Jet Lag Recovery

Art shopping after lunch
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Jim was off with the teachers first thing this morning. The little tour guide was a bit the worse for wear, so we stayed close to the hotel after a big breakfast. After unpacking, we took a short stroller to the Municipal Gardens that are right on the Green Line. This took us past bullet-riddled buildings that are ruins from the war in 1974. The Green Line marked the furthest point of advance of the Turkish Army. One building has a notice on it saying that it has been taken over by the UN and has a watch tower on the top of it. This sets a different tone over a walk to the park. Once there we found a fish pond full of lily pads and big water fountains. Chloe was too tired to even want out of the stroller for long, so we headed back to the hotel after a park bench snack. I too was exhausted. Strollering here is a full contact sport—lots of portaging over stairs and around construction. Very narrow sidewalks, but unlike Tucson, at least there are sidewalks.

Liberty Statue
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After a 3-hour nap, we felt much more up for another trip. We found lunch in a small café—Houllimi cheese sandwich with tomatoes and cucumbers. Chloe tried an olive, thinking it was a grape, made a sour face, and then put it in my mouth. She was much more positive about the fresh squeezed OJ. More strong Cypriot coffee for me.

Liberty has a bullet through the heart

This gave us the energy for a big afternoon of walking. Jim took us across the Green Line which is a 10 minute walk and 10 minutes of paperwork and passport stamps. It felt like home away from home, because suddenly I could read and understand bits of language. We just went long enough for Jim to make a telephone call to a colleague on the Turkish side—he couldn’t call from the Greek side! Then we crossed back over a joined in for part of a walking tour of Nicosia. The novelist and anthropologist Yiannis Papadakis led the tour and met us at the Liberty Statue, which he pointed out, had been shot during the war. Liberty has a hole through the heart, and another statue has one through the head.

We walked along the path of the Venetian walls. Nicosia is on a hillside and was built into a fortressed city with the thick ancient walls still very much intact. There are 5 gates and we went inside the Famagusta gate. It was a huge tunnel built wide enough for teams of horses to ride through. It was one of those placed that emanate history. You could feel the thousands of years of travelers who had passed through the gate. Even though we were in recovery mode, we still saw some good sites…or slept through them. Chloe was snoring in her stroller to save strength for a 3:00 am crib romp. Jet lag is still exacting its price.