Today we’re on the Cyprus Island, which is actually its own strange little country. The north is occupied by Turks, the South by Greeks and it has an odd British influence. The cars drive on the wrong side of the road, the steering wheels are on the wrong side, and the prices are listed in British Pounds, even though they use the Euro. The official languages are Turkish and Greek, but a lot of the signs are in English. It’s beautiful out but not hot. We walked along the water today and loved hearing the waves crash and smelling the sea. It reminded me (if I ignored the palm trees) of walking along the beach at home because of the cold breeze coming off the water.
Here and in Olympia, Athens and Rhodes there seems to be a huge stray animal problem. I’m never found cats to be gross before, but they’re everywhere. Roaming the streets, mangy, skittering about like rats. There are thousands of dogs and cats in need of homes, food, vets and love, but I can’t even imagine where you’d start. (obviously with a sterilization program of some sort…but it’s SO out of control.)
Aside from the animals, we’re really enjoying Greece and Turkey. The food is to die for and the history here is truly unbelievable. We were wishing we were traveling with a history professor. I should have paid more attention in school. But lots of the stuff we’ve seen is from hundreds of years B.C. And what continues to amaze me is that people are STILL living in these places. Talk about having your roots somewhere.
I’d say the most interesting thing we’ve seen (history buffs and academics, close your eyes. This isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy and appreciate the acropolis and Olympia…) was the market in Izmir, Turkey. We went to this huge street market (probably covering at least a square mile) where locals were doing their daily shopping. Clothes, food, crafts, leather, bulk spices and nuts and even household cleaning products filled the booths lining the streets. The sales people were extremely pushy with tourists and we didn’t take a single picture because we didn’t want to slow down long enough. And when I tried to take a picture at the metro station of a man selling pistachios, I was shooed away and yelled at.
Anyway, my time is up at the internet cafe… more soon!
