Greetings again!!
Thank goodness for wonderful relatives!! Everyone has been so accomidating in the kindest of ways. From driving me ALL over the island- through the mountains (ot is so much cooler up there!) & the cities & the villages, to having us for dinner & coffee & fruit & sweets....
After visiting the cultural museum I didn't feel much desire to visit Turkey this time around. The workshop was incredible- the shops were all built around a garden, each for a seperate thing- woodworking, silver, pottery, weaving, & Lefkada lace- each room having someone in there crafting away. I saw the most beautiful traditional costumes, old looms, cacoon art, etc etc etc, Made our way around Nicosia- the old and new village. It keeps amazing me here...many villages have both the old & new. The culture stays alive, then the children build beautiful new homes close by.... There was a museum with old Byzantine icons..Downstairs there was a photo exhibit of all the old churches that have been destroyed on the Turkish occipied land. Upstairs were icons that had been torn from the churches & sold in the illegal art market. Some have been recovered, and are there on display, but the pain in the writings, in the stories & in the images from all of the Cypriots here...it is still so raw for them...
The girls are lovely. My third cousins (or I'm their 2nd aunt?? We've all lost track..)) Myrianthi, Marina & I have been working on gimp! Little had I known, gimp AND laughter would be the universal languages! Myrianthia has a birthday coming up tihs week as well. She's not doing a party the day of, as everyone here is on holiday, but she wanted me to join her & her family to celebrate for the day...so I'm touched! I wish I could communicate with them better, but we're making do.
I took a walk through the village, Pyla, with Yiayia the other day. We walked to the store that a cousin owns to pick up some odds & ends. On the way there she pointed out where her sisters & brothers used to live...the house ((that has now been DRASTICALLY remodelled)) that I stayed at during my last visit, where my 94-year old great uncle used to live, the road to the church & fig trees that I remember so well, and all sorts of tidbits from her memory.... There is a building behind my aunts house that her sister used to live in, then it was the school house for some time, then where the Turks had meetings. Now the door is locked & it is abandoned, but to think of it's life... She also showed me where her brother used to keep the cow, & where the hole in the ground used to be. My plan is to do the route again one day with the video camera.... On the way back from the store we were invited in to a Yiayia's house...they were all so thrilled to see us. They say I look like my grandmother. She has been so cute....this trip is a little harder for her than it used to be, but she's hanging in there & still doing & seeing what she can.
The mountains here have me in awe. I hadn't realized they existed like so!! They are just breathtaking...
My cousin Yota invited me to dinner last night with a friend of hers who speaks English. We went to this trendy, but quiet little restaraunt right on the ocean in Larnaka called Kudeta. After we walked along the Finigulas (palm trees). It was the perfect way to spend the Saturday night, & a wonderful break with some younger people! Today they took me to Lefkada- we walked around & had freshly made loukmades from the most charming little truck on the hill!!
Yiayia & I will spend a few days with her friends in the mountains soon. They collect antiques from all over the world..their home is like a museum! I am looking forward to the 15th of August as well..... it is a largely celebrated holiday here....
Tis all for now....I hope you are all well...
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