Up at six to begin our politically required re-entry into North Cyprus. When we took the taxi on Monday we entered the North legally from everybody’s point of view. However as the Republic of Cyprus (RoC, South) considers that the whole of the island ought to be theirs, their position would be that we have never left the republic. And eventually they would have considered that we had been there for over 90 days without leaving, thereby violating our visas. So - today we take a taxi back to the South in order to leave from Larnaca, thus satisfying everyone’s criteria. Well, everyone except us. As we want to be in the North we are stuck taking a circuitous route- Larnaca to Athens to Istanbul to Lefkoşa (Nicosia). Could in theory be done in one day but not easily.
Nice day for the trip. Temps in the low twenties both here and in Athens. Get to the airport ridiculously early due to an excess of caution. Perfect weather for drinking coffee and people watching outside, though. People dressed for all sorts of weather but of course they will be going to and coming from a wide variety of places. It’s shirt sleeve weather but we see everything from shorts to winter jackets. Lufthansa has cancelled two flights to Munich, (which seems odd until J later notes that Munich has received 40 cm of snow.).
Booked at a studio near the airport where we stayed in February - when it snowed in Athens, although not forty centimetres worth. Lovely host, Joanna, who has left us not only sandwiches and homemade jam but a carafe of dry rosé wine as well. AND she has saved the specs J left behind ten months ago!