Don’t you get scared hitch hiking?
Yeah, texting and driving is a problem everywhere. It’s terrifying to stand by the side of the road and see people not paying attention.
I guess what I’m really saying is, the world is full of good people. I have learned this time and time again.
My hitching rules:
- Don’t look like a stripper. Not hard for me or the company I keep.
- Smile. It makes me human, it makes me likable, and much less likely to be a murderer.
- Walk in a safe area during daylight. If it’s after dark, I splurge for a cab or bus or contact a Couch Surfer.
- Use my best judgement. I haven’t been in a bad situation yet, but I’m also not afraid to demand to be let out of a car if I don’t get good vibes.
How great is this view?! Why would anyone want to rush by in a car? Also, it’s really cool to get closer to the flags on the mountain. Remember, underneath they say, “Happy is the one who can say, ‘I am proud to be a Turk.’”
123 Bus
The bus that passes my apartment to go downtown and to the freeway is the 123. For the first time since I’ve been here, it pulled up just as Ariela and I stepped out of our apartment on Saturday morning. And it just… kept.. moving. We must’ve looked quite content sitting at the bus stop.
As a joke, I threw my thumb out and started laughing that we wouldn’t get a ride. We started walking toward the main road. Not three cars passed before a gentleman pulled over and told us in perfect English to jump in.
Hitch One- Man with child
I SO wish I remembered this man’s name. He had his son for the weekend and was taking him to see the Peace Players game. The son told us that his 10th birthday is Tuesday, and he’s having his friends all come to a sportsplex for the party.
The father told us that he has 5 extra bikes at his home, and invited us to borrow them whenever we wanted. The only problem is that I lost his number since we left his car.. I was really looking forward to that. In addition, he spent 12 years in New York completing his studies, masters, and his entry level work before returning to Cyprus. He even gave us a bit of a tour of the boundary before dropping us off at Ledra Street.
Ledra Street is the main street in Nicosia’s Old City, and at the end is the border crossing. Pulled out the passport, crossed the border..
1.5- A woman with an honorable mention
As we walked across the border, we decided to get out to the main road before trying to hitch- it’s just awkward and difficult in the city, plus the walk was only a kilometer (10 min walk).
We walked past a Hamam- an ancient bath house that is still used. We went in only for a price list and ended up sticking around and talking to the desk person for about 20 minutes. I was so hungry, and when we tried to leave, she offered us a bagel instead! Breakfast: managed.
The woman commutes in from Kyrenia every day and offered us a list of places to go in her city. She was so polite and thrilled to get to practice her English.
Photo break! This is the castle and fortress that we were going to visit in Kyrenia. It was originally built by the Ottomans and is on the coast that faces Turkey.
Hitch Two- Man who couldn’t match to save his life
This guy spoke three words in English: Yes, Ok, This.
“How are you?”
“Arabic, Turkye”
“Oh.. We’re going to Kyrenia. Girne” Girne is the word for Kyrenia in Turkish.
“Girne! Yes ok! Cafe Turkye”
“Sure. Girne!”
“Yes! This Turkye! La Turkye, es Turkye…” Pointing at every business telling us it’s Turkish, apparently. He then tried to stop for a Turkish coffee, but our goal was not to spend money.
After this awkward encounter, he dropped us off at a bus stop and said, “Yes, this Girne bus”
We thanked him, waited for him to get a bit down the road, and walked past the bus stop in the direction of Kyrenia.
Total spent so far: 0.
Hitch three- Turkish girl
We got the words from Old Crow Medicine Show’s song Wagon Wheel (thumbin my way to North Carolin’) stuck in our heads, and after stopping for a photo op, were almost dancing our way down the road. 18 kilometers to go!
This girl saw us and started laughing, so she pulled over to help us out. As it turns out, she knew English well but was only going about 2km further on our route before taking a turn at a roundabout for her city. It was a really fun 2km, though!
Hitch four- Africans
These three gentlemen were from Africa- one from Kenya, one from Uganda, and one tried to tell us he was from the UK. He did NOT know enough English to be from the UK, so I really don’t know what that was about.
These guys were incredibly nice, and were driving from their university in Famagusta to spend the day in Kyrenia. They dropped us off right in the heart of Kyrenia and went on their way.
We were in need of some nutrients again by this point, and stopped off for some fresh squeezed orange juice. In the US, ‘fresh squeezed’ is a relative term. Here, they cut a spot off the top and bottom of the oranges, and pressed them until the juice fell into the cup below. No sugar, no preserves. He even gave us a carrot when I asked (he also made carrot juice)
The Kenyan one in the group has lived here for less time than we have!
Checkpoint in Kyrenia:
Money spent: 10 Turkish Lira, or about 3.5 Euro.
Nationalities of people met: 5 (UK, Uganda, Kenya, TRNC, Turkish)
Attempts made on our morals our our lives: 0
So far, so good.
