The Occupied North-Kyrenia Castle

Yesterday we went to the Occupied North. By now, I am use to the military presence everywhere, but it was even more excessive in the Turkish side. You may be wondering if this is a strange or intimidating factor, but now it no longer is. The military personel are always partolling the green line and government buildings and it is super illegal to take their pictures. For the most part though, they tend to be friendly and military service is mandatory, so most of them are 20 year olds who don't want to be serving anyway. The thing about going to the north is that the occupied territory is an illegal entity, but the turks require anyone entering to show their pasport. However, if your passport is stamped by this illegal, unrecoginsed region, you are in big trouble if you want to go anywhere else in Europe or across the world. So, to solve this problem, the stamp a piece of paper. Seems pretty silly to me.

The Turks definitely got the better end of the deal. The northern part of Cyprus is just continuosly gorgeous landscape. Between the mountains and the Mediterranean, it feels charming and elegant. The only drawback of course is that many of the buildings are run down and I could feel internally that I was more on guard, as we all were. There is a lot more threat to your personal wellbeing on that side and no cell phones or emergency systems work. However, it is worth the risk because all of the most treasured cities, antiquities, etc of Cyprus is in the north. In fact, Cyprus lost 80% of it's economy from the invasion and the major tourist cities were all in the north. It would be like if Mexico invaded and declared they were taking NYC, all our national museums/parks/prized cities, 40% of our land, oh and half of Washington DC.

The first place we went to was Kyrenia. This was a picturesque town splashed by fishing ports along the sea and the mountains in the background. Here, we focussed our time at the castle. This was my first experience of a real castle, and I was mesmerized! They had a moat and everything, and the views all around..we just couldn't get enough of it! Tomorrow I will post pictures from the other city we visted, till then, enjoy the pictures!