Appointment with Fehmi at 10. Early enough the restaurant touts aren’t busy. As we’ve discovered in previous stays in Famagusta, the bustle of the daytime really only begins when the tour coaches arrive mid-morning and ends when they leave mid-afternoon. After that the walled city is almost deserted. The regular city that surrounds it, Gazimagusa, isn’t quiet, of course. Its 40,000 inhabitants carry on normally. But our little walled enclave, a World Heritage Site is only home to a few and most of the sellers pack up and leave, though some of the restaurants remain open and hopeful.
Fehmi does valiant work trying to reattach my bridge, though he points out that nothing is ever static in the mouth. Teeth move, things change. Over an hour and we’re at the point where it’s usable and a little more polishing should do it. Then J. We’ll be back Monday. Fehmi’s wife, Filiz, comes in with her mobile to say that two sovereign crossing points, one of which we came through on Tuesday, have been closed, apparently until March 22.
Pursue this online when we get home. May be retaliatory, as this closure was instituted by the North. Each side suspects the other of having more covid-19 cases than it is admitting to. As far as we are concerned, the crossing at Pyla, which remains open, is as convenient as the one we came through on our way here. And, probably most significant, the process of closing several but not all of the crossings slows casual tourist traffic, especially coaches, without disabling business, so it seems unlikely all points will close at the same time.
Overcast and windy, but today is the weekly municipal market, which we have often gone to in the past. It’s a little subdued but pretty well full size. We’re a little more cautious in the purchases than usual. Oranges, small Turkish bananas, onions, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, carrots and lentils. Eggs, for which we’ve probably overpaid because the usual containers hold 30. Fresh enough there are still tiny feathers sticking to them though. You can smell the fresh strawberries as we walk past, but we give them a miss.
Find a half bag of manti - a small Turkish ravioli style pasta - in our freezer and make a tomato pepper onion sauce to toss it with. Manti more frequently served with a yoghurt based sauce but we find that one pretty sour.
Fehmi does valiant work trying to reattach my bridge, though he points out that nothing is ever static in the mouth. Teeth move, things change. Over an hour and we’re at the point where it’s usable and a little more polishing should do it. Then J. We’ll be back Monday. Fehmi’s wife, Filiz, comes in with her mobile to say that two sovereign crossing points, one of which we came through on Tuesday, have been closed, apparently until March 22.
Pursue this online when we get home. May be retaliatory, as this closure was instituted by the North. Each side suspects the other of having more covid-19 cases than it is admitting to. As far as we are concerned, the crossing at Pyla, which remains open, is as convenient as the one we came through on our way here. And, probably most significant, the process of closing several but not all of the crossings slows casual tourist traffic, especially coaches, without disabling business, so it seems unlikely all points will close at the same time.
Overcast and windy, but today is the weekly municipal market, which we have often gone to in the past. It’s a little subdued but pretty well full size. We’re a little more cautious in the purchases than usual. Oranges, small Turkish bananas, onions, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, carrots and lentils. Eggs, for which we’ve probably overpaid because the usual containers hold 30. Fresh enough there are still tiny feathers sticking to them though. You can smell the fresh strawberries as we walk past, but we give them a miss.
Find a half bag of manti - a small Turkish ravioli style pasta - in our freezer and make a tomato pepper onion sauce to toss it with. Manti more frequently served with a yoghurt based sauce but we find that one pretty sour.
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