To Cyprus, Avec Nostalgie

Muy unfortunately I'm not able to share good news about my Next Step at this juncture. İşte, things go. Instead, enjoy some pics 'o Cyprus! The Mediterranean island nation has sort of come crashing into the international spotlight in the last few months (sorry 'bout all dat cash, Greeks!) but I had my moment with Cyprus just about exactly a year ago. Four of us took advantage of a four-day weekend (thanks to the Turkish Children's Day holiday!) to jet on over to our neighbor to the south (the one that's not Syria. Or Iraq.). We bussed-->taxied-->flew ourselves from Antep to Adana to Ercan airport in Lefkoşa. A once in a lifetime opportunity it turns out because only flights from Turkey fly into Ercan. The rest of the world doesn't recognize the airport (which resides in Northern Cyprus...or, you know, areas under Turkish occupation) as an official point of entry into the country. Fun fact.

Proof of Northern Cyprus...and that it bears uncanny semblance to southeastern Turkey.

From there my buds and I bussed into the capital, Nicosia, where we walked across the border into The Republic of Cyprus (also known as Greek Cyprus, but that's not very offish since they speak Greek but are most definitely Cypriot). More fun facts, Nicosia is the last divided capital in the world. See:

Evidence of division.

"One Cyprus--No Bullshit"

And then we rented a car and cruised the coastline of the Republic (turns out ya can't take a rental across borders--even highly contested ones). And had the most fun, fated trip in [a European] paradise.

We conveniently got to double-revel in the splendor of Cyprus in proper celebration of this lovely lady's birthday!

And also a little bit in celebration of the bad-for-you food that graces European soil. (i.e. pork products, duty free whiskey, TACO BELL, and questionable bacon flavored things that were available with such frequency that you can't help but conjure up a long history of expats living in primarily Muslim countries making regular Cyprus pilgrimages to get their fixes.)

And now to close, some pretty, tryin' a be artsy shots of Cyprus streets that happened when I commandeered a friend's camera. 

And a shot of me with a lace-making lady who looks a lot like Woody Allen.

Too. Damn. Much.