Secrets of a special seaside town

by Coralie Daniels (Australia)

I didn't expect to find Cyprus

This was a small, sapphire city set about with citrus trees but worth a visit for the food, casinos, shopping and friendly people. The dark green horizon of the Mediterranean, flat and murky in the winter months reminded me of the eternal nothingness that I would meet one day. Intense, high mountains hug the town. White homes clinging to the mountain sides like broken oysters shone in the sunrise. Beautifully tender, salty calamari, the best I have ever eaten in this lifetime, can be found along the seaside near Lapta. All this and more at a quarter of the cost of the same in Australia. I felt safe enough to catch the local buses when I had worked out what to say in broken Turkish. The people smiled and waved if you made the first gesture and the call the prayer waking the neighborhood like the first crowing rooster, felt strangely comforting. Once, alarming the birds at 5:30am and then again about 7:30 just in case you slept through. Not all of Cyprus, not the Greek side, not the quaint mountain villages or the nature parks, but the growing town of Girne on the coast. You must go, you must spend your money, you must avoid the high season but go-you won't be disappointed.