Northern Cyprus: Occupied

The northern part of Cyprus is occupied by Turkey. There's been a lot of fighting between Turkey and Greece over this island in the past (see my pictures post #1). In 1974 the UN got involved and the island was divided in 2. Until recently, nobody was allowed to cross the UN "buffer zone" - but now you can if you have a passport. The northern part is much poorer than the Greek part. I FINALLY walked over the border to visit by myself (for fun. trust me... I need some time by myself occasianlly)! Here's about that:

I had lunch at a cafe. The food was good. basically, I walked up to the guy at a cafe that looked good and said, "hi." He said "hi" back. I told him I was hungry and he started to reach for a menu - but quickly realized I wouldn't be able to read it anyway. So he pointed behind him at a dish he just made for himself and I said, "yeah, that looks great!" So that's what he made me. I had no idea how much it would cost or anything. He told me to have a seat.

I sat across from a random man. We ate together. He had some type of Shwarma (which is kind of like a borrito - typical Middle Eastern food). He didn't speak a word of English, so we didn't talk, but occasionally we looked at each other - and he gave me one of his hot peppers.

The lunch came and it was SO good! I had a can of Pepsi, a salad, some rice (with noodles mixed in), some french fries, and a bunch of little mini burgers (about 6, the same circumfrance as the top of a pop can). They were good, and it came with a large basket of bread. In the end - it only cost me 3 Cypriot pounds (which is $6 USD)! What a great deal!

Then I began walking around, past some shops in Nicosia (the Turkish occupied side, of course). I walked through some local/rural areas where people live. It's basically like apartments, and a lot of the doors were open. When I looked inside, the first thing I usually saw was a bed, and sometimes a dinner table. A lot of kids were playing outside and some older people were sitting on the front stoops.

At one point, I walked past a shop and met a dog. He was very nice and cute, but also very skinny. I REALLY wanted to buy him some food, but I didn't. And there was a white (albino) bunny, too. A real one. And the dog and the bunny were friends. I'm not joking... I think they might've been owned by the store nearby. I don't know - but I got pictures to prove it. :)

Okay, now that you believe me about the dog and the bunny... here are some other random pictures of northern Cyprus. (below)

The wall in the picture just below is an example of what the wall looks like all around Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. It's called "the walled city".