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[cypezokyli]

on saturday we decided with a friend to visit the same street from both sides. just to compare. personal impressions from the walk :

we first walked in the north. first stop was ofcource the famous bridge. it is rediculously small, and couldnt help but think : "is that all".

in the sky , our 4 flags.

a very short distance of about-to -collapse buildings , and then our soldiers , our "people". it was a kind of a weird feeling since i was always used to go to ledras and watch at the "other". now i was at the other side , looking in a way "at my self".... really weird feeling.

the lokmaci street is also really small. the area around lokmaci really fitted the stereotype of "the east". my friend insisted that you cant find Turkish Cypriots around. "they are all at ledras" he claimed.

walking in ledras , the difference was striking. it fitted more the stereotype of the "west" .

i visited so many times the north, and i always felt the similarities. between ledras and lokmaci i felt for the first time a difference. i tried to ignore it but it was there. it is the same street, but the 50m long dead zone, made the two streets follow different courses.

some more comments :

if i was informed correctly , besides the street ledras , the "old nicosia" (that is nicosia inside the walls) , is inhabited mostly by immigrants. in different areas live pakistanis, arabs, east europeans etc. that is , if we exclude the central street of the old nicosia , inside the walls live only immigrants. the same is the case also in the north. only....different kind of immigrants

the armenian streets inside old nicosia (at least in the north) are still abandoned.

and the best ekmek in the whole world is really close to the ledras palace crossing :D


.......
anyone had same or other impressions ?

[Mete]

Quote:
anyone had same or other impressions ?

I had very similar impressions the first time I visited the Ledras Street. I had visited south Nicosia suburbs and Larnaca before visiting Ledras and I was surprised how similar the north and the south were despite the common conception that they are worlds apart.

Visiting Ledras Street for the first time made me compare the north and the south for the first time. Ledras really made me feel like I was walking in a little Mediterranean/European town and when I went back to the other side of the Ledra Street, I totally felt like I was out of that European town.

It's more depressing when you visit Ledras as it gets dark and then you go to Lokmaci when it's dark. When Ledras is full of people, especially in the summer, Lokmaci area is in total silence. I remember thinking how a wall could make so much difference.

Anyway, I'm sure once Lokmaci crossing is open, Lokmaci and Ledras will start feeling like a single street rather than two different worlds very soon. The quality of shops around Lokmaci area has already been getting better since the border crossings started and many cultural/entertainment places are opened in that area (Buyuk Han, Bandabulya, Sabur, etc.) so I'm very hopeful the future is bright for that area.