Wednesday, February 27/2013

We are so spoiled here - the abundant availability of fresh fruit and vegetables corresponding so closely with our preferred diet. So today's shopping at Prinos greengrocers is as follows: 3 courgettes, 4 tomatoes, 3 small cucumbers, a little over a kilo of onions, three quarters of a kilo of carrots, a large bunch of parsley, two large pink grapefruit (weighing a pound each) and 200 grams of taramosalata (a beautiful creamy pink dip made of olive oil, fish roe, bread crumbs and seasoning and much smoother and creamier than that sounds). Total price €5.20 ($7 CAD, £4.47).

Tuesday, February 26/2013

Coffee down at the waterfront. M joins us. As she cycles up we hear her apologise to a man sitting in the sun - sorry for waving but I thought you were someone else. So we tease her that she'd rather pick up a stranger to sit in the sun than join us in the shade. Over to get a new battery for J's watch - today he had to take the spare mobile to use as a pocket watch like the teenagers do.

Monday, February 24/2013

There's been a funny haze in the sky for the last few days, but no comment on it on the weather. Sometimes in Cyprus we get a brown haze, which is dust from the Sahara, but this is just overcast.

First news this morning is the Oscars, which are just winding up as we wake up, with best picture announced a shiver ahead of the seven a.m. news. We'll have to go to see Les Miserables, as we did see a bit of the filming near the naval college building in Greenwich one day last spring. In fact had to stay back where we were directed to avoid becoming extras in non-period drama.

Also on BBC radio, Giles Fraser makes an interesting observation. When he was a seminarian he and his fellows in training took the Myers Briggs personality inventory. Before doing so, they were asked to consider what sort of personality Jesus had. Tellingly, there was a high correlation between the seminarians' own personality profiles and the personality characteristics they attributed to Jesus. Extroverts assumed that he was an extrovert while introverts believed him to be an introvert and so forth. An interesting example of individuals creating God in their own images.

Sunday, February 24/2013

Brunch, newspaper - then finish the miniseries. The three of us have decided to try the Egyptian restaurant in the hotel building - with a mixture of hope and charity, though probably not enough faith. They've opened recently and clearly put a lot of work into renovating the place. Now they've made a reduction of 40% to stimulate start-up, so we head in about seven o'clock.

In preparation, Maggi borrowed the menu last night. Until we intended to go we could hardly bring ourselves to ask to look at it. The restaurant is always underpopulated and overstaffed and we were unwilling to trigger such open desperation. Already as we sit using the wifi in the hotel's adjoining lounge we regularly see the empty tables and the young manager pacing the floor.

Mostly they serve chicken or fish, with rice or chips and salad. Well, probably better than an overly-ambitious menu, and there is much mention of Egyptian marinades. Wine menu very limited,so Maggi orders Cypriot sherry, which turns out not to be a euphemism for Commandaria, and she's pleased with it. There are only two beers on the menu, Carlsberg and Corona, which seems odd as Cyprus produces perfectly drinkable lagers. So Carlsberg it is. A promising start with warm pitas, complimentary baba ganoush, and enormous salads brought by the sweetly shy Romanian waitress. Then for our chickens. M's is in cream sauce and, perhaps predictably, the sauce is simply poured over the chicken. J's chicken is boneless, though he'snot too happy as the skin is neither absent nor crispy - and there is an unaccountably large amount of it. My half chicken is on the bone and the skin is crisp - but the centre isn't cooked. Can only assume that it was cooked frozen and the endpoint miscalculated. I probably should simply return it, but decide instead to take it upstairs uneaten and turn it into chicken soup. Otherwise I'd be waiting for ever and the outside is already well done. Coffee is complimentary and both manager and Maitre D hold the doors open as we leave. But, sadly, we're predicting failure. It's possible to eat so very much better in Cyprus for the same price.

The run-off election is today, and by the time we go down to dinner we are hearing car horns, presumably in celebration, although the polls may still be open. by the time we return the unofficial exit poll results are announcing an expected right wing Anastasiades victory. There's an electricity in the air on Cypriot election nights that I remember from my Quebec childhood, and if we hadn't been eating out it would have been tempting to go down to the water front. The car horns, and presumably the partying, go on well past midnight.

