The Third Weekend in Cyprus

View of the northern territory from the observation deck.

Things in this part of the island were quiet over the weekend, so this will be on the shorter side of my blogs.

Friday was a quiet day of editing for both groups of students.  I have to confess that I have begun to enjoy this slower pace of life.  I'm not so fond of everyone opening and closing their stores whenever they feel like it, but a nap in the middle of the day is nice when the heat outside is oppressive.

Friday was a big day for editing because we had our first group dinner Saturday night.  The aim was for teams of two to bring traditional Cypriot dishes for a potluck dinner, this way we could hopefully experience dishes that we haven't had the opportunity to try yet.  Then, after we enjoyed the meal, we would view each group's video and kind of discuss where the project should go from there.

May of Nicosia (Lefkosia) as it was, many moons ago.

I was tasked with bringing a salad of some sort, so I figured it would be fun to create what is known in Cyprus as a village salad.

A village salad is very similar to an American house salad.  It contains romaine lettuce, sweet peppers (which I took to mean green bell peppers), radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, black olives, capers and fresh coriander.

Now, I have to admit that I don't know when I've had capers (if ever).  So, in looking for capers and black olives to purchase, all that I could find were black olives in brine and pickled capers.  Needless to say, both had a very strong smell and flavor.  So rather than add them to the salad, I meant to put them on the side and let people add them at will.

Another scooter, I just can't get enough of them.

Naturally, I forgot to bring them over with the salad.

I did however discover that I enjoy the taste of pickled capers because it's very similar to pickles (which probably has a lot to do with the "pickled" aspect and vinegar).  I have yet to actually try the olives.  Most of the olives here have pits in them, which I'm not a fan of.  And cutting them just seems tedious.

We also had a layered pasta and meat dish that was not unlike beef stroganoff, but had less flavor.  We had baba ghanoush, which is comprised of diced vegetables much like pico de gallo, bread from a local bakery, and baklava for dessert.

When is the last time you saw a palm tree
when looking into a window from the
outside?

The videos turned out fairly well, considering it was just the rough cut of each.  My group included music in ours, even though we haven't decided on a specific soundtrack yet.  Nor have we found any free, royalty-free music either, but we are getting closer.  We are specifically looking for traditional Cypriot music which is heavily influenced by Greece and an instrument called the bouzouki.

I've never really understood why I love bluegrass music so much, though I think it has a great deal to do with the sound of a banjo and memories of listening to it at my Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house in the mountains.

The best I can explain it is that bluegrass makes my soul happy.  It makes me feel carefree, as if nothing in life is really worth the stress or the worry that I often carry. And bouzouki, surprisingly, has the same effect.

So many books in the museum.
I'm in heaven!!

On Sunday, a group of students paid for a 5 hour cruise in Larnaca, during which time they fished, swam and snorkeled.  I, not wanting to spend the money involved in such a trip, opted for a quiet day in the Old City with Kendra, Chelsey and Dr. Legg.

Initially, we planned on doing the full walking tour of the Old City and stopping whenever the urge struck.  We would up, however, starting at an observation tower that provides a 360 degree view of Nicosia, even across the Green Line into the northern territory.  This observation deck reminded me a great deal of the Sunsphere in Knoxville (the big golden ball from the 1982 World's Fair) because around the windows are historical photos and blurbs about how Knoxville has grown and changed.

This picture is for Jeremy.
Plus, I've grown to love old keys :)

There was also a 6 minute audio history of Nicosia with a map that would light up in various places when mentioned.  I find this type of history lesson to be the most effective for me because it is visual as well as auditory.  As our day in the Old City continued, we discovered that this level of interactivity is fairly common throughout Nicosia when it comes to teaching about the city's history.

The next stop for us was the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia which was located in the most unprepossessing building imaginable.  It looked more like a typical house in Nicosia but when you walk inside you find yourself in a tiled foyer on the first of three floors of artifacts.

This is for my mom, a Singer sewing maching
In the Municipal Museum of Nicosia.

On a couple of the floors there are video presentations about various points in Cypriot history, but the best presentation was on the second floor.  On one table there was an embedded touch screen that would show you what the city of Nicosia looked like during several different periods of empirical control (Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian, etc.).  Once you selected which period you wanted to view, you could rotate the angle, zoom in on the buildings and pan across the landscape.

Then there was a video screen that you could sit in front of as you "toured" an animated reconstruction of Nicosia during the Ottoman empire.  The video was presented as if you were walking through the city, in the first person point-of-view.  Occasionally the animation would give way to sepia-toned videos that showed different aspects of life during this period.

For the women in my family, who are reviving
the art of hand-sewn items.

There was such an amazingly diverse array of artifacts in this particular museum compared to the archeological museum and the medieval castle museum I'd visited previously.  This museum contained anything and everything you could imagine including, money, jewelry, religious icons, clothing, fabric, furniture, and pottery most of which spanned across the last 600 years.

Part of me feels like I was meant to live in Europe because of the rich history that exists here.  I know that America will one day have as colorful and diverse a history, but for now I find it hard to compare 240 years of history with a story that extends several thousand years.

I may not know the language they're written in,
but I still want to read all of them!

You always hear the cliche phrase: "broaden your horizons."  Of the numerous times I've heard the adage, I always associated it with physical experiences, going new places and seeing new things.  I feel like now, however, my mental horizon is broadening so rapidly that it's incomprehensible to me.

So I apologize if I ever sound like a broken record, I'm just trying to take everything in.  This is a history and life lesson that I never want to forget.