Slingshot to Cyprus

Hello all,
Tas been a few since my last post for I have been away on wee bit of a trip. Rana's cousin lives on a little island off of the south coast of Turkey so we felt compelled to go visit her. Also I needed to leave the country for a while (a misunderstanding between a rural goat farmer and myself) so we thought it was a good place to lie low.

Cyprus is an island chopped in half by conflict. The Northern half is Turkish and the lower half Greek. It is beyond the scope of this Joof to explain why as many important historians have been unsuccessful therein. The Ercan airport in North Cyprus doesn't exist for political reasons so we did NOT fly there on the 13th of August, according to Greece at least.

Rana's cousin Nihan and her boyfriend Sarang really made us feel at home in Magusa, a small town on the coast where they lived. We spent the first day sitting on various beaches and swimming in warm Crystal-Pepsi-clear water. The Mediterranean has never been more inviting and salty! Then we finished off the night with Iranian style (Sarang is Iranian) meatballs and salad. Ton't get much better than that!

On the second day we headed up to the Byzantine fortress that surrounded Magusa. It was quite well preserved. After that we took a trip to the far eastern side of the island to sit on another beach. It’s the closest I've ever been to Syria, so I thought I'd wave to the Syrians. The "Golden Beach" is a vacationing hot spot for Marine Biologists from all over the world. They come to study turtles. Dinner and a show, I thought. So we hopped in the waves letting the salty water keep us afloat, all the time scanning for signs of tiny turtles swim buddies. No such luck so we had to entertain ourselves. We ate some homemade sandwiches and watched the sun set and the moon come up on the water simultaneously. Fanfreakingtastic.

On the third day we decided to make pancakes and go to the beach in the logical order. After getting our fill of swimming again, we headed to the ancient ruins of Salamis. There we discovered the temple of Zeus, overrun by lizards not Gods. Also there was a fantastic amphitheater still in operation. Our host said that a few months prior they’d seen Pink Martini perform there. The ruins were vast and full of statues and mosaics. I was careful not to get to friendly with the statues like Pygmalion, I already have a beautiful lady!

Well that's it for today. I had to split the trip into two posts because the final day was so amazing. See you tomorrow.