Return to Famagusta
Sunday morning wake to sun and breeze and bougainvillea blossoms. Late November isn't prime time for flowers, but the olives are ripe for picking ( and some are already in jars on the counter). Breakfast outside - as it should be. Bill's made bacon and egg and mushrooms. We turn down Jane's kind suggestion that we start with cereal, aware that we're going to Cambanella's for traditional English Sunday lunch at noon.
As we do. Three courses and the wife and hostess at the carvery as disappointed as any European grandmother if we only sample two of the four roasts (though we steel ourselves against her entreaties, knowing how good the desserts will be.
From there we drive to Famagusta and the Altun Tabya Hotel. They remember us, and the room is much like last April's - basic but clean and quite OK. Oddly, there are mothballs in the sink and shower drains. I google and yes, people (especially Asians it seems, although this establishment is clearly not Asian) do sometimes use mothballs to discourage fruit flies and small flies that live around damp drains. Mothballs toxic to inhale and presumably carcinogenic, as well as neurologically damaging - though in all fairness probably somewhat short of fatal during a week's exposure when one thinks of all the years of winter woollens stored in closets. Anyway, the scent is pretty powerful so we wrap them and put them in the bathroom bin with the lid on.
Message Ulus, whom we met last spring, and he answers that he will meet us for coffee at nine, before going offline. No chance to say that we do have dental appointments shortly after ten.
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