Extrinsic 5: Cities, Buildings Falling Down, Ideal Homes Falling Down

My photostream "Cyprus"

One of the day tours on offer in Cyprus is a trip into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)- the highlight of which is the 'abandoned city' of Famagusta where we were told you could 'see' the long out-dated clothes on display in the shops. Or at least that's how it was sold. As I was in the last divided country in Europe; the chance of crossing through an armistice line into a place with its own zone of interdiction, like a tame North Korea, appealed to me.

I went on this trip on July 14th 2007 and intended to write a post the following day. For whatever reason, I didn't. I dug out the old notepad I had on holiday at the time and the entry for this consisted of the date, title, and a blank page. Here's what I would have written had I not scrapped the post two years ago...

As always these bloody trips require getting up at 0700 when the only thing on offer in the restaurant is fucking sandwiches. Our hotel was in Paphos which is conveniently on the wrong side of Cyprus. After a mind-numbing eternity on the motorway, during which we picked up our Greek Cypriot Guide, the bus eventually reached the Green Line which we followed to the Eastern Sovereign Base for the crossing into the North. The Green Line seemed to mostly consist of open field, warning notices and lookout posts. Our Southern guide mostly spent this time covertly denouncing the Ataturk, only to do a complete about-face on that topic when the Northern guide boarded at the checkpoint. As tourists in the South, you could be forgiven for slipping into the perception of the Turkish side as a muslim East Germany. Both guides had stories about how the invasion and division of the island had affected them and their families. Both hoped Cyprus could be reunited.

As we entered the base area and checkpoint we were told to refrain from photography. I generally consider this a dare, but I didn't want to push it in a military base. After passing through that 18-30 hellhole Ayia Napa, we reached the first stop in the North - Othello's Castle. Not really much to see from that particular vantage, the area beyond the castle wall was dominated by a container terminal. Though as a new employee of Royal Mail I did spot an old colonial pillar box that was now bright yellow. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that because one of the women on the trip had food poisoning and was retching into the adjacent bin. The next stop was Varosha, the actual sealed-off part of the city. The crumbling seafront hotels just a few dozen meters away were behind netting and fencing and lots of warning signs. Oddly, the beach was open - though it was mostly empty other than our tour party and the handful of tourists staying in the North. I don't know whether this is a contributing factor in the lack of people, but I have never seen more cigarette butts in the sand than on that beach. Photography around the Forbidden Zone may or may not be permitted - there are a lot of conflicting accounts on this. I was happily snapping away unmolested, though the only photo of military personnel I took was at a distance. Presumably if they don't see you doing it, it didn't happen.

At this point I realised we had not and would not see any of the old hotels and shops up close. That claim about the clothes in the shop windows should be a bit clearer. You could see them if you could get near them, but that won't happen unless you want to get into an international incident. The final sight in the North was the historical site of Salamis, after which we departed the de-facto state. The odd thing about being in the TRNC is that for all you're told it's not a real country, you see all the same brand names and Mercedes dealerships you'd see in any other place.

In order to return we again passed through the Dhekelia base. Since we had passed through unobserved the first time, I decided there was nothing to prevent me from putting the camera in movie mode and pointing it out the window. And I was correct. Whilst I was busy videoing road signs, as you can see to the right, I missed the giant fucking unmissable radio antenna parabola briefly visible on the other side of the bus. I wasn't too worried about that since I figured something that big was probably well known. However, I've never been able to find out anything about it. It doesn't exist. Though I imagine a dish that size would have but one use. Perhaps it's better I didn't photograph that. Passport control is bad enough, I don't need MI5 hassling me.

Written 5th July 2010
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