with Bill and Judy on BeBe because it was Thanksgiving.  Randal laughed and said he’d read my blogmail and noticed that I was a day ahead.  Somehow I managed to miss Wednesday and skipped all the way to Thursday.  Must have been that 2 for 1 Happy Hour wine. 

And I didn’t mention the mosques in the photo at the fruit and veggie market because we’re just so used to them I don’t always take notice.  North Cyprus is the Turkish side of Cyprus which is Muslim.  I don’t know if most of the mosques date from after the 1974 Turkish invasion of the north.  It’s difficult to find any information at all.  Think of it this way.  The American Civil War ended in 1865 but there are still sensitivities about it.  The war here ended with no real closure; just a "Green Line" monitored by the UN so it’s hard to know whom to ask about what without offending someone.  We will definitely make some trips to South Cyprus when our friends Charmaine and Linda come to visit.  But we may also go next week with Bill and Judy so we can check on motorbike issues like insurance for driving in the South and maybe registering it there so we can possibly sell it and get a larger one. 

As for the fruit and veggies, not sure where they are all actually grown since the ground here seems pretty baron.  There are orange trees and pomegranates growing.  But Randal said he noticed the bananas were from Ecuador.  We bought oranges, grapefruit and bananas.  It looked they were selling a wide variety of pears but I’m not a pear fan.  There were lots of apples too and grapes.  Next market I’ll buy a few things we don’t know, like olive bread with pits, and see what we like or not.  But since I’d rather read, walk, or paint than cook or clean there’s less incentive to worry about unidentified local food. 

The people three boats down have a parrot and I hear it whistling really loudly every morning.  It talks too, but I don’t know it well enough to talk with it yet.  It is owned by Brits so it does speak English!

So…..just to clear things up. 

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.

  I have boat chores to do, but I’m saving them for the rainy days.  Laundry gets done early on the sunny days; the marina does have a dryer but I’d rather use the sun and avoid lines at the laundry room.  Grocery shopping is a sunny day activity when we use the motorbike.  Inside dusting and vacuuming will just have to wait.  Sunday, Monday as well as today were sunny so we were out and about.

  Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow back at home.  Lots of food and football.  We’re getting together with Bill and Judy for chicken and cornbread stuffing and roasted vegetable and some local treats.  In the morning I’m going to do another load of laundry early and then take Randal off  for a walk so we’ll deserve Thanksgiving dinner.  But no wine for me.  After a two for one happy hour here tonight on an empty stomach, I’m going to be tea totaling for a bit. 

Ru

Cyprus Sunday and Monday

This past Sunday was sunny so we took Bill and Judy for a walk up to “our” basilica.

You get a better idea of the place with people in it.

According to the leaflet we got from the little boy, parts are still buried and there are no funds at this point for further excavation. There won’t ever be enough money if they rely on a small boy and smaller puppy to collect entrance fees.

Bill and Judy from the sailing vessel BeBe

Bill in the stone basin in the baptismal chamber.

The little boy and puppy and an older brother came again with handouts for Bill, Judy and Randal. Bill gave him some lira coins. Randal only had a twenty TL note so told me to trade the 20 for the coins. It took a bit of persuading but finally the boy saw it was a better deal to give me the 5 coins and take the 20 TL paper. We will all save our leaflets to prove we paid once so we shouldn’t have to pay again. Since it was about my 7^th time there I guess paying once is fair. (Today on my walk I saw and adult “official” asleep in the booth at the entrance to the small area.

Market Day in Yeni Erenkoy

Monday is market day in the local town. We first made a stop at the local Turkcell shop to get our Cyprus SIM phone card and some minutes. There was no real hope for the Turkish SIM card and the 50 TL we had on each phone. Maybe we’ll revisit Turkey before our minutes run out in January and our Turkish VISA that we needed for our one night in Istanbul on the way back to Cyprus runs out in February.

Lots of lovely fruit and veggies.

Local families were shopping as well as many British and German xPats.

Household goods and some clothing were for sale.

The market was much smaller than Famagusta but just 10 minutes down the road. Famagusta is over an hour by local bus for just about the same things.

Randal tries to load the two loaves of bread into our front basket.

It’s a wonder we got everything back to the boat. We didn’t bring our panniers because we only needed to do a little shopping. But when you see all the beautiful fruit and veggies and the great bread, you go a little crazy.

The two rounded loaves that together are about the size of a basketball.

This loaf is olive bread complete with pits!

