A free breakfast is a great thing. Honestly. Every hotel should do it. It is a brilliant idea! I must say, this whole being in a hotel thing has it's perks. New towels everyday. Instant coffee in your room (yuuum....) and this great free breakfast. Of course, in order to spare my budget which perished days ago, I booked our room as a
single instead of a double (over 100 euros difference!). Mom therefore is locked away upstairs while I
caaaas-u-ally walk into the dining room, smiling, fill my plate, and slip back up the stairway to feed my illegal roommate who has been busy hiding from the maids. Still, breakfast is delicious.
We tiptoed out the stairwell and met a tour guide a few twisting streets away. Nicosia has several free tours throughout the week as well as numerous free museums, memorials and cultural centers. As I said yesterday, they are working hard to revitalize what they can of their split city and each building they renovate seems to be turned into another monument.
It was a
three hour tour (insert Gilligan musical ditty here) and let me one again reiterate that it is hot here. Hot! We were promised a coffee break at some point but construction hindered the plan and it was three continuous hours in the sun for these two ladies! We were joined by two Russian couples who I am
hoping were on their honeymoon (together?!) because if the one pair touch each other that much normally... good lord. I wanted to smack the gushy duo on behalf of myself and all other anti-PDA-ers or
people in general who want to puke when a couple put their heads together whenever they stand still as if they were two swans posing for some trite postcard, but I was too hot to want to touch either of them. My hand might have literally gotten stuck to their skin. Seriously. We were all sticky to say the least.
The tour took us all over the Greek side of the city. Lydras street, which bustles with shoppers ambling in and out of contemporary stores and restaurants, to the ancient churches and mosques left over from the 3rd and 4th centuries and then, of course since it runs the length of the city, along the Green Line. It is surreal to see the Starbucks, a armed UN soldier and barbed wire surrounding dilapidated buildings all in the same view.
Life around here pretty similar to that of an American city. The old city contains the history and small shopping and cultural districts while the outer portion has the high-rises, industry and business centers. Most of the time you wouldn't even know the Green Line was there, which I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse.
The Line has been around for so long that everyone is relatively unbothered by it as they go about their daily routine; however, it is a very sore subject with all residences as one can imagine. Historic churches that once were a major players in the Greek Orthodox Church have now been turned into mosques, sporting Turkish flags and beckoning worshipers with the call to prayer, literally sitting only
meters from the Greek side of the Line. The most lively part of the city was literally extinguished during the 1974 Turkish Invasion and while they have done a valiant job at recently reviving the area, there is still a large scar running through the city, abruptly stopping each perpendicular street and devaluing the surrounding real estate.
As an architecture students we study city planning as well as architectural history. We look at how to resuscitate failing parts of a city, discuss what makes a successful and pleasant urban street, and study the relationship between traffic patterns, pedestrian movement and the needs of commerce. However, in a situation like this, the only
sustaining resolution is going to be politically based. The UN and other organizations can renovate buildings and preserve historic sites and will most likely be able to bring commercial business back to the city center, but until diplomatic compromises are made, no matter the monetary contributions, the research, the reconstruction, there will be a indignant blemish stopping the city from becoming what it could have been. It's a heavy thing to realize and and even harder thing to see.
We finished the tour and found a cafe for some
much needed water. Electricity goes out here from 2-4 every day so the goal is to find someplace in the shade to survive the time without lights, AC or internet. We made it through the afternoon, took a shower and headed back out to find some great Cypriot food. We found a place that serves
meze, an assortment of small plates, each featuring a traditional dish. We were brought about seven plates to start with. Then came the second round of another seven plates. Then the third. We were stuffed. Then the
fourth!? Are you kidding? (We pushed most of the food from these plates underneath the others we had finished or gave it to the cats that were swarming under our table.) We were about to puke when they brought out the dessert: delicious doughnuts drenched in honey, followed by watermelon. We were lucky to find room to fit those in (I think the extra room can still be seen around our waist lines. Seems to be where we are storing most food these days...).
Back to the hotel. Back into the shower. Back into bed.
We are exploring the Turkish side of the line tomorrow. I wonder if I'll be able to be diplomatic in my diagraming.
