Taking the Old Road...

To Famagusta brought back many happy memories - reciting the list of villages our father encouraged us to learn off by heart which were found between the towns of Nicosia and Famagusta-  Afania, Assia, Vatili, Lysi, Kontea, Kouklia, Kalopsida and Varosha. My mother's trick of distracting us pointing to an "elephant" outside when we were getting fractious in the back seat. The many many patients my father treated from these villages, the kind hospitality we always received, and the beauty of some of the landmarks. Afaneia was a mixed village until the exchange of populations. Now it is under the TRNC. Just nearby off the main road is Ornithi and a beautiful 14th - 15 Century Basilica of St Artemonas which Anna is helping to restore with European funds. This is visible from the side of the road in the broad Mesoaria plain where bales of hay lay everywhere in the dried fields.

In the road beyond, a mud and wattle house with the most amazing Prickly pears which have gone rogue. The field nearby with its proud minaret, built of sandstone as was the custom then. The two religious places of worship standing side by side, as this was a mixed village. 

The bales of hay from the rich Mesaoria plain which provided the grain for all the island.