Saturday, February 28/2013

To Lidl in the morning.morning. It's oddly uneven. Quite a bit of low quality, overpriced goods, but some good buys - chocolate, nuts and yoghurt, usually, as well as some of the specials. They usually have good bread - and today it's still warm.

M over in the afternoon for g&t and the next three parts of the miniseries.

Friday, February 22/2013

Maggi to dinner - along with her laptop on which we watch the first part of Ailsa's DVD, State of Play, a miniseries involving a British MP, a newspaper, and the oil industry. Murder and intrigue and quite good script and acting. Bill Nighy a pleasure as the newspaper editor.

Thursday, February 21/2013

Stop at the travel agency to tell Martina how brilliant Romania was. Actually, we'd be quite pleased to go back. Lots to see in rural Romania and plenty more in Bucharest, about which reviewers are often inexplicably dismissive The language is interesting too. The country was a very early Roman colony (second century) and the language remained Latin based with a little later Slavic influence. Often a word or phrase is obvious becausee of its similarity to French or another romance language.

Wednesday, February 20/2013

With the hotel booked, we're free to book the air tickets. We've belonged to the British Airways Executive Club for a few years but never really pursued its unobvious benefits. However, it now turns out that we have enough points to fly back to London. So, for a grand total of $44 for the two of us, we're booked. A savings of €326 ($400, £284) minus the $44. Much better than Airmiles or Aeroplan ever seems to deliver. The only thing I can`t seem to do is persuade them to bill my UK debit card in pounds.

Tuesday, February 19/2013

Now looking at the time after Cyprus, so J phones our little hotel in London and we're happy to find they have a room. Now booked from March 21 to April 11.

Monday, February 18/2013

The weekend is ending, though we would be happy to prolong it. The hotel checkout time is twelve, but we`re kindly told that we can keep the room until our pick up at two, actually typical of the flexible yet very efficient style of the place. We`ve discovered a little belatedly that the very attractive Cercul Militar is not a palace as it might appear but actually the National Military Club, built in 1912, mostly from contributions by military officers. Furthermore, its restaurant is open to the public and reviews suggest that it`s not only formally impressive but not expensive. But we`ve had a large breakfast and simply can`t manage a lunch before our two o`clock departure We do go back to it for a photograph, though, and the staff kindly let J take a picture of the chandeliered dining room though it`s not yet open.

Our last Romanian visit is to the English Bar at the Athenee Palace Hotel (now part of the Hilton chain. The hotel, just above Revolution Square, has been extensively rebuilt, but the English Bar is original - though obviously redecorated. The hotel has a wonderful 100 year history as a centre for intrigue and espionage. As Romania entered both wars late (and eventually switched sides in WWII once the handwriting was on the wall) it was for quite a long time a neutral, if shady, meeting place. The hotel itself played host to Kaiser Wilhelm and Czar Alexander II in its earlier days. By the Communist era all the employees were reporting to the Securitate, all the hotel rooms hadmicrophones, the guests`documents were routinely photocopied and public pay phones within half a mile were bugged. Not only were the prostitutes (predictably) in the pay of the secret service but the wits hanging out in the lobby and some of the guests were plants. All that has gone, but the bar remains, so J and I go for a pint of draft and an appointment with history. Quiet well upholstered seats in the corner and plenty of imagining the past.

We`re collected at two. The flight back very nearly as full as the one coming. Timing works well, though, and we manage to catch the return bus (door to door) with nearly ten minutes to spare.

Sunday, February 17/2013

Palatul Parlamentulul

Laze over the stunning breakfast whilst admiring the thin coating of snow on the roofs and watching the odd snowflake land on the ledge outside the window and not melt.

Then south along Victoriei, congratulating ourselves again on the centrality of our location. The parliament building is, like everything on the map, oddly closer than we anticipate. It's enormous - second only to the Pentagon the guide books say. Ceaucescu period and lots of grand staircases, marble, etc but we forgo the £16 that two adult admissions with camera would be - there`s more that we want to see in the old city. The Palatul Parlamentulul, as it`s called, is actually best photographed from across the road as it`s so big. And not, as we`d expected, ugly.

Then we follow the south side of the river past the magnificent court building (nearly 100 metres long, beautifully pillared - and we`d have to cross the river to get enough distance to photograph it. At Unrii Piazza there`s a large shopping centre. It`s interesting - plenty of high end international shops and products but no large open spaces in which to gain perspective. It`s an endless warren of tiny corridors leading to more shops. Actually rather claustrophobic, and we`re not particularly interested in acquiring Cartier watches or expensive exercise clothes, so time to exit.

