Jane and Bill collect us at 9:30 and we head north. First stop is a frozen food wholesaler that Bill patronises, with freezers full of seafood and fish, as well as lamb and other delights. Tempted by the enormous (though not inexpensive) prawns, but restrained by the knowledge that the minute freezer in our bar sized fridge is already partly full, and that before we have taken half an empty plastic egg carton to make ice cubes.
Then an exploratory trip to find a new (as of November) crossing to North Cyprus. Road signs not entirely helpful. Driving east looking for the town of Derynia, we repeatedly pass signs saying it is 11 km away. If the first is right, the others can’t be. No South Cypriot sign ever says that the border, or the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, exists, let alone in close proximity. So we come upon it quite suddenly. Passports checked on both sides and we’re driving down a long road, maybe a mile, lined with abandoned houses, some small and made of clay, collapsing ruins, others larger brick or stone buildings. Presumably left to the elements in 1974. And then we’re in the city of Famagusta proper.
Thursday is market day here, and it’s always a delight. Fruit, vegetables, bedding plants, cheese, butter, yoghurt, nuts, clothing, minor hardware, kitchen ware, jewellery, and more. Jane and Bill fill their trolley, and we, with less kitchen space to return to, get sundried olives, dried apricots and red lentils. (The green lentils here, as in the south, are almost always Canadian). A meal at Minder, home of traditional Cypriot cooking, first introduced to us by Femi, our dentist, and Feliz, his wife. Everything here good, but my favourite has a minced meat and onion (and sometimes ground nut) filling with a bulgar, onion, and mashed potato based crust, deep fried. Check the recipe at home. Complex and labour intensive, and very tempting, though salt and deep frying oil quantities every bit as dubious in health terms as one might have guessed.