Saturday 30 Sept – Nickin’ off to Nicosia

Last evening, after an exhausting day trundling around in the heat, we sat out in the beautiful, cool yard of the Betul Guest House for a couple of hours, dining on pastries and fruit, complemented with a local white.  After a sound sleep and another delicious breakfast of omelette, breads and fruits, we walked out of the Famagusta Old Town and boarded our mini-bus for Nicosia.  An interesting journey; the bus only seats eighteen, with fold-down seats in the aisle when the regular seating fills up, but at one stage we had twenty-five on board, with the driver packing luggage around his legs.  However it was efficient, quick and cheap.

On arrival at Nicosia bus terminal we were met by our host Orhan and driven to our apartment, a large, three bedroom unit sitting on the top floor of an older building (but with a lift!), with two bathrooms, a separate lounge-dining area, a big kitchen and three terraces, two of which overlook the old town walls. After dumping our luggage we headed off to the old town to explore the narrow, historic streets and lanes, lined with mosques, Frankish ruins, a medina-style market and lots and lots of cafes and shops for the tourists.  We entered the Selimiye Mosque, whose prominent minarets are visible from our apartment.  Formerly a Christian church, building commenced in 1209 but progressed slowly, until Louis IX of France dropped by in 1248 on his way to the sixth crusade and threw some money at it, however it still took another 78 years to complete and was consecrated in 1326 as the Church of Agia Sophia.  An interesting feature is that four marble columns from the ancient city of Salamis (which we visited yesterday) were relocated into the apse (another such column stands in the town square that we passed through as we entered the old town). When the Ottomans took over Cyprus in 1571 they stripped the building of its Christian contents and adornments, turned the two bell towers into minarets and it became a mosque.  It was interesting to stand in the austere, plain interior and try to picture how it would have looked as a Byzantine basilica, with all its trappings.

On to the Belediye Paxari, the local municipal market, where we bought some fruit and salad vegetables, including a kilogram of delicious figs for €2 (a bit under three dollars).  Next stop was the Buyuk Han, once a caravanserai, built in 1572 by the first Ottoman governor of Cyprus for travellers and traders passing through the city, with accommodation and stables, as well as spaces to trade their wares and socialise with fellow travellers.  The central courtyard, which also houses a small Islamic chapel, is now a bustling hive of shops, stalls and outdoor restaurants – a perfect place to stop and enjoy a lunch of dolmades, spinach pastries and salad.  After lunch we meandered through the narrow streets before finding our way back to our apartment, pausing just a short walk from our digs to check out the “green line”, the border between Turkish and Greek Cyprus, which we will cross when we leave Nicosia on Tuesday morning.

Dinner was chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, figs, nectarine and fried haloumi from the market, drizzled with olive oil and caramelised balsamic, and washed down with a 2002 Salamis chardonnay (provided by our host), accompanied in part by the haunting Call to Prayer from the mosque.  Then out on to our largest terrace to contemplate the Nicosia skyline. Bliss!

Tomorrow: we will find another mini-bus to take us north, to the sea again and the ancient town of Kyrenia.

Friday 29 Sept – A slice of Salamis

We were provided with breakfast this morning – fried eggs, haloumi and tomato pide, fresh tomato and cucumber, two cheeses, olives, jams, ricotta pastries, sliced melon, fresh pomegranate and a selection of breads. Fortunately we were being picked up by Salah’s friend, Iyad (another interesting fellow – Syrian engineer who also fled his homeland at the outbreak of the civil war), so we didn’t have to waddle far to his car.

We drove a few miles out of town to the ancient city of Salamis which was founded, according to legend, around 1180 BC by Teucer, son of Telamon, king of Salamina on the Greek mainland.  Brother of the hero Ajax, Teucer was unable to return home from the Trojan War after failing to avenge his brother’s death.  Salamis was an important trading centre from about the 8^th century BC; it later came under Assyrian rule and when Cyprus became a Roman colony the city really prospered.  Unfortunately two earthquakes (1^st and 4^th centuries AD) and a tidal wave interfered in its prosperity and the city crumbled and during the mid-7^th century AD it was evacuated only rediscovered in the last century or so.