Kyrenia
We wandered around the piers and the castle for a while and waited for some friends who were supposed to meet us. Our friends never managed to meet us, but we had a great time meeting restaurant owners and locals and other tourists.
Sitting on the pier/wall. On the left you can see the castle, and the sea on the right.
We kept getting stared at- more than on the Greek side. We deduced that it is because TRNC is a predominately muslim nation, and to see two blonde people, women without men, and not fully covered, was just too weird to not let your eyes fall on.
Eventually, we decided to walk around the fortress and back down to the piers.
“I’m going to go touch the water!” Okay. I pulled out my camera just in time to see Ariela slip. Luckily she fell backwards and did not ruin her passport, camera, or anything else, but she was up to her knees in salt water.
Hitch five- the boat guys
At this point, Ariela was partially soaked and we were about to succumb to buying a seafood lunch, just for somewhere inviting to sit and not get stared at. We joked about how cool it would be to go on a boat, and I told her she should ask the nearest fishermen. Her response: “I’m following the lady in the dress.”
“Hey, do you guys speak English?”
“Yes, my mother is an English teacher!”
“Can we have a ride?”
“Sure, give us… five minutes. Then we can go.”
Well that was easy.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
These guys were very polite to sit and talk with. After our trip around the bay, they offered us coffee on the dock. American men bring beer- Turkish men wouldn’t be caught dead without their gas burner, coffee pan, and extra cups and sugar. So Euro.
We sat with them for a while, and one of them made a phone call. Out of the blue, he looks at us and said, “Do you prefer doner or kafta?”
“Why? No! You don’t have to get us lunch!”
“Quick, decide.”
“Whichever one you think is best then.”
Not five minutes later, a moped showed up with 4 yogurt drinks and 4 sandwiches! Although the TL is weak and the country is relatively inexpensive, it was still so nice for them to get us lunch. They really were excited to show us plenty of their culture!
As part of our conversation, one of the guys told us that he does beekeeping in his spare time. We found that where we wanted to go next is on the route between the harbor and his bees, so he offered to drop us off in Bellapays.
So, we waited for him to clean up the boat a bit and headed off toward Bellapays!
A view of the fortress and mountains from the boat.
Bellapays
The old cathedral at Bellapais. It has largely been destroyed, but the gardens around it combined with the foggy sunset were so beautiful.
Cheesy friendship photo from the top of the Bellapais mountain. There was no way to get a great photo, but we could see down into Kyrenia and the fortress from up here!
Money spent: 24 TL, or about 8 euro, between the two of us
Nationalities of people met: 5 (UK, Uganda, Kenya, TRNC, Turkish)
Attempts made on our morals our our lives: 0
Hitch six- Lorry Drivers
At this point, we were getting tired. These guys also weren’t in the mood for much conversation, and they got us as far as the bus stop toward Nicosia. Sometimes people don’t understand that it’s about the journey rather than the destination!
At this point, I bought some water and chocolate milk. It was 6 TL, or 2 Euro.
Hitch seven- Guy who wanted to take us home
This guy spoke just enough English for me to realize he was the punk friend I never had in high school. He was a good guy, but also wanted to help us in an odd way. His idea was that he’d go home first, then take us to Nicosia.
Not that we don’t want to see as much of the country as possible, but we also didn’t really want to go to some small town in the North with someone that we didn’t know.
So, he drove us about 10 min down the road and dropped us at a random bus stop. It was a confusing few minutes. He was nice to us though, and was totally okay with us not wanting to meet the family.
Another photo break from Ballapais! I am usually behind the camera 🙂
Hitch eight- Sallih the photographer
This. Guy. Was. Awesome. As a college student in the era of hipsters, when someone tells you they’re a photographer, you can’t help but take it with a grain of salt.
Salli was returning from Kyrenia after having delivered a set of wedding photos that he took a few months ago. He had us look through some of his work, and I was really impressed.
[ https://www.facebook.com/leophotographycyp if you want to check out his work! ]
He and his girlfriend live very close to the boundary, so he took us right to the Ledra Palace gate. This is a different gate with about a km of ‘grey area’ to walk through between the Turkish and Greek sides. He was so cool, and we were glad to have made it home 15 minutes before the last 123 bus.
Hitch nine- The old man
Ariela and I ran into a friend on our way to the bus station. She was so enamored with our story and wanted to try it for herself. Lo and behold, the moment we stepped on to the main street and put our thumbs out, an old Greek gentleman pulled over and brought us home. He was so ornery and reminded me so much of my late grandpa. It was a perfectly humbling ending to a great day! Plus, we got to share our experience firsthand with a fellow student!
The final count- is humanity out to get us?
Money spent: 8 euro between the two of us
Nationalities of people met: 5 (UK, Uganda, Kenya, TRNC, Turkish)
Attempts made on our morals our our lives: 0
No. The world is full of people who want to help people, especially in a culture that views women as people to be protected. People love the opportunity to share their stories or cultures.