While I was buying fruit Randal was buying bread and since it all looked great he bought two loaves.

We returned from the market and I quickly put together a picnic and off we went for a walk and lunch north of the marina.

Cyprus has a beautiful shoreline and a great spot for a picnic just a 30 minute walk down the road.

There is a huge mound of porous rock and we walked to the top for lunch.

Randal looks so tiny but is only about a 3 minute walk from where I’m taking the photo.

Cheese, salami and tomato on some of our new bread. I’d also spread some mayo and about a teaspoon of spicy pepper spread onto the sandwich. Randal had bought a jar of the spread at the market thinking it was sundried tomatoes. I ate some of our left-over chicken instead.

Then it was time to head on back to the marina.

Unfortunately there’s no path along the water and we had to walk back to the road to return to the marina.

Walking back to the main road from our picnic spot.

Hi All,

  Our flights were smooth and the luggage arrived in Cyprus with us.  The only "negative" was that I somehow managed to leave the book I was reading in the Detroit airport.  I noticed two minutes after I sat down but wasn’t allowed to get off the plane to go look for it.  I was really sad because I really was enjoying the book: A Day of Small Beginnings by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum.  We flew from Detroit to Paris which sounds a lot more exciting than it is since we stayed only in the terminal and wifi is limited to 15 free minutes.  But that was long enough for me to check the downloadable e books from my library and Amazon.com.  My library only had the paper edition but Amazon had it.  This was great incentive for me to finally use my Kindle and when we got to Cyprus I was able to log-on to the marina wifi and order it from Amazon and load it onto my Kindle.  THANKS HAR FOR ENCOURAGING ME TO GET THE KINDLE AND TEACHING ME HOW TO USE IT.  AND THANKS TO CID AND ALAN AT THE ROANOKE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR SHOWING ME HOW TO DOWNLOAD LIBRARY BOOKS.  I love it!  I don’t mind reading the Kindle though I miss the feel of a real book.  But with the Kindle I can’t lose treasured book marks like the whirling dervish woven book mark I lost in my book.  I do hope whoever found the book reads it and likes it as much as I am.  Or the security folks at the airport disposed of it as a security risk.  That would really be too bad. 

Ru

DoraMac

Cyprus in November 21, 2011 : Beware of what you wish for!

“I’m so done with hot weather!” That’s what I told everyone when we left the tropical weather of Southeast Asia and India behind. Summer in Turkey and Cyprus was hot, but not like tropical heat. We’ll we’re back in North Cyprus and we don’t have tropical weather now!

We arrived November 18^th and it felt a bit cool but not cold. In the afternoon our friends Bill and Judy on BeBe offered to drive us in their shared rental car to get groceries. They had even been kind enough to try to pick us up that morning at the airport. However, the plan had been tentative; the cruiser they share the car with thought he might have needed it. So when Randal and I didn’t see them at the terminal we took a taxi. But our plane had been early and Bill and Judy were killing time in the coffee shop so we managed to miss each other. Our refrigerator was indeed bare, so we were glad for the chance to begin to refill it. On our way to the grocery store it started to pour and then hail. On our way home we came to a section of road that looked like winter! So much for mild winters! We saw two cars that had slid off the road and another that was about to get itself stuck trying to pull the cars from the field back to the road. I hadn’t brought my camera, but luckily Bill and Judy have a phone that takes photos so we have proof of the heavy hail storm.

They also captured the rainbow at the end of the road. It literally did go from sea to shore: these are both sides.

That night I made the bed with flannel sheets and 3 blankets!

Saturday we woke to enough sun that I put in a laundry. The sun lasted about an hour and then the rain came so the clothes spent the day drying in our saloon. We’d never had rain while we were here in August; at least I don’t remember any. Every day was laundry day and it dried in a few hours. ( Now it takes most of the day even in bright sun.) By about 3pm the rain stopped and I needed to get some exercise so took my walk up to the 5^th century AD basilica I’d visited so many times in August. This time I had on a turtleneck, a sweater and my rain jacket instead of a sleeveless shirt and shorts. But it was just as lovely.

Fields had some green shoots from the fall rains.

The basilica had puddles!

The mosaics were not so dusty.

And this time the puppy that came running had a little boy with him.

Who is walking whom?

They were so cute.

Later the little boy came back with a photocopied sheet of information and map of the layout of the basilica. I’d read on another web site about the family across the street who would bring the leaflet and collect the entrance fee, 5TL; but I’d never had it happen before. I had a 20 TL note with me but didn’t want to try to explain that so told him I had no money and tried to return the paper. He indicated that I should keep it. I knew I’d be back so I wasn’t worried about the money.