Back along the cobbled little wtreets where we ate yesterday. There`s the striking Biserica Stavropoleos Orthodox Church built in 1724, with beautiful stone and wood carvings. It`s Sunday, though, and, like the other churches we`ve passed, full to overflowing with worshipers, so we don`t go in. The old city is alive and adjusting very gracefuly to the twenty-first century, with little bars and boutiques in eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings.

Saturday, February 16/2013

Ceaucescu's Last Stand

Romanian Athenaeum

We're not up early, having stayed awake last night looking at the possible tourist sites on the playbook. Breakfast available until ten, though, so we're fine. And actually in no great hurry to go out as it's raining - and if it were any colder it would be snowing. The buffet is worth lingering over. There are ot dishes, which we almost ignore, as the rest is so attractive including, as well as the standard salads and pastries, a variety of fresh and dried fruit and nuts, smoked salmon, and even creme caramel. And, unlike most restaurant buffets, the juice is real juice. Lovely being able to have a breakfast that is both luxurious and healthy. A coffee pot on every table too.

Near Revolution Square

Romanian Architects' Union Building

Then out with our umbrellas, only intermittently needed. We're a block away from Revolution Square. Takes us a bit to spot the Communist Party Building, from which Ceaucescu made his last speech to a people he was horrified to find unreceptive, and from which he escaped, temporarily, by helicopter - largely because we're looking for a higher and more dramatic balcony, knowing as Ceaucescu did not the high theatre with which this would all end. There's a memorial in the park in front to the mostly young protestors who died, especially chilling as they were, many of them, the age of our own children - eighteen and twenty in December 1989. Their parents, and even a few of their grandparents, must still be
alive.

Caru cu Bere 

There are other buildings around the square that are far more compelling. We had been prepared for the Stalinist and the East European drab, but not for the romantic nineteenth century. An old royal palace reinvented as the National Art Gallery and the Romanian Atheneum with a beautiful baroque cupola. Many of the buildings in the area still bear the visible scars of the revolution, but the heart of the city is a noving combination of romantic, revolutionary and modern - the last being exemplified by the striking architectural association building - traditional surmounted by an ultra-modern top.

In the afternoon we head south a few blocks to the Caru cu Bere, a nineteenth century beer hall justly famous for its decor, though the food is not at all bad, and our draft beer quite nice. We go for a late afternoon lunch, about 4:15, and are admitted on a promise that we will be gone by 5:30. It's humming with locals, platters of food, tankards of beer, and live music, but at first all we can see is the space itself - all rich wood and marble, galleries and vaulting and stained glass.

Friday, February 15/2013

By bus to the airport - in itself requiring a good deal of internet research, as the girl at the government tourist office briskly assured me that there was no bus from our bus stop to the airport - and why did I want to know, was the bus station too far to walk with our luggage? It isn't, but we knew she was wrong, and eventually the internet delivers the information. We're flying with Blue Air, the Romanian low cost airline.

The internet has provided plenty of information on the carrier as well, much of it in the form of scathing reviews. Blue might well be the colour of the air during disputes between staff and passengers over the size of carry-on bags. On one unhappy flight out of Bucharest several passengers had carry-ons that passed muster at check in but were refused at the gate, obliging the owners to either abandon them or pay an extra €50 to have them taken as checked luggage. Prudently, we've taken one inconveniently small carry-on as well as my handbag. Checked luggage can be enormous, 32 kilos a case - as much weight as the two of us take for the whole winter - but this is a weekend and one small suitcase is plenty for the two of us. We do witness an acrimonious dispute over the dimensions of a remarkably small plastic zippered bag (legal dimensions for Blue Air are 20"x16"x12"). The owner must have won, as he appeared with it later at the gate. And at the gate we observe many much larger cases and are left wondering whether all depends on the mood of the staff member - or the size of the bribe.

The plane is a rather elderly 737-300 with no frills, but the flight is only about two hours. Quite full, mainly with Romanians who are presumably working in Cyprus.They clap when we land, although there was no particular reason to suppose we wouldn't do so safely. There's a taxi driver waiting for us at the gate who kindly points out the ATMs. The screen announces in loud letters that we're to beware of and report any unusual modifications to the machine, although it's hard to know what these might consist of unless they were so unsubtle that previous users would probably already have reported them. The local currency is the Romanian lei, and, conveniently, there are 5 lei to the British pound - one of the three currencies we can think in.

