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| Statue of Archbishop Makarios III,leader during 1974 crisis, Nicosia, Cyprus |
As my foot touched down on the dock at Limassol, Cyprus, I had hit the long sought-after 100th destination of my personal travel history. Until I reached the age of 28, I had been in just two destinations, the US and Canada. From age 28 until now, I have finally checked off 98 more. This doesn’t mean that I have been in 100 separate countries because the destinations are ones that represent more diverse and hard to reach places that may be under the same flag. For example, the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, and Hawaii count as three destinations. Canada and Prince Edward Island count as two. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland count as four. Even with destinations like those, reaching 100 destinations represent years of travel – and mine came today. Barb is only slightly behind me because I have been in Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary as well as San Marino (ten days ago), and she has been in Liechtenstein that has still eluded me.
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean
(behind Sicily and Sardinia, both of which we visited on this cruise) and is
directly south of Turkey but has a significantly larger Greek population than
Turkish. That has made Cyprus a source of controversy between the larger
Greek population and the geographically closer Turkish nation. Cyprus has
a population of well over 800,000 today and it has fallen under the foreign
rule of quite a few other more powerful nations over the years, more recently
the Ottoman Empire and Britain (after World War I). It was during the
time Cyprus was British that Cyprus adopted the same driving pattern as the
British, namely driving on the left which it continues today despite the fact
that it gained its independence in 1960.
Some may remember that in 1974, Turkey attacked Cyprus and
tried to establish all of Cyprus under Turkish control, but the majority
Greeks, under the guidance of the revered Archbishop Makarios resisted and
today the island is divided between Greece with a larger portion of the
country, and Turkey. It is fully independent today and is a member of the
European Union. More on that later. My tour today was called
Nicosia Divided Capital and Khirokita Archaeological Site. We set
out from our port in Limassol, the second largest city behind the capital of
Nicosia under bright sunny skies. Our guide informed us that Cyprus has
about 340 days of sunshine and today was no exception. Forecast was for
about 69 degrees but it was more like 79 actually which made it almost hot for
those of us who have been experiencing temps of upper 50s and 60s through most
of Europe. Its coolest and wettest months are January and February with
hottest ones being July and August. Just like Chicago! Except
Chicago doesn’t boast 340 days of sun. Not by a long shot. Because
there is so much sun with less rain, Cyprus was quite brown with very few green
lawns. The green comes from the many olive and carob trees on the
island.
As we left Limassol, we turned on to a modern busy four lane
highway which connects to Nicosia. Not too far from Limassol, we turned
off and behind a highway gas station and restaurant, we stopped at a Neolithic
archaeological site of Khirokitia. It is estimated that this UNESCO World
Heritage site dates back 7000 BC, much earlier even than the site I saw in
Sardinia which dated “only” to 1500 BC. We saw a recreated village as it
may have looked at the time, but also saw the ruins that had been uncovered
during archaeological digs in the last century. It is considered to be
the best preserved in the Eastern Mediterranean. We climbed the hill a
short distance and our guide told us that we would find the buildings would
look much the same if we climbed higher. I went a bit higher but
turned since I had done quite a few excursions which required climbing mountain
or hillsides.
We returned to the bus and drove directly to Nicosia, a city
I remembered well back in the 1970s for the intense fighting between Greek and
Turkish Cypriots over the control of this nation. Our first stop in
Nicosia was to see the St. John’s Cathedral, built starting in 1662.
Nearby we passed a museum honoring Archbishop Makarios, inspirational leader
for the Greek Cypriots in the 1970s much as Nelson Mandela was for South
Africa. Inside the Greek Orthodox cathedral, our guide explained some of
the significant frescoes icons and the historic importance of the church. From there it was a short bus ride
through the Pafos Gate and the Venetian Walls around the Old City of
Nicosia – a testament to Nicosia’s past.
