Castles on mountains, snow, Turks and Greeks

It is quite hard to maintain this blog. One has to be disciplined and write often and unfortunately discipline is not onee of my best characteristics. Last weekend we went to buffavento on the Saturday. It is a very old castle situated on the highest point in North Cyprus - about 20 and a half mettres lower than Table mountain. The children, especially Danny, were marvellous with the climb. The path winds up at a merciful angle and with all the stops along the way and the children's antics we made it up and down in about three hours. We had to prevent them from starting rock falls, because children find a dark pleasure in rolling boulders off the mountain side. Fortunately the mountain is still there and other visotors are slowly recovering in a local hospital. Just kidding. The views from the buttresses are breathtaking - you will have to take my word for that for now because off the camera that is still out of commission. I found out today that they can fix it for less than a new camera would cost and we hope to have it by the weekend. chris will appreciate that the guy in the camera shop could only speak Turkish and German, so, what could I do? I had to pretend to be able to speak German. It seems to have worked, ja? We wwill definitely go to Buffavento again and will post pictures on the blog then. Daniel says he loves ruins and castles and asks us everyday if we could stay here forever. "We'll have to see my boy..." He seems to have had a tremendous growth spurt in the past two months. He loves to present complex ideas to us in high-brow English. It is quite cute. Today he decided that he wants to be different from other children by becoming an adult quicker than them. Bid jou dit aan! I don't think we need to be too concerned because in the space of 1 hour he does a tremendous amount of things that leave us in no doubt that he is a five-year old boy.

Last Sunday we decided to attempt the dreaded border crossing. We heard that there was still snow on the Troodos mountains in the South. (For those of you who still don't know, the South is Greek and is, according to the Turks, a different country to the North. According to the Greeks it is the same country with an invaded North. If you are more interested, I can at some later stage provide you with an extract of my version of Cypriot History 101.) The highest point there is a peak called Mount Olympus, about twice as high as Table Mountain. No it is not the Mount Olympus, that is in Greece. We got through the border without ceremony. I believe that the Greeks are not all that happy if people like us enter illegally, according to them, through the North, but they were happy that we weren't permanent residents and they didn't know that we were working here. We learnt that it would be best if, once I get my work permit, I request that they do not put it in my passport, but on separate piece of paper. There are still many places we want to visit in the South.

The road to the mountain is beautiful. The children were very excited, as they should be. When we got to the village of Troodos, there was snow everywhere. Not fresh snow, but good enough to build snowmen. Being ignorant Africans, we were totally under-dressed for this adventure and soon all of us were approaching a state of hypo-thermia and frostbyte. We made the most of it, but will certaainly be better prepared when we do such a thing again. For Danny it was absolutely unforgettable. Unfortunately no photos except on my phone, so, if I can figure out a way to transfer the images to my computer. Standing on top of the mountain amidst countless snowmen, we could see the mediterranian on the North and on the South. It made us realize that this is a small place. I hope they sort out their sh*t soon, but it seems that this is not very likely. Living in the North, I am developing sympathy for the Turkish Cypriot case, but I know it is rather complex and that it comes for many centuries. Religion plays an important part in the conflict and perhaps some day I will write about it. On our way back we got lost on the Greek side of Lefkosia. It is easier to drive away from a border post than to find it again in a strange city. The best thing that can happen to a tourist is to get lost. We had a nice sight seeing trip. The South looks decidedly more prosperous. Franchises like MacDonalds and Kentucky pop up amongst the buildings - something one doesn't see in the North. There are no statues of the stern and upright Attaturk which one finds on every street corner in the North. There are howeve a statue or two of Archbishop Makarios, pointing an outstretched arm to the North.

The South is also VERY expensive. For some reason the Cypriot pound is worth just over R 17 - stronger than the British pound. Therefore a kleftiko costing a mere 6 Cypriot pound costs a small fortune in Rands. Apart from motor insurance, we didn't spend money in the South.

For now, I'm signing off, still a few posts behind, but forever hoping to catch up. More pictures that were taken before the camera broke will follow - its just that it tales quite long to upload it on to the blog. Who will be our first visitors from SA? 1000 000 points for those who beat the others to the line!