Med Mooring

I was looking for the spelling of "passerelle" and came across the following where I found my answer.

“Is there any special mooring hardware I should be using? And how do I get off

the damn boat!? “

www.svsarah.com/Whoosh/WhooshCruiseMedMoor.htm

Answer here in Karpaz Gate Marina; a passerelle which is French for footbridge or gangway or, in our case a plank borrowed from the boat across the dock. They had a new spiffy one so gave us their old one. We’d been tied alongside the dock in August so hadn’t needed a passerelle. I’ve gotten used to it, but if it had been a longer plank, I’d have hated it.

Our weight lowers it to the dock so we don’t have to step down at the end but this way it doesn’t bang about when the boat moves.

Our neighbor’s spiffy new passerelle with wheels to roll with the boat’s movement when it rests on the dock so it doesn’t bang. Ours is held off the dock by our gate which we lowered to allow us to get on and off from the swim platform on the stern.

No rail and too long; I would hate to have to deal with this version on a catamaran down the dock.

Another passerelle with some barely visible robe lines to hold onto while getting on or off.

Our new parking space.

An anchor is dropped from the bow and then you back up to the dock and tie up so you don’t swing and more boats can be crammed into the marina. We have more space than many on our right and the boat on our left is for sale and empty.

Yogurt

Lots of options for yogurt though not like in Marmaris where I bought it from the wonderful cheese guys. There is a cheese factory in town and we need to explore that somehow and find the names of the really local products. I just guess most of the time. At a small shop in Yeni Erenkoy I asked for the thickest and was told to buy this Akova because it was the thickest but that  it was more expensive than the others. It was 6 TL about $3.20 for 750 grams (Yogurt: 1 cup = 245 grams so a little over 3 cups of yogurt.)  It is a bit cheaper than the Chobani yogurt I bought at home though not by much. But this yogurt came in a non-returnable ceramic pot.

I asked if the pot was returnable because what would you do with a zillion ceramic pots? But the date of production and the sell by date, a space of about 4 days was stamped on the bottom in blue ink and that’s the reason the shop owner told me was why it’s not recyclable.   I bought one but won’t do it again because one souvenir ceramic yogurt pot is enough. I could make my own if I could find powdered milk but no market so far has had it. Yogurt is very available and mostly cheap so it’s not a problem. I’ve already begun using the now empty pot for “stuff by my bed” though the top was tossed after I took the photo. It was just soft flimsy plastic. I would recycle but there’s not much, any really on North Cyprus.  I need to ask the folks at Deks what brand of yogurt and cheese they buy because theirs is really good.  Tomorrow, Thursday,  we’re going with Denise on another Deks walk.  We ate lunch there today, Wednesday and asked what the walk would be.  Denise wasn’t working, but Dibs told us that Denise would choose a walk "depending on whether Randal and Ruth came!"  How’s that for great new friends!

Shovel Riding

Construction worker transported in the shovel of the tractor at the marina.

I just barely caught this so it’s not great. Lots of tree planting at the marina now as we go into the rainy growing season. The bucket was lowered to the ground and the worker stepped out. I didn’t like elephant riding so I don’t think I’d like shovel riding.

A Visit to the Greek South Cyprus, The Republic of Cyprus.

Bill and Judy had their rental car available Tuesday so asked if we wanted to take a drive to South Cyprus just to see the procedure and do some grocery shopping. We went off but found the prices in the south higher so only bought a few things we don’t often see, like salami and chorizo. We bought it at a German supermarket, Lidl which is a discount food store chain. Our friend Helen emailed that she thought salami was Italian and I emailed that I thought it was Jewish because my father ate it. And I though chorizo was Portuguese because we ate it in New Bedford, but Judy ate it in Texas and though it was Mexican. You can get Kosher beef salami but the salami we bought in Lidl is pork. Our frig now smells like salami. In Israel we’ll get “Jewish” salami but my guess is it will smell just like this stuff.

