Editor

Ne’erday in Kyrenia

When we came to organize an event for Hogmanay three conditions influenced us.

a) That there is insufficient demand from the membership to organize our own Hogmanay Party as a Dinner Dance.

b) The Cypriot versions just don’t work.

c) Scott’s living room while large is not quite large enough to accommodate as an alternative venue.

Then inspiration struck – let’s go to Kyrenia and organize our own party.

As a result seventeen members and friends went North on the 30th of December.

Did we have a good time? We certainly did and I have the pictures to prove it!

We were last to arrive at the White Pearl Hotel on Friday Evening. After a wee libation in the hotel off we went for a meal in a restaurant a few yards along the harbour-front from the hotel. The meal was good but not too memorable, whether that was to do with the quality of the cooking or the quantity of wine consumed during it, is open to debate – call it a draw!

Anyway we were saving ourselves for Hogmanay the following evening. So dependent on how many Milk Thistle tablets we were on, the various members of the party gradually retired to their beds in their own time.

The next day we awoke to warm weather and a glorious sunny morning over the harbour. Some of the party were staying in the British Hotel but the majority were staying in the Pearl Hotel. Not a problem as it is about two or three paces between them.

After a breakfast which one could call “substantial continental” for want of a better description the members took off in various directions. Some went to visit the castle at the harbour; some went off in their cars to explore the Famagusta area. We went to visit St. Hilarion Castle. The castle is a construction made out of the natural rock and man-made additions.

The top is 732m above sea level and built on three levels. It is thought to be the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Castle. When you look at this edifice it is not difficult to believe this to be true. Anyway, be warned you need to be fit to get to the top. Even if you cannot reach more than the bottom level the views are still magnificent and you can see the Turkish coastline when visibility allows.

St. Hilarion Castle

So we can recommend a climb up St. Hilarion to put you in the mood for a pub lunch at the Pegasus Bar in Kyrenia.

After lunch and a walk round Kyrenia Harbour I was ready for a wee afternoon snooze.

I had just started enjoying my wee rest back in our room at the White Pearl when this noisy rabble starts downstairs, then our phone goes and its someone from Reception to say that “the party has started”.

Because we were last to arrive the previous evening no one had told us that the hotel had laid on a buffet and drinks at no charge. So for some, more than others, Hogmanay started at 4pm on the 31st December. At 8pm that evening we set off for Niazi’s Restaurant a few hundred yards from our hotel.

In our Highland dress we caused quite a stir among the local Turks. In the restaurant the food kept coming and the wine flowed.

It wasn’t long before Colin Wright was up there dancing with anyone who was willing. The Turks loved it and soon they were up there too. Niazi’s said that we had started a whole new tradition; they had never had anyone dancing in the place before. Midnight suddenly arrived and it was time to get back to the roof of the Pearl Hotel for the fireworks display over the Harbour.


Dancing in Niazi’s

Scott and I were walking in a dignified manner in the full splendour of our Highland evening dress (as you do!) when this young Turkish guy came rushing up shouting “you’re grossers”. “Does he mean grocers and why would he want to call us grocers?” Then the penny dropped – “He means we are cross dressers” By then he had gone and we never got to give him the “Glasgow kiss”.

The White Pearl has a bar on the roof which is used in the summer and which the management had left open for Hogmanay, telling us to help ourselves free of charge.

Luckily for the hotel we all had” oor cairy-oots” with us, but once again what fabulous hosts the owners of the hotel were to us. So we toasted the New Year in with Champagne on the roof of the Hotel with a magnificent fireworks display illuminating the harbour and the castle.

New Year’s Day dawned with some of us getting up and some of us just getting to bed.

After breakfast and a walk around the harbour we mustered for lunch at 1.00pm at The Brasserie, an Italian Restaurant set back from the harbour in a building that used to be the British Governor’s Residence.
Lets Go Party!!

The restaurant is run by Guido an Italian from Trieste, and his Irish wife, Liz. The are normally shut on New Year’s Day but opened the restaurant especially for us.

The food and the wines were excellent. Guido even put on a haggis starter flavoure with whisky accompanied by a parsnip puree (he couldn’t get the neeps) – absolutely fabulous!

We left eight hours later!

When it comes to lunches the French are mere amateurs with their four- hour lunch A great man once said to me “Scots have a herd instinct – they can’t leave company”

We went back to the harbour and had a nightcap (several) before retiring to bed. The following morning, the 2nd January, the real world was starting to impose itself and other commitments and demands required that we left Kyrenia at various times and by various routes.

Did we enjoy ourselves? We had a Ball!

The White Pearl Hotel could not have been better. We must thank Halat and Haluk, the two brothers who run the hotel, and their staff for their hospitality and generosity.

The quality of the Niazi and Brasserie Restaurants were excellent. Were they cheaper than the south? In absolute terms probably not but you were getting much more for your money.

Having said all that what made it the best New Year Party for all of us for many years? It was ourselves having an old fashioned Hogmanay with old and new friends!

We are going back for next New Year and are booking all of the rooms in the White Pearl for starters.

You will be very welcome to join us.