The drive in is about half an hour and it's dark, so mostly we see advertising signs - many of them for international companies like Carrefour or motor dealerships. Pass the Bucharest arch of triumph in mid-square and on to our hotel, the Novotel. It's a bit odd looking as the hotel is reflective glass fronted by a facade that is a reconstruction of the national theatre which originally stood on the spot. The hotel, unlike most of those in the middle east, lives up to its four stars, with a decent sized flat screen TV (speaker in the bathroom, startlingly, better than the one in the bedroom). We ignore the minibar, but there's a kettle with coffee and a good choice of teas, and a couch to sip them on, as well as the king sized bed. Best is the free wifi in the room which, oddly enough, is easier to find in hostels than in good hotels, presumably because young backpackers choose accommodation with that in mind, whereas those in "good" hotels often have the bill paid by someone else. Of course in one sense only the total cost matters, but I'm beginning to find paying for wifi a bit like paying to use the loo - an annoyance well beyond the actual price.

By the time we're checked in it's close to midnight, so, as Pepys would say, "and so to bed."

Thursday, February 14/2013

Run into Maggi and Britt, her Norwegian friend from Paralimni having coffee and join them. Stunning sunny day, although the Sunday prediction for Bucharest now involves snow flurries.

Wednesday, February 13/2013

Ash Wednesday, but not in Cyprus, where the Catholic Church follows the Orthodox calendar for Lent and Easter. With the result that we will arrive in Britain in time for Easter, having more or less missed Lent altogether - a prospect that doesn't seem to dismay J at all.

Tuesday, February 12/2013

Walking down to meet J for coffee when a car pulls over to the curb. Do I speak English, asks the nondescript man inside. Yes, I say, assuming he is looking for directions. Slowly he introduces himself. I - hairdresser - cut - set. No thank you, I say, before the painful process can be drawn out longer. But no hairdresser looks for business by curb crawling. In fact, he reminds me of a man that I once saw exposing himself in the walkway under the road by Finchley Road tube station, so under-equipped for the display that it wasn't at first obvious what he was doing. I feel I should have given today's man pointers. Try it on with someone much younger - and maybe go with I photographer - studio - model.

Monday, February 11/2013

Romanian trip now paid for - the day after the happy news that there have been arrests for fraud involving tampering with Larnaca ban ATMs. Still, must mean that even the most negligent banks have checked their machines recently.

Sunday, February 10/2013

Last week prior to Cypriot elections begins. Debates are, obviously, in Greek, so we're largely reliant on the Sunday Mail for platform info. Christofias, the (nominally) Communist president is not running again, and would be roundly defeated if he did, as the country has been driven to bankruptcy and a request for a UK bailout under his watch. And negotiations on reunion with the turkish north are no further along than they were at the last election. Not that either of these situations were likely to have been better under another leader, the problems being deeply rooted in the culture. It's pretty obvious that the (centre right) Anastassiades will win the first round but there will be further rounds until one candidate has a majority. voting in Cyprus, like Australia, is mandatory, though penalties for failure to vote are not normally imposed. There must be arguments in favour of this, but there's also something to be said for electoral bias in favour of those with some minimal interest in and knowledge of the political landscape.

Saturday, February 9/2013

Walk over to Maggi's flat - approximately 45 minutes but not easy to judge precisely with stops on the way. M has two balconies, one of which is almost always in the sun, so lovely drinks and lunch on west balcony off the kitchen.

Friday, February 8/2013

Back to see Martina. Can she check and see whether the Romanian option is genuinely finished, as her manager implied, or is it just gone from the front window? She pursues it and finds it still possible, so we agree to go with it. Good thing for the manager that Martina is back or his business would go under from sheer sad neglect.

Thursday, February 7/2013

Martina back and checks on Beirut. Yes,possible, so off we go to consider. Check the Canadian foreign advisories and come up with "avoid all but necessary travel." The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the gold standard, is cautious but less dogmatic - and more helpfully specific. The problem, of course, is Syria, and possibly Israel. Worst possibility probably a demo closing the road to the airport. Online checks with people recently there reasonably encouraging. Actually the Canadian foreign advisories in general have a rather unpleasant tone not shared by other countries' foreign offices - and not true in the past of Canada. It's rather as if the primary intent was not to protect Canadians but to limit government responsibility and liability, and one of the unfortunate side effects  is that the advice becomes less useful and less trustworthy.