The archaeological site covers about seven square kilometres and contains several significant sites – the huge colonnaded gymnasium, complete with swimming pools, baths, saunas and latrines; the adjacent amphitheatre and 15,000 seat theatre; the remains of several Roman villas; temples, basilicas, aqueducts, reservoirs, agoras (market places, including a fish market) and water reservoirs.  We trudged around in the intense heat, enjoying every minute of it as we marvelled at the ingenuity and determination of the people who built these great structures – basically by hand - and managing to find a few shards of ancient pottery, complete with decorations.  It was particularly interesting to be doing this with a civil engineer, so we could speculate on the construction methods that they must have used.

Then back to Famagusta, a farewell to our friend Ayid, a brief lunch and off to find a few more churches (or their remains) – St George of the Greek, a stately Byzantine church, now in ruins but with traces of frescoes extant in the nave; St George of the Latins, the oldest of them all, also in ruins;  and the Nestorian Church, still largely intact but unfortunately locked.  Then a walk through the Othello Tower, built in the 12^th century AD as an extension of the town walls.  Leonardo da Vinci apparently advised on its later defensive improvements, which involved construction of more walls in about 1481. 

On the way home we passed a delightful patisserie and made an on-the-spot decision to have a light (?) dinner in our courtyard at “home”, so we bought some sweet and savoury treats (which no doubt contain all five food groups) and wandered home, again passing our little friend who we have seen repeatedly over the past couple of days and reminds us so much of our own Sasha.

Tomorrow – on the bus for Nicosia.

Thursday 28 Sept – From Greece to Turkey: one island, two countries.

We ventured to a nearby outdoor cafe for breakfast – ordered one English breakfast and the lighter vegetarian breakfast for Elizabeth. Shortly after, the waitress brought out two English breakfasts and to cover her mistake said: “This is better!” as she placed the English breakfast in front of Elizabeth.  After breakfast we went for a walk around Larnaca, to the Castle of Larnaca, believed to have been built in the middle ages and rebuilt during Ottoman times, to defend against sea attacks on the town.  After the Ottoman times the British occupiers used it as a prison (complete with gallows).  From the ramparts you can see the sea, as well as the endless sea of beach umbrellas. Then a visit to the Byzantine Cathedral of St Lazarus. A beautiful, ornate church built in the early 10^th century during the reign of Emperor Leo VI.  It contains the tomb of St Lazarus (which was obviously empty).

Our new best friend Salah picked us up about 12.30pm for the one-hour drive to Famagusta (which included a border crossing) and during the journey we learned that he was a professor of English and had taught in Malta and also at a university in Damascus, Syria, only fleeing (and leaving most of their possessions behind) when the current civil war broke out.  He married a Syrian girl - “she is so beautiful, she could have married anyone” and “She does not wear a veil. She wears mini-skirts.”

Upon arrival at our charming guest-house accommodation within the old walked city of Famagusta we were greeted with cold drinks and cake, then we set off on foot to explore the old town, which is defined by the early-16^th century Venetian walls that totally surround it.  Over fifteen metres high and surrounded by a now-waterless moat, the ramparts failed to keep the Ottomans at bay and the city fell in 1571. Then to the Mustafa Pasa Camili, formerly the Cathedral of St Nicholas, built in the early 14^th century but converted into a mosque after 1571 and still used as such today.  Although obviously of Byzantine origin and the finest example of Lusignan Gothic in Cyprus, it is now totally devoid of any embellishment or ornamentation. Then to St Peter and St Paul Church, a mammoth church, also 14^th century and still structurally intact, but now completely empty and undergoing renovation.  Nearby were the ruins of the Venetian palace with its triple-arched entrance, the ruins of another 14th century St Nicholas church and the Ottoman bath-house.  We stopped for a delicious late lunch and then wandered the back streets, looking at the blend of the old and the new, and made our way back to our digs for a rest prior to dinner.

Tomorrow – off early, a few miles north to the ancient city-state of Salamis, the ruins dating back to the 11^th century BC.

