Cyprus

My husband Allan’s childhood home in Lebanon became too dangerous and his entire high school moved to Cyprus for six months in his sophomore year. This gave me the picture of Cyprus as a refuge. This idea of refuge was further strengthened by the first two works I found to travel to Cyprus while staying at home:

· The Stopover shows Cyprus as a place for French soldiers to decompress after deployment (I watched it on DVD from the library. It is also available on Kanopy.com).

· The Spice Box Letters, a novel by Eve Makis, follows members of an Armenian family in diaspora as they find each other again on Cyprus (available in many formats from your favorite library or bookstore).

But while a refuge for others, Cyprus has repeatedly been occupied and its own people made refugees. "A race advancing on the East must start with Cyprus. Alexander, Augustus, Richard and Saint Louis took that line. A race advancing on the West must start with Cyprus. Sargon, Ptolemy, Cyrus, Haroun-al-Rashid took this line. . . . Genoa and Venice, struggling for the trade of India, fought for Cyprus and enjoyed supremacy in the land by turns. After a new route by sea was found to India, . . . Cyprus was then forgotten; but the opening of the Suez Canal has suddenly restored her to her ancient pride of place" (British Cyprus by W. Hepworth Dixon, 1887 quoted in Bitter Lemons of Cyprus).

Parts of Cyprus are still held by the British and the northern portion is held by the Turks. Here are some works that explore some aspect of the two most recent invasions:

· Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell observes Cyprus during the last years of British rule. (I read it online through Hoopla, accessed with my library card. It’s available in all the usual formats through your favorite bookstore.)

· The Icon Hunter: A Refugee's Quest to Repatriate Her Stolen Cultural Heritage by Tasoula Georgiou Hadjitofi discusses the looting of artifacts from Orthodox churches after the Turkish invasion and her efforts to find and return those artifacts. (I borrowed it from the San Bernardino County Library.)

· The Island of Cyprus documentary by National Geographic tours Cyprus and shows residents longing for a time when the love of one’s country doesn’t mean choosing one side or the other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAwto68jEuI

If we were to travel to Cyprus, we would not only learn something about this history, we would also eat the food, listen to the music, and see both the beautiful beaches and ancient structures. First, let’s talk about Cypriot food! The Cyprus episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern held nothing bizarre for Allan or me - only delicious looking food! (We watched it on Hulu.) I can open the refrigerator at any time and find a package of halloumi cheese (original to Cyprus) that Allan has picked up from the middle eastern market. He'll eat it with pita bread or man’oushe. I had grilled halloumi two weeks ago when Kaitlin, Andrea, and I left the California fire induced unhealthy inland air to the slightly less unhealthy air of Laguna Niguel to try the only Cypriot restaurant I could find, Skewers Fresh Mediterranean Grill. Kaitlin and Andrea each had the grilled chicken wrap while I added salad with black eyed beans and grilled salmon to the grilled halloumi. All was fresh and delicious!

I chose the following recipe site because it has a recipe for the tahinopittes (sweet tahini pies) similar to those on the Bizarre Foods episode. I had to watch that part of the episode three times before I figured out how to roll these correctly. Allan likes tahini better than I do, so I was kind and limited myself to three.

https://afroditeskitchen.com/recipe_category/traditional-cyprus-recipes/

To me, Cypriot music sounds a lot like Arabic or Greek music. The Los Angeles County Library has some that can be accessed online and there are more samples at folkcloud.com, a webpage that allows people from all over the world to upload their folk music: https://folkcloud.com/folk-music-by-country/cyprus If you just want to listen awhile and you don’t want to click for each new song, try one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_8RerBOvA or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AWEdNArLnw

Options for a great trip to Cyprus may be seen at https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-cyprus/. When this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to Cyprus using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Cyprus and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Igor Starkov https://unsplash.com/photos/O9WEOPc9344