Wednesday, February 6/2013

Over to the travel agency where the sad owner tells us that Martina, the helpful Slovak girl will be back tomorrow. There's a Beirut special in the window so we start thinking Lebanon thoughts. It's been eight years and we like Beirut. We'll wait for Martina.

Tuesday, February 5/2013

Rapid charger ordered and dispatched from the UK. Now to see about the rapidity of the Cypriot postal service. Every Christmas there are complaints about terrible delays in the arrival of overseas packages, which Cyprus tries to blame on UK Royal Mail but which seem to be largely down to failure to hire extra temporary employees over the Christmas period. But this is February, so perhaps with luck.... Has been sent by mail with a projected arrival date of February 12, so we'll see.

Monday, February 4/2013

Over to the computer repair shop. Blackberry tablets, as suggested online, not high on anyone\s repair list. Try other shop to see if BB transfer cord will fit. Short answer is no, and some difficulty preventing young salesman from compounding the damage by repeating original offence with fragile port. Home to much googling, with the result that I discover a rapid travel charger (presumably the rapidity applying to the charge and not the mode of transport) which attaches magnetically to avoid damage to ports.

Sunday, February 3/2013

Lovely day - full of sun. Down to the waterfront in the afternoon. Always semi-carnival on a Sunday, with balloons and candy floss and games of chance. Locals,  immigrants and tourists alike.

Disaster strikes as J accidentally inserts the charger in the tablet port upside-down - or tries to - damaging the far too fragile port. Happened once before - my fault then - and he straightened it out, but no joy this time.

Saturday, February 2/2013

We to coffee with M, who has cycled in from her new flat and is making a morning of it. No isolation for her - coffee first with the Norwegians at George's café, then with us at Jimmy`s, and finally with her friend Dino at the market, spaced at one hour intervals. Actually it`s been hot enough walking over in the sun that J and I forgo the Cypriot coffee and split a large beer, which is actually quite large enough for two, and the salted peanuts are a bonus.

J comments on the number of rich youngish to middle aged men who seem to have little to do but drink coffee at the more expensive cafés, with their Mercedes or luxury sports cars parked - legally or otherwise - nearby. There is a very high youth unemployment rate here, but these are not its representatives. Nor are they the equivalent to our regular friends at the coffee spot in Sioux Lookout, where only the retired spend all morning and no one is drinking lattes. Our counterpart is to be found in the smaller backstreet cafés and sometimes in the parking lots, where one old man may be occasionally stirring himself to take money from a customer and two or three of his cronies join him in the sun with cups of coffee (cups to be returned to the nearest café later) and a backgammon board. A pleasant, slow-paced life for the retired, though as J points out it`s a man`s world. Older Cypriot women are almost never seen at cafés, though female expats and tourists frequent them and young local women often go to the higher status coffee places.

Friday, February 1/2013

Cairo: just about a year since we were there. today being Friday there are major demonstrations despite emergency measures being in place and a curfew.

Thursday, January 31/2013

Overhear Mr Andreas telling M that she can stay here at the hotel as long as she wishes - for free he adds, in a gracious burst of generosity. Suspect he would be appalled if she accepted.

Wednesday, January 30/2013

M's last night so we have her to dinner - spaghetti with mushroom and tomato sauce and our remaining bottle of sparkling wine, in recognition of her starting a new life as a Cyprus resident.

Tuesday, January 29/2013

We go with M to her new flat with the heavy things - a suitcase, the microwave, and a large and somewhat insecure cardboard box with things like wine, as well as the outdoor drying rack. Flat now with carpets, lamps, etc and beginning to look quite like home.

Monday, January 28/2013

Maggi to the door with what constitutes exciting news in our small world. About a month ago Euronews began broadcasting its 24 hour news in Greek instead of English. It's not a great channel, but it was English and always available - a bit less critical in days of wifi, but wifi is only available in the lobby. In any case it is, as people were happy to point out to us, a Greek speaking country and the channel appears to be government owned and certainly not satellite. So there it was - or so we thought until Maggi discovered how to switch the audio on the remote to English - and there we have it.