Wednesday 27 Sept – Locked out in Larnaca

After packing our bags and saying farewell to our charming host Lucianne  we set off for our final walk around Valletta.  First stop a lovely outdoor restaurant opposite the cathedral for a delicious breakfast, then a stroll through the local street markets, a look at the churches of St Francis of Assisi and St Barbara, and a visit to the National Archaeological Museum to view farming implements from earlier than 5000BC, carved limestone and artefacts from the Temple Period of 4000BC and pottery and jewellery from the Bronze Age.  We then walked up to the Upper Barracks and sat in the shade until it was time to return to our apartment (through the throngs of tourists who had come off the four large cruise ships that had docked overnight), collect our luggage and be driven to the airport for our flight to Larnaca, Cyprus.

We were met at Larnaca by our friendly driver Salah and driven the short distance to our hotel in the main street of Larnaca, directly opposite a 10^th century Byzantine church.  The only problem was that the hotel was closed, there was no reaction to our repeated knocking and we received no response to our calls to the two numbers listed outside the hotel.  Fortunately a neighbour wandered up and showed us a secret hiding place in the wall of the hotel. We opened the hatch, sure enough, there was a set of keys with our name on it.  Welcome to Cyprus! We high-fived our saviour, found our room and immediately set off for a walk around the village-like town of Larnaca before settling on a lovely restaurant directly opposite the church.  We sat outside and had meatballs, haloumi and Greek salad, washed down with a local white wine, before returning to our hotel for the night.  Life’s an adventure!!

Tuesday 26 Sept – Another day in paradise…..

A full and exciting day! First up, we spent an hour and a half in Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.  Its austere exterior absolutely belies the breathtaking opulence of its interior.  It was built in the late 16^th century (1572-1577) by the Knights of St John following the establishment of Valletta as Malta’s capital (after the Great Siege of 1565) and initially, though huge, was quite plain inside.  However as the years passed, the grand masters, knights, popes and monarchs donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous financial contributions to enrich the cathedral with the best of everything.  As a result, it is most glorious and magnificent artistic expression of the High Baroque era.  Everywhere you look – the walls, the ceiling, the chapels, even the floor – are covered with brilliant frescoes, paintings and statuary, marble panels and intricately carved and coloured woodwork.  The entire floor is taken up with the tombs of former knights, all adorned with colourful crests, symbols and inscriptions.  The oratory contains two Caravaggio paintings, The Beheading of St John the Baptist (the largest of Caravaggio’s paintings and the only one he signed – in St John’s blood) and the exquisite St Jerome Writing.  We had to literally tear ourselves away and needed to sit down for elevenses to compose ourselves.

We then walked to the Upper Barracks, colonnaded gardens created in the 16^th century as a haven for the knights to relax, and witnessed the daily mid-day firing of the cannon from the Saluting Battery, which was established by the knights at the end of the 16^th century and was used to mark special occasions.  For the past several years a group of volunteers, in old British army uniform, has fired the cannons at noon and 4pm each day.  Elizabeth, our travelling photographer, did very well to capture the precise moment!  We then descended to the waterfront and boarded a gondola to be ferried across the harbour to Vittoriosa (just the two of us and the gondolier - much more romantic than the crowded ferry we caught the other day).  We walked up to Fort St Angelo, the other main fort that protected the harbour entrances (we have already reported on St Elmo).  The knights took over this ancient fort in 1530 and strengthened it – it played a pivotal role in the Great Siege of 1565.  It was severely damaged by German bombing during the 1942 siege but has been beautifully restored (with restoration only completed in the past couple of years), with some wonderful film displays and exhibits.  The views in all directions are amazing.

