GARDENERS MIGHT GARDEN IN NORTH CYPRUS, BUT I DID NOT SEE ANY

NORTH CYPRUS WHERE LOTS OF BRITS HANG OUT

We spent a week there recently, and I took as many photos as I could, of gardens and plants.

Dotted about were a few nice little green corners.

In the old city of Famagusta

FAMAGUSTA Or as it is known, Gazimağusa

What a strange place is Famagusta.   The centre is very old but there are of course widely spread modern outskirts to the small ancient city  enclosed in fortifications.  I say city, because it has a beautiful cathedral, in gothic style, which is now a mosque.

GARDENERS

There must be some, or rather maybe they are farmers, for I saw these very macho tools on sale in the market.

THURSDAY IS MARKET DAY 

If you ask the taxi driver for the market, they usually take you to a supermarket, so you have to be specific.

It is held outside the old town.  I expected more of a mix of stalls, but it was almost all vegetables and fruit. And what huge fruits!

Plums

Green beans and ocra

Pomegranates

Peppers, aubergines, chillies

Courgette flowers, spinach

Never seen such huge pomegranates, beans, tomatoes, aubergines, they have the lot there.  

Also honey is available in various size jars, unfortunately I am not allowed to bring heavy stuff like jars of honey back to the UK!

There was a bird stall, and a flower stall - by flowers I mean garden plants and small trees.  This is the only place where I saw a lot of flowering plants, so someone somewhere has a garden where they grow things like buzzy lizzies, just like they do in the UK.  If I lived there, I would certainly buy some of the little junipers, or are they cypresses, the ones that grow in tall thin needle shapes.

azalias and roses

cypresses

just like gardening in the UK, maybe

In the old city itself I saw these prickly aloes or agaves or - well not sure what they are called.  There was a garden, a planting of trees and shrubs just at the foot of the walled fortified city.  This was the most attractive part of the old Famagusta.

Rosemary and lavenders by the city walls

Very spikey

Walking in the centre, I noticed these plant pots, in some of them someone optimistically had tried to grow something green, but then given up the ghost.  Yet further along, were some fine ferns.  One thing is obvious, even in the Med plants need some TLC.

Some tried...

Some succeeded...

These exotic plants are loofas, they are growing up a tree, not far from our hotel.  They have attractive leaves too.  

loofas

And here are the dried loofahs, being sold by the roadside in old Famagust.  Maybe I should have bought one.

Other strange plants caught my eye, in these photos.  No idea what they are, though.

SALAMIS - ANCIENT ROMAN CITY OUTSIDE FAMAGUSTA

The snails of Salamis are intriguing, they are a pretty white, and they do not seem to move about, just snooze in the lovely hot sun.

The snails of Salamis

We spent a couple of hours at the ancient ruins of Salamis, most of it dated from Roman times.  The Roman baths were in good nick, but the statues dotted here and there had their faces removed, apparently this was done by the following hoards of invaders, such as the Christians (Venetians, I believe), the Ottomans, etc:  there was a lot of movement of various civilizations into this island of Cyprus.