Cyprus 2.

Last night we visited the famous "Paragadi" fish tavern. In a small street, far from the center (3 Niovis street) with a half-open terrasse, fresh air, fresh fish food and friendly waiters - it's really a place to go, well above average quality... and quantity as well. I mean the food... you cannot imagine! We arrived at around 9.30 pm and left before midnight. Until that they just brought the food, always something new and tasty. I felt like being at the shooting of the
"La Grande Bouffe 2." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Bouffe), the second part of the famous French movie where they committed suicide by eating way too much. We all ordered a fish mezze, which practically means that they bring EVERYTHING they find in the kitchen. And they have a huge kitchen, I can tell. After 1 hour I was stuffed to death, but that was just the halftime. I thought that Kiri was joking saying that the "Big Fish" is just about to come at the end but it turned out to be true. I actually had enough after the first 20 minutes just eating the appetizer tarama, salmon, some other fish with oignons and some other dips + salad. But the mezze just started afterwards, the squid, the octopus, the mussel, two or three other fish dishes, the paella, some more fish with cheese and honey, pasta with feta and crabs some other things I don't remember and the Big Fish at the end with vegetables. Plus the dessert and the bottle of fine white wine from Cyprus. We were not prepared for that - I personally was about to die, but everything was very tasty and excellent quality and overall we payed less than 30 euros per person. It's really a superb restaurant!
This morning I have skipped breakfast. The lunch too. After a small sightseeing in the morning in Nicosia we went to Kyrenia (Girne in Turkish) a nice city and important harbour at the northern occupied part of Cyprus. I managed to pass the borderline with my expired passport, they didn't check it very carefully. On the other side everything is in Turkish, the official currency is the Turkish Lira but they accept euro (at a rate of 1 lira = 0.5 euro, however the official rate is 0.45). There are Turkish flags everywhere, they even have a huge one on the mountainside - you can see that from kilometers. There are boats going from the harbour to Turkey, the closest destination is Tasucu, just 60km away. The harbour is really nice, cool wind is blowing from the sea, the temperature is somewhat below 30 degrees. After few hours sightseeing we got back to Nicosia. Tonight we are going to taste some more local wine. I think I'll skip the dinner too. The Big Fish is still swimming in my stomach... :)