the other side

Last weekend, Socs and I planned something entirely different to do. She would go shopping while I try to capture the “essence” of shopping behind the lens of her Canon 300D. Being a guy and not really planning on doing any serious shopping myself, I psyched myself up to not get too bored, try to help her pick out nice stuff and record the events of the day.

As far as planning go during my entire stay here, not everything went as we thought it would. For starters, Tita Eva called us just as we were about to leave the apartment asking us if we were willing to go to the other side. By this I mean the other side of Nicosia… in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, also known as the Turkish occupied territory. More info on that here.

I think Socs was looking forward to going shopping right here in the government controlled Nicosia, but getting a chance to go behind enemy lines was something too inviting to pass up even for a non-war person. And I guess the fact that shopping in the Turkish side is said to be cheaper compared to the Greek side did not miss her mind.

We left Cypriot Nicosia without any hassle (thanks to Tita Eva’s charms and knowledge of the Greek language), walked through the UN buffer zone and into Turkish Nicosia in a span of a few minutes.

I was a bit disappointed not to see any UN troops in and around the buffer zone. Although it was a unique experience to walk in an area that is not occupied by any country. It felt like walking into a warzone, and being in the Greek side up until then I did feel like I was walking straight into the heart of the enemy. I could feel the presence of something. I am not sure if it was all the Turkish flags flying or the occasional Turkish troops walking around or the UN car parked on the side of the street.


what more can a wardude ask for?

It was all a warzone until we went shopping. And yes I do mean ‘we’. I didn’t intend to buy anything there, but Tita Eva and Socs were a bad influence on me and the fact that the clothes where very nice and very cheap made buying stuff a real pleasure. If I didn’t exercise self-control during that time, I would’ve bought a whole lot of stuff from that one store. I was starting to enjoy shopping a little bit too much. That was on side of me I dread, I tend to splurge on stuff sometimes… scary stuff.

Anyway, we roamed around a bit on the other side… visiting a church/mosque, street shops and going to one of the Turkish markets while I kept taking as much pictures as I could of the place. I would’ve wanted to explore a bit more but we were getting hungry so headed back to the Greek side to call it a day. Perhaps I can go back to the other side… the Turkish side and the shopaholic side.

Some pics.