After lunch overlooking the harbour (filled with multi-million dollar boats with names ranging from “Plan B” to “Iggle Piggle”) we wandered ever upward until we found the Inquisitor’s Palace, built in the 1530s.  In 1570 it became the tribunal and prison of the Inquisition, whose task was to identify and suppress heresy, and to correct and/or punish those guilty of heresy.  An interesting building, over several floors, it contains the inquisition tribunal room, prison cells, torture chamber, as well as living and administrative quarters for the inquisitors.  The torture room contained a sort of rack and rope pulleys for encouraging confessions.  Torture was not to be applied without just cause, only if the accused failed to admit his guilt and the inquisitor believed that he was guilty anyway.  Persons found guilty of heresy could be admonished, flogged, imprisoned, exiled or, in extreme cases, executed. It was interesting to note that one inquisitor, Antonio Pignatelli, who no doubt oversaw some pretty vigorous interrogation and punishment, went on to become pope and chose as his papal name Innocent XII.  Irony, anybody?

Back down the hill and onto another gondola for the ride back across the harbour, then our last call was to the Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck, dedicated to St Paul, who in 60AD was shipwrecked on the Malta coast while en route to Rome.  He took the opportunity to introduce Christianity to the Maltese people and is still revered here.  The church dates from the 16^th century and houses a reliquary containing wrist bones of St Paul, as well as a part of the column on which he is said to have been beheaded in Rome.

Tomorrow – we spend our last morning here, including a visit to the Archaeological museum, then we board our flight for Cyprus.  Malta is an absolutely beautiful place, perhaps the most beautiful we have visited, and we will remember it forever.

Monday 25 Sept – Go Go Gozo!

We spent a fair bit of today travelling, just to get to Gozo, the second-largest of the three islands that make up the Republic of Malta.  First, what has now become the customary walk to the bus terminal, then one and a half hours on a crowded bus to Cirkewwa, the western-most port of the island of Malta, then a thirty-minute ferry ride to the Gozo port of Mgarr, then a 45 minute bus journey to Victoria, the capital of Gozo, then a further fifteen minute bus ride to Xaghra, our first destination.  But it was worth it. 

Xaghra is the location of the Ggantija temples. Ggantija in the Maltese language means “giant”, because earlier inhabitants believed that the temples must have been built by giants – and they may have been right. The temples, dating back to between 3600BC and 3000BC, are the largest of the megalithic temples to be found on the Maltese islands. Some of the walls stand over six metres high and the two temples cover a distance of more than forty metres.  We wandered through the visitor centre, with displays putting the temples into historical and archaeological context, then were able to walk through most of the temple complex itself – some of the limestone megalith stones weigh up to fifty tonnes!  A short walk up the hill took us to the Ta’ Kola windmill, built in 1725 at the instigation of the Knights of St John to encourage flour milling and is one of the few left standing.

Then yet another bus ride back to the capital Victoria for lunch and exploration of the citadel, dating back to antiquity and appearing to grow out of the rocky outcrop that dominates the town.  The walls of the citadel have been totally restored and we could wander the through the narrow streets as we would have five or more centuries ago.  The beautiful Cathedral of the Assumption has a long history; the site was part of the pre-historic settlement of Gozo, then it was a Roman temple dedicated to Juno, then after the Christianisation of Malta and Gozo it was converted to a church and dedicated to the Virgin Mary; later a Byzantine church was probably built but it was destroyed when the island was under Arab rule; after the Arabs were kicked out it again became a Christian church (at the end of the 13^th century) and it was enlarged during the 15th and 16^th centuries.  After all that, it was damaged in the 1693 earthquake and it was decided to demolish it and start again, so the cathedral that we walked through today was consecrated in 1716.  It is very ornate, with three magnificent domes and a visit-worthy museum and picture gallery.

Next stop, still in the citadel, was the old prison that served as a gaol during the tenure of the Knights, from the early 1500s, and was particularly useful for locking up hot-tempered knights who wouldn’t toe the line.  Then a walk through the small but interesting natural history museum followed by a visit to the faithful recreation of a noble’s house from about the 17^th century, and then the trek back home: a negotiated taxi ride back to the ferry (and a cooling ice cream while we waited to board), the ferry ride back to Cirkewwa, then back on the bus for the one and a half hour ride back to Valletta.  While waiting for the bus we struck up a conversation with a lovely Australian woman, Jennie from Northbridge Sydney, and chatted all the way back.  Then the long walk home.  A long but thoroughly enjoyable day.

Tomorrow – we visit the last of our “must-sees” in the Valletta area.