An Idyllic Harbour Nestled Below Five Fingered Mountain

The choice of food and restaurants in Kyrenia is extraordinary wide, reflecting many different influences such as Greek, Lebanese and Turkish. My friend who lives in Kyrenia is a keen visitor to restaurants so I have tried and tested quite a few. The one I want to review for you today is situated in the old harbour and has a little bit of history to it, which for me, makes the whole experience extra special.

The restaurant is called Carob named after the black carob bean that is grown on the island and known to islanders as the black gold of Cyprus. Carob beans were once exported but now the bean is used to make a syrup called "Pekmez" which is used in cooking and made into a spread when mixed with tahini.

The Carob restaurant is part of the carob warehouse complex which has been renovated and now consists of pretty cafes, restaurants and shops along the harbour front. The atmosphere here is lively but you never feel overcrowded or rushed.

The building has the look of a tenement warehouse with its solid stone facade and three floors, simply furnished in a rustic style but light and airy. The top floor is the place to be as this overlooks the harbour and on a clear, sunny day which there are many in