Our lovely Holiday - Cyprus Part one

Sunrise from our balcony

 Hi,
We had a wonderful holiday in Protaras in Cyprus,  not only was it the first holiday in many years that I was not in pain,   but the weather was fantastic as well.  While we were there we went on a trip to Nicosia and the Troodos Mountains which this post is going to show you.  The island of Cyprus is illegally divided and was invade by Turkey back in 1974,  it has been illegally occupied ever since.

 This is the check point in Nicosia,    Nicosia is the only capital city in the world to be divided.

These pictures of Nicosia was taken from Debenhams who have an 11 story departmental store in Nicosia,  I took these from the cafe on the 5th floor,   you might just see the window frames or a shadow as I took them through the windows.
This shows you the flag that Turkey have marked on the mountains and this is the turkey side of Nicosia





 Close up of the flag.

Another picture of the Turkish side








These pictures are the Cyprus side of Nicosia, a modern city, can you see the difference.   Sorry the window frame got in the way.

This is the waterfall at Kakopetria, we stopped in this village for a short while and I only had time to take the waterfall.

Lunch was in the Troodos Mountains, a lovely hotel with a buffet lunch,  these are pictures of the view from the restaurant.

The white golf ball is the British listening post.  We still have three bases on the Island.





On this trip the guide told us that the weather was cooling down,  cooling down the next day was hotter and then it just got hotter every day until we were in a mini heatwave of over 40+c
A few facts about Cyprus,  they drive on the same side as the UK,
They have pedestrian crossings and the traffic do stop to let you cross,  unlike most of Europe.
Cyprus is part of the EU and they have the Euro,
Turkey would like to join the EU,  but they are illegally occupying Cyprus and under EU rules if a country occupies a EU country then they cannot join the EU, Turkey have a choice leave Cyprus and join the EU, or stay in Cyprus.
At present the UN peace keeping duties are done by the British and the Argentines,  this is the longest UN peace duty ever.
Now Cypriots may go over the to the North but they have to show their passports as if they are going to another country.

The guild we had told us about another trip she did where this woman was making notes, so pleased that someone was taking so much interest, she asked if she was making notes,   yes replied the woman.  As the trip continued she continued to make notes so the guild asked her if she might see what she had written,  upon looking at the notes it read ABC, ABC  the guild asked if this was some sort of code, No replied the woman,  then she asked what it meant,  She replied Another Bloody Church,  Another Bloody church.  Cyprus is full of churches.

On Cyprus the churches have what they call their name day,  ie St George and on that day they church has a celebration and anyone who is called George also gets presents from family and friends,  it is like having two birthdays a year.

When we left the last village we passed the cemetery and outside the cemetery their was a sign that read.

                                      "Please drive slowly, we can wait"

This is the first part I have another post to put which I will post in a few days.  I hope you enjoy reading about our holiday,

                                     Hugs
                                   Margaret