In the Old City, we again got off the bus and were led past
the many modern shops and souvenir stands and were given the opportunity to
either browse the shops or sit down for a bite to eat, or to continue down a
street to the infamous Green Line checkpoint. To see this was my primary
objective in selecting this excursion. Nicosia is the last divided city
in the world, now that Berlin is no longer divided. We were to stay on
the Greek side of the not so green “Green Line.” The guide explained that
it’s just a name and just a checkpoint, and has nothing to do with the color
green. The guide emphasized that we must not take pictures beyond a
certain point and that anyone taking pictures might have cameras confiscated
and not returned. There is the Greek side where we were, a United Nations
demilitarized zone similar to what exists between the Koreas, and the Turkish
side representing the border of Turkish Cyprus in the smaller, eastern part of
the island. We saw a rather inconspicuous sign above one of the
buildings, which, by the way is along a busy pedestrian shopping street,
which read, “Nicosia (written in Greek)” and underneath were the words, “The
Last Divided Capital” written in English, French, and German. We saw the
checkpoint but there was no barrier to walk to beyond the checkpoint, but there
was a booth and people walking back into Greek Cyprus were showing
passports. Someone asked guards if we could go beyond their checkpoint
and they were told it was just fine, so Alice and I kept going a few
steps. Others asked our guide who was a few steps behind and she
suggested it was not a wise idea and that we could go if the guards said
it was OK but she couldn’t do anything for them if the guards demanded
passports coming back. She had told us that sometimes people were held in
confinement if they didn’t produce passports, and since we didn’t have
passports with us, everyone decided it was best to back up and not go any
farther. Luckily the guards hadn’t changed their minds and we were
allowed to go back the few steps onto the Greek side. Alice and I can say
however we got perhaps six steps into the United Nations “no man’s land”.
At that point, we wandered back through a couple
shops. Alice picked up a European coke – she finds a difference
between US and European coke and likes the European ones better. I guess
I haven’t noticed a significant difference. We boarded the bus and
returned to Limassol.
Normally, because of limited time to get the blogs completed
in a timely fashion while still fresh in my mind, I limit the blog primarily to
what was done off the ship. However at
some point we have wanted to comment the Location Guide on the Prinsendam. For the serious Holland America cruisers,
it’s the same position as the Port Lecturer or Travel Guide. This cruise has had the good fortune to have
Brett Schiller who is relatively new to HAL.
He has worked for Holland America for about 2½ years and superlative
words to describe him seem almost trite.
We had invited him to join us for dinner earlier in the cruise and again
this evening.
He speaks to a nearly packed Showroom at Sea with his talks
about the history of the ports we visit and gives advice as to what to do in
the port and where we dock and what’s near the dock. When we first boarded the ship, I listened to
his talk and my reaction was that this man is really, really good. He uses excellent and current visuals and
talks about the history of the area. He
interjects humor and speaks with such ease that one feels he is carrying on a
conversation. I am totally amazed at how
he can talk about unusual place names and ancient monarchs, wars, events with
such ease. As the cruise has continued,
his audiences have grown and he often has more listening to his talks than some
of the evening entertainers.
In one lecture he mentioned he grew up in New York but
didn’t say any more than that. My
thought was that he talks more like I do than someone from the New York City
area. One day when he was talking about
visiting Syracusa, Italy, he commented on having lived in Syracuse, New
York! That really got my interest, so I
asked him whether he lived in Syracuse or a suburb and he indicated that he had
grown up in Camillus but went to college in Virginia.
We’ve enjoyed having him join us for dinner twice and have
found the conversations very pleasant.
He is a great addition to Holland America. I have heard so many people comment on how
exceptional he is; in fact I told him this evening that I overheard one lady
say after his talk the other day that Holland America should double his
salary! (He thought that would be a
great idea!) We would certainly enjoy
doing other cruises with him on board.
Now we are preparing for our two ports in nearby
Israel. For obvious reasons, disembarking in Israel will involve a much
more intense scrutiny by Israeli officials – before getting off tomorrow,
we have to have our passports and present them in person. We are doing
two very long excursions tomorrow and the next day, first in the area around
Jerusalem and the next day, farther north in the region around Nazareth.
They will be two extremely busy days as the Grand Voyage part of our cruise
dwindle. Tomorrow it will be my destination
101. (Sounds like a college course!)
CT
.
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