Friday, January 15/2010

Stop at MTN, the mobile phone place to buy a €10 top up card. Referred by person A to person B and then back again. Much shuffling about, rifling through desk drawers, etc. Small red metal box containing cards opened with key, then abandoned for search of back room. return to re-examine contents of red box. Finally I receive a card - which turns out to be a €20 top up. I point out the error. Don't worry about it, he says.

Maggi texts at noon to say they're driving up to Pyla, the mixed Greek and Turkish village just south of the border to have an Efes (Turkish beer) - would we like to come? So out along the dhekelia Road and north, then inland, to Pyla. On a whim, Maggi suggests we leave the car at the border and walk over to the Turkish village on the other side. There we stop on the main street and share two Efes, as men help us find chairs at the little plastic outdoor table. The sun makes a weak appearance, so it's just warm enough. Maggi buys six Efes to take back and J has a brief chat with a man selling sacks of potatoes by a huge fragrant rose bush. Does he think things will be better now with the Greeks? He does, but doesn't have the vocabulary to elaborate. At the border M compliments the young Turkish officer on his aftershave, to his embarrassment, and we tease her about having discovered a technique for bringing things through customs.