The Rescue

Trying on hats.
see all photos »

We've come back full circle to the Classic Hotel in Nicosia.  We were feeling a little low to be back to hotel life and Jimmy had to work a long day on Sunday to boot.  That meant that Chloe had to shift for ourselves all day with most interesting sites closed.  We strollered, checked out a bit of a church service, went to a museum, and were goofing in front of a tourist shop playing with hats and back scratchers when who should jog up but Mustafa Bey!  "Meggy," he called.  "Bring the Chloe.  We go to barbecue at Sezgi's grandma!"  Hurray!

Riding Ben
see all photos »

How did he find us?  Well, he's Mustafa.  So off we go to get the car seat.  And then back we go to get passports.  I'm still not used to needing our passports to get from one side of the city to the other.  We pull up to an old house in a village about 20 km out of Nicosia.

who should jog up but Mustafa Bey

There were ten people there--everyone from Buyukanne (big mama, aka grandma) to daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins.  I couldn't keep the relations straight.  They sat me under the shade of a tree, and there was a 3 year old friend for Chloe.  I'd never witnessed first hand the work that goes into a Turkish meal.  The whole family cooked, ate, and cleaned together.  First on the grill was the veggies--tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant for the salads.  Then Mustafa gave his nephew a lesson on the best and traditional way to skewer meat for the kebab.  Meat and then chicken was roasted.  Three types of salads prepared, all in the hot sun and humid air.  Finally the table was set up in the shade of the driveway and a cool wind blew in some relief and rain clouds.  And we ate and ate some more.  After some relaxing on the porch, everyone pitched in a cleaned the rose garden.  When I walked in the house for a drink of water, the kitchen was already spotless and a mop was across the entrance to keep feet off the floor.

Chloe's big excitement was the sheep.  She got to meet one nose to nose and watch it eat a flower.  Then she met a shepard on a stroller ride.  She loved him because he had FIVE sheep and tickled her belly.  We had a great time, and had to pull the baby away after 5 hours of visiting.  The family liked Chloe's growing Turkish vocabulary:  merhaba (hello); hadi (hurry); gunaydin (good morning); yok (there is not); kedi (cat); karpuz (watermelon); and tesekkurler ( thank you).

This morning after a breakfast of cheese and bread and honey...she's really becoming a Med. baby...we went on a hunt for a playground horsey ride.  Mustafa introduced us to a book that Sezgi translated into English called a New Coat for Ben.  After we walked, walked, walked and nearly gave in to the heat, I went looking for a bathroom and found the entrance to a children's park that's hidden within the Municipal Gardens.  We spent a full hour riding Ben and playing and came back to the hotel to read the book two more times before the big traveler would finally take a nap.

Now for the packing and preparing to visit Aunt Nancy, Uncle Phil, Sam the dog, and 2 kittens in England.