Cyprus

So, we went to Cyprus over the Eid break. We just had 4 days, as Song was flying the first day of the break, so we decided to go somewhere relatively close. In hindsight, with all the buses we took when we got there, we could've just gone somewhere farther away. But, I really wanted to go check out this hostel on the north side of the island, and Song was nice enough to tag along and not complain.

 Actually, I'm not gonna lie, she did do a lot of complaining the first night. I think she was really tired cause she'd arrived in Dubai at 3am, and we'd left our house at 6am, and the fact that our hostel wasn't that cool and she didn't get the kind of food she wanted just made things seem like the end of the world for her. I said, "Just sleep tonight and when you wake up you'll feel a lot better," and she kept on being skeptical, but of course she felt a lot better the next day. By the way, this is her way of sleeping on the airplane. She looks like a ghost or a wannabe Muslim. She says she does it because the plane is so dry.

 This is Sandy. We arrived at the hostel and she was all over me from the getgo. She's only about a year old. I tied up one of my socks in a knot and gave it to her to play with before we left.

 So, our first night there we'd met two Turkish guys and an American guy, and the next morning one of the Turkish guys invited us to take a ride with him on his way to the airport. He said he was stopping by a park, and we could just go there and chill for a little and then catch a bus back to the city.

 So, that's Jeff on the right, and the Turkish guy is Karim. Jeff is well traveled. Much more so than I am. He's a park ranger in Yosemite, but he said he had a new assignment somewhere near Flagstaff. Really cool guy. Reminded me a lot of my friend Andrew Dillon - same exact voice, same characteristics. Karim was really cool, and between him and Jeff we learned a lot about Turkish culture.

 By the way, in case you didn't know, Cyprus is split into two halves: the northern half is Turkish, and the southern half is Greek. From what Jeff and Karim were saying, apparently the Ottoman empire owned it a long time ago, but then they gave it to the British, and the British were gonna give it to someone (can't remember) but then WWI happened and somehow it ended up in Greek hands and then in the 70s Turkey invaded because there were a lot of Turkish people living on the island that weren't being treated fairly. Something like that, I think.

 Jeff's traveled around Turkey a lot, and he said that Turkish people were really friendly, especially the guys. He said sometimes he'd be walking down a street, and a guy would come up to him and say, "If you need any help, just let me know." Jeff would say, "No, I'm good, thanks." "Ok," the guy would say, "but if you need anything I'll just follow you for a while and you can ask." So Jeff said sometimes he'd just ask where to buy some water and then the Turkish guy would get all excited and take him to the local store.
Karim (and Chemar, who I'll introduce you to later) pretty much fit Jeff's profile: really generous, always willing to answer questions, etc. If it wasn't for the roaming bands of young men constantly wandering the streets, I'd have thought that Turkish culture was one of the safest and nicest ones there is.

 But, from the Lonely Planet that Jeff gave to me in trade for some time using our plug adapter, I read that Cyprus is a really safe place. Honestly, you wouldn't think it though from walking around. I mean, the city we were in seemed safe enough, but there just constantly these groups of young men wandering around that in any other place would spell danger. One of my main rules of traveling is "If you don't see women and children out and about, it's time to get inside." But, apparently Turkish culture is big on having the women and children stay inside, I guess. I think I'll have to spend some more time in Turkey to verify that though.

 We tried some Turkish food while we were there. This is called pide. It's pretty much the same thing as pizza, but without any tomato sauce. It was good.

 So, that's Chemar on the left and (can't remember his name at the moment) on the right. Chemar didn't speak too much English, but he was just a really nice guy and we got to know him and his story pretty well for the two days we knew him.

 Here's what I know of Chemar's life:
He's currently serving time in the army, based somewhere in Cyprus (all Turkish men have to serve 6 months or so in the army). He's going to get married next August. He's been dating his girlfriend for 8 years. He's got some grey hairs, but he's only about 28 or so. He studied electrical engineering in college, and he's thinking of moving to another country so that he can get a good job and support his girlfriend. He asked me a lot about which country I thought would be good to look for engineering jobs in, but I honestly had no clue. I recommended Canada, cause it just seems easier overall.
We had lots of good conversations. He's Muslim. He told me something interesting: Jesus, Mohamad, Moses, David - God sent all these people in one part of the world. Why? Because Arabs are so evil.

 He wondered why we didn't have kids yet. I said we didn't have enough money yet. He smiled. That's why he hasn't got married yet.

 He really likes taking pictures, and using Photoshop to add effects. He showed us some pictures he'd made on his facebook page.

 Of course, we had to do a Korean love shot.

 His leave ended the day before we left, so that morning we went out to have breakfast together. He picked out the place.

 I felt kinda bad, cause he honestly seemed sad: he had to go back to military training, he had 80 days left until he could see his girlfriend, and now he'd have to say goodbye to us.

 I think I ordered the Turkish Breakfast, but I'm not so sure. Anyways, he told us that Turkish food is different in the east and the west. Where he lives in Antalya, he said the food is much more vegetarian. He said people in the east eat lots of meat, whereas people in the west focus on veggies and honey and breads.

 He invited us to his wedding, and was really hopeful that we'd come. I told him that I was traveling with my parents next August, and he said that I could bring them along. I think part of it was that he really would love to have some foreigners come to his wedding simply because it probably doesn't happen much where he's from, but also because he's just a really nice guy and would love to show us what Turkish culture is like.

After that breakfast we had to say goodbye to Chemar, and that was pretty much the last we saw of him. We bbq-ed that night, grilling up some sujuk, which is a lot like chorizo, along with some lamb that had been soaked in yogurt and spices.

 It was top notch.

I think I gained like 5 pounds in 5 days.