Border Crossing

Photos weren’t allowed as we drove across the Green Line that divides Nicosia the capital of Cyprus but I snuck a few.

No armed guards or anything, just eventually a booth where you get your piece of paper stamped by the Turkish Cypriot who don’t stamp passports which would make future entry into Greece impossible. You have to get out of the car to go to the booth which Judy and I did while Bill and Randal waited in the car. Then you drive a little further and wave at the Greek booth without getting out of the car. Returning from the south you do it in reverse; wave at the Greek booth and stop for a re-entry stamp at the Turkish booth. We asked for a new 90 day stamp and it was no problem.

A UN Building.

It looked pretty abandoned. Perhaps the UN doesn’t patrol the Nicosia crossing. We were told they deliver food to Greek Cypriots in north Cyprus because they were given refugee status.

The Mall

Our first stop was a motorcycle shop on the way to the Mall: we’re always looking to see if we can find a larger motorbike that would be the perfect size and shape, but no luck this time. Then we went to The Mall to go to Carrefour to do some food shopping. We stopped at the food court for lunch and everything seemed expensive at first. Bill got a McDonald’s burger, fries and a drink for 5.20 Euros about $7. Randal and I got salads and they were about the same price for a large salad in a “taco” bowl. The day before Randal and I had each eaten a filling grilled chicken sandwiches in pita bread for 6TL , about $3.20 in a small restaurant in Yeni Erenkoy, the village just down the road from the marina. The food court was filled with high school age kids eating so they could afford the prices. Maybe we’re just still used to Southeast Asia and have no clue even after being back in the US for 3 months.

The Mall decorated for Christmas and some Euro notes.

The southern part of Cyprus, the officially recognized part of Cyprus in Greek Orthodox.

Since everything seemed to be more expensive in South Cyprus we just bought a few things I hadn’t found easily in the North, like whole wheat flour, some chicken broth in cans, and I needed baking soda. I tried to find milk powder and some of the “3 in 1” instant coffee packets Randal drinks. I asked one of the Greek store clerks but she spoke no English and I, of course, no Greek. But she took my hand and led me down two isles to another clerk who spoke some English. “No” was all the English she needed because they didn’t have that or the milk powder a Greek woman shopper helped me ask about. The small, older clerk who had taken my hand had been so sweet and holding hands as we walked such a different experience than I would have had at home. She was small and a bit plump and just perfect. The younger clerks had no desire to make any type of contact, physical or just human. They wanted to just impart information and that’s it. And that’s really enough but just so different from the first sweet woman who had tried to help me.

We shopped at Carrefour and Lidl and then a new supermarket in the north which had almost as many choices and lower prices. In the cheese isle they had too many choices. The men working in the cheese isle only spoke Turkish and just sort of gave up on me so I just picked what I hoped was a less salty white cheese. But in the fruit juice isle, the young clerk wanted to be helpful. I told him I wanted juice without sugar like the Diet Cranberry from Ocean Spray. I didn’t mention Ocean Spray to him, just diet juice and he found one for me. ( At least it has no sugar added so has half the calories of sugared juice. I have bought Ocean Spray cran/raspberry juice here, just not the really low calorie kind we have at home.) Then I told him about my cheese quest and he walked back to the cheese isle with me and helped me find a low salt white cheese. It is also low fat which certainly can’t hurt. I was also looking for a new shower curtain. The clerk didn’t speak English so didn’t know what I meant by shower curtain until I mimed a curtain and then shower which looked silly but she understood what I meant and showed me where they were. It was about $9 US, cheaper than the one in Carrefour which was 9 Euro.  I have no idea how much they cost back home but they were a lot cheaper in Malaysia! I should have bought a dozen.

Sunset

We got back to the marina about 4pm just in time to watch the sun begin to set. It really was these shades of red and the dirt mounds from the construction site and the palm tree made me think of the pyramids of Egypt which hopefully we’ll see when we have the boat in Israel.