Letters from Cyprus: A visit from downunder

The two Sarah's

This afternoon we said farewell to Ross' brother Bruce, his wife Jenny and their children Sarah, Anna and Ben. They've been here for the last 10 days, and made the long trek from Australia just to visit Cyprus. It's been lovely to spend time together with family, and especially nice for the kids to reconnect. Lots of time relaxing together, studying the intricacies of curling and ski jumping on eurosport, and also visiting different parts of the island. Bruce, Jenny and family also managed a short side trip to Cairo, visiting the pyramids and avoiding the current civil unrest in the city! They're now on their way back to Australia via Abu Dhabi.

Last Saturday we spent the morning out in the UN buffer zone where Angus plays soccer each week. This included a visit to the old Nicosia international airport, which is a haunting in it's emptiness and serves as a reminder of the frozen conflict in Cyprus since 1974. Ben was particularly intrepid and managed to get to the controls of an old abandoned Trident aircraft that still sits on the tarmac. Later that day we crossed the border and travelled to Kyrenia. Lunch by the harbour and then a visit to the old fortress. It's well set up and has a very realistic torture chamber, complete with lifelike figures in various states of duress. Not sure if the kids would go for this, but they loved it.

Ben dreaming of flight.......!

We also spent time in the old town of Nicosia (on both the Greek and Turkish side), and the kids in particular enjoyed checking out the shops and Christmas lights. Interestingly at one of the main crossing points between the Greek and Turkish sides, the UN buffer zone is currently the site of one of the 'occupy' protests that have occurred in other cities around the world. Perhaps a future blog on this one.

Christmas is almost upon us, and in true Greek style Nicosia is serving up a range of faux Christmas and snow nativity scenes on many street corners. Lights around the city are a big hit for the kids, and the park beside our house has been set up as a Christmas fair for the last few weekends, complete with fake snow, donkey rides, and a large Christmas tree which lights up at night. The fact that the tree is surrounded by large rings of barbed wire at the base somewhat dampens the effect of a warm Christmas spirit! So our weekends and weekdays are now full of Christmas carols in Greek and church bells every morning. The festive season Greek style!