Judy had mentioned that 4:30 was the beginning of dark so I started back after just a short time.

Lots of atmosphere

Rain clouds were rolling back in

I saw a lovely sunset even as the light rain began to fall.

A second basilica visit, the local veggie market and our picnic by the sea…next email.

  I haven’t been writing much because for the past week we "cat sat" for my sister and stayed at her house where there are 3 TVs.  It’s amazing how much time you can spend watching television: not reading or writing or whatever….  I got hooked on Once Upon A Time because I have always loved fairy tales and this one is rather cleverly done.  And I like the Good Wife.  And oddly, if I miss most of the "TV season" I can still catch up watching just a few episodes when we’re home.  At least we listen to Public Radio in the car.  I love public radio: you can really learn a lot. 

  Our time is growing short.  We head on back to the boat next Wednesday.  That’s so hard to believe.  It feels as if we just got here and certainly haven’t spent nearly enough time with family and friends.  We still face the daunting task of packing boat parts and books into the suitcases.  Even with the Kindle, I still want my books and with odd taste, I can’t be sure what I want will have been ordered in the electronic format by the library (with its book budget) or Amazon with its Popular Taste perspective.   Right now I’m reading The Search for God at Havard by Ari L. Goldman to prepare for our trip to Israel and the Middle East.  Not only do I know too little about other religions, but I remember much too little about my own.  One doesn’t have to be religious to be knowledgeable about religions and respectful of other people who believe differently.  Freedom of religion is the best kind of religion.  Anyway, here is the rest of my "preachy" email about democracy, voting and libraries.

Ru

Voting    November 8, 2011   and Libraries Everyday

November 8^th was Election Day in the United States.  Randal and I voted.  I have to admit ignorance in most of the races, but one was important to me and I wanted to support the candidate.  To encourage citizens to vote, polls are located in neighborhoods where people live so Randal and I were able to walk to the Oakland School as part of our daily walk around the neighborhood.  This is an off-year ( no Presidential, Senate or House elections)  when we only voted for state and local officials and local and state issues.   But since all politics is local these elections are important too.  Some people ran unopposed and I voted for them because at least they were willing to do the job and pay attention to water issues and the like.  Not fancy titles and no glory but they were willing to do it so I put a check next to their names even though they’d already won just by being on the ballot. 

We voted at the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy at Oakland on Williamson Road.

Not many folks voting but there was lots of enthusiasm by this poll watcher.

That afternoon I visited the other bastion of democracy, the public library! The 419 HQ Branch of the Roanoke County Public Library System where I worked for 26 years.  Of course I went to visit friends and say hello to the library patrons who were kind enough to still remember me.     I took my new Kindle Reader and laptop so the Reference staff could show me how to download FREE LIBRARY BOOKS to the Kindle device.  Yippeee!!!!  I had been reluctant to bother with my new Kindle but now that I can borrow library books I most certainly will use it.  It’s the greatest thing since getting to borrow hard copy books from the library FOR FREE!!!!.  Did I mention that just about everything you get from your library is FREE!!!!   I have said many times before that after family and friends, what I miss most when we travel is access to a Public Library where I can borrow books!  Even when we travel I can use my library card to access online library databases.  But now I can read books online too.  I could have done so in the past but I would have had to read them on my computer and I didn’t want to do that.  But now I can read them on my Kindle.  Yippee!!!  Alan and Cid helped me and I’m all set. 

I made the rounds and visited Diana, My library director and many other folks who I’d worked with for many years.  I hope to make one more visit before we leave for Cyprus.  And when we return next year I can visit them all in the brand new South County Library that is under construction. 

Alan in the blue shirt, Cid at the desk helping some patrons….in a very cramped library building. 

The Reference and everything else that has no other place office….Sarah is the Young Adult Librarian.  Penny, the PR person and JoAnne, the “many titled” person also seem to have desks here.  A new library is definitely needed.

Here are some views of the new building. 

Front                                                                                       Back

Upstairs.

Downstairs will be a coffee shop and a Friends of the Library shop and lots of other things but I especially will enjoy coffee and the Friends used books shop!   And, of course, seeing all my old pals every visit.  Below is a link to the library site if you want to see photos and plans of the new library

http://www.co.roanoke.va.us/index.aspx?nid=1018