Cyprus, my five years

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5 years ago

I was in Cape Town when offered a position as executive chef for a new restaurant project on the island of Cyprus. This after working in many of the worlds top restaurants as well as having been personal chef to Elton John

The restaurant was an enormous project as the site was protected under the monuments act .
This means that the basic structure could not be demolished so we worked around a 100 year old shell

Before/ and $1,000,000 later)

"Viva la Vida" soon became the place to dine, 1st position on Trip Advisor for the entire island, rivaling even, the scores of 5 star hotels.

This may not be the right forum for this post as it has nothing to do with WA except that memories of a chef, food and restaurants is my niche. And it is nice to reminisce, so bear with me if I am not already boring you
Also with the Covid crisis many beautiful places like this will cease to exist and the very island of Cyprus will change for ever. But it is comforting to remind ourselves that our skin may change but never our bones or our souls; and Cyprus has ancient bones

The earliest confirmed site of human activity on Cyprus is Aetokremnos, situated on the south coast, indicating that Hunter-gatherers were active on the island from around 10,000 BC
It is also the mythical birthplace of the Godess Aphrodite. She was also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because both locations claimed to be the place of her birth.

Like in Greece there are many ancient ruins both in the South and North which, after a coup and the Turkish invasion in 1974 left a bitter legacy on the Cypriots.
There is passport control to travel from the South to the Turkish side on the North.

The North has a completely different feel and character, obviously more Islamic in nature
The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus is a demilitarized zone, patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. This is also known as the exclusion zone that was suddenly fenced off as a no go zone for all humans!

It is difficult to imagine that such a place exists on earth, eerie and bizarre.
A huge amount of territory lost in time and deserted. Tall buildings crumble away, as with hundreds upon hundreds of domestic dwellings. Enormous parts swathed in undergrowth, now inhabited only by snakes and stray cats. We are told of auto showrooms within its depths, still with "new" 1974 model autos.

In many respects, the underdeveloped North, with its now prohibited magnificent beaches and former mecca of luxury resorts along its azure coastline-is more interesting than the more "touristy" (before Covid) South.
Here are some pics of the North including some where taking photos was strictly prohibited. Which off course I did at risk of being throw into a Turkish prison