Turkish Republic of North Cyprus

AKA a country recognized by no country in the world other than Turkey. It has a cool flag that looks surprisingly similar to Turkey's. The southern part of Cyprus (Republic of Cyprus) has already joined the European Union. The north is hoping to follow suit, but the south doesn't seem into it for now. Turkey invaded in 1974 to protect the interests of the minority Turkish Cypriots who comprised at the time about a fifth of the population. Anyway, it seems only a matter of time before the two countries unite and heal their wounds.

The end result is we got to visit the world's last divided city. Lefkosa/Nicosia is split right down the middle, Berlin Wall style. The dead zone, about 30-100 feet wide, is discussed in The World Without Us.

We flew on the nice new comfortable 737s of KTHY airlines. Just prior to departing Turkey, Justin and Genevieve went on a coffee mission. They made the shocking discovery that only 7 yurtle coffee was available. (About 6.50 US dollars.) Starbucks was slightly cheaper, at 4.5 yurtles for a cup of drip coffee. Needless to say, we all took a pass and enjoyed our free small in-flight cup of NesCafe courtesy of KTHY.

Was coffee cheaper in Cyprus, beyond the confines of airport inflated prices? No! Oh, dear. What could we do? We had to resort to Tea and Turka Cola to stay caffeinated in the morning!
That, and fresh squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice stealthily gleaned from the Ship Inn's neighboring orchards.

Our villa (villa means male genitalia in Turkish Cypriot, which can be confusing and tricky when trying to book a room):



Here's Paxson Revel, thirsty and confused.