To Famagusta with Jane and Bill. J has a dental appointment to have a ceramic crown put on. We arrive at the same time as our dent, Fehmi, and are admiring some large yellow lilly-like flowers that prove to be part of a massive thick vine which grows along a stone wall, through the garden next door, and up above the second storey of the old building in the garden. Quite astonishing. Fehmi tells us that he planted the vine, and breaks off one of the many flowers for us to examine and a cutting for Bill to plant at home. The flowers are enormous, perhaps six inches across (though the petals seem to fold back even before they reach full size), with five stamens and a pistil in the centre.
When J is finished we go for coffee in the old city and then head off for lunch at Fehmi’s son’s seafood restaurant, armed with a couple of screen shots from the map I checked as well as explanations and a bit of hand drawn map from Fehmi, who has said he will phone the son. So all is well until we hit road works. British diversion versus Canadian detour. Detour has an obvious Canadian advantage in that it is bilingual. Diversion takes on a certain bitter iron - sounds like entertainment, but after over an hour of mucking about and trying to co-ordinate our efforts with the minimalist map we’re feeling fairly unentertained and give up on it. Rather nice bonus of a tour round the pleasant and extensive campus of the Eastern Mediterranean University. Twice, actually, as we try to regain the main road.
Fortunately, we know an excellent restaurant which we can find - Minder, our restaurant of last Thursday, as good today as it was then. And well deserved - by Bill as driver at least - Efes (Turkish pilsener) waiting.
Back home with wifi look up the flowers. Solandra Maxima, commonly known as golden chalice. They're not native to Cyprus - originally Latin American - but do well here, flowering in winter and spring.
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