Hello to everyone one more week. After an intense week of work and full of good moments at the “Xarkis Festival”, it was time to relax and disconnect a Little from work and routine, that since I arrived Nicosia three months ago still I hadn´t had a day off in conditions. So in that summarized my week, the days I worked extra hours I recovered them this week.
On Tuesday I spent most of the day at home, updating the blog and enjoying the home. After a week out it feels good stay at home relaxed and cool. On Wednesday, after lunch, I went to the beach with Elli, her cousin and her cousin´s boyfriend who had come from Canada to spend a few days on the island, and Anna, former YEU volunteer. Afternoon calm in one of the beaches of Larnaca airport and coming back home.
On Thursday I went with my language partner Antonia to Limassol, to enjoy of a bit more the beach and to visit the city, that I still hadn´t visited. A while in the morning on the beach, where I had time to swim (how I missed it), and in the afternoon we visited “the marina” or area of the port and the historic centre of the city. Ideal day for disconnecting and recharging batteries.
Back in the office on Friday, I met which is going to be our partner’s organization during the next month and a half, Georgiana, from Romania. I say partner in organization and non-office basically because we’re just going to coincide in the office with her this week. From the week coming up to the last week of August, my colleagues and I are going to attend an intensive Greek course in the University of Cyprus, so we will match few time at the office, for sure much more out of it. Returning to the office, I took the day to update some things that we need to prepare for the coming weeks. In the evening I met several friends to go to a party that was organized in the occupied part of the island or the Turkish side, to understand us. Few minutes after crossing the border, Dimitris phoned me to let me know of the coup that had just been produced in Turkey. Despite the news, we decided to go up to the bar where the party was running. To get there, the place was practically empty. For fear of the situation, many people there present minutes earlier decided to return home. We were there a while, but before the situation of discomfort that is breathed we decided to return to the Greek side, just in case. We continued our particular night in the bars of “our Nicosia” wondering if the next day we could continue with our plan for the weekend, which was visiting the island’s northern part, I mean, crossing again to the Turkish side.
The next day, seeing that the coup in Turkey had failed, we decided to go ahead with the plan. We load the cars with backpacks, camping tent,… and headed to the border. There they would tell us if we could finally cross or not. Fortunately, there was no problem, everything seemed to be calm. Already in the occupied part, we went to a supermarket for provisions, loaded the car, and after almost three hours of journey we arrived at our destination, Golden Beach. We landed in a sort of semi-abandoned camping, but still in operation, with several bungalows and a restaurant. Apparently, bungalows still work, but the restaurant was closed by the Government a couple of months ago. Thing strange that a part itself works and the other doesn´t. The case is that we mounted the tends and we went direct to the beach. To give you an idea, on a beach about two kilometers long there were about 25 people in total, and there were only ten of us. That was a real paradise. Waters clean as any that has been seen before, a pleasure going.
In the evening, we prepared some cold dinner and we went back to the beach to drink, play, and enjoy the tranquility of the place. My idea was to sleep on the beach together with several friends, since I hadn´t a mat for the tend, but at midnight I decided to go to sleep to the tend because of the high humidity that had been on the beach and the little clothes carrying sleeping under these conditions. Sleeping in the tend wasn´t much better, but at least I didn´t catch an unnecessary cold. The next morning, we went back to the beach. I went to swim a while while the gang was getting fresh. At mid-morning, my friend Ángeles and I went to wander along the shore, and coming to an area of rocks we found the shell of a giant turtle, with the body in decomposition to the side. To say that this area of the island are inhabited by giant turtles. The pity was not to see any alive. Even so, gave impression to us seeing the size of that animal.
In the afternoon, we picked up everything and we took the way back to Nicosia, but in the middle of the road we had time to stop and eat something. A bit more of two hours of journey, and about 20:00 we arrived at the Greek part of Nicosia.
Already on Monday, we resumed the activity in the office as usually. In the afternoon we played “Screening Club” in the Bank of Cyprus, in the amphitheatre that is located in the courtyard at the back of the building. The film projected was “The Blues Brothers” or “Rogues at all pace” (title in Spanish, we translate everything!). Good attendance and good course of the film until, without knowing exactly why, the player ate twenty-minute film, the twenty most important minutes where the climax of the film happened. In the end, several friends came to ask me several things that they didn´t understand. Me, that I have watched this movie like four or five times some time ago, I knew that something was missing, but in that time was pending of the public and I tried to search a reason of what became in the outcome to explain it to my friends. By the time, thinking about it, I realised that actually was missing the part more important of the film. Honestly, I think that for more than one was a relief that the movie ended a few minutes earlier, since the concrete of the amphitheatre is not too comfortable, but it is something that we have to improve for the next film, personally I think that was a shit. Hopefully we will improve those technical issues in the upcoming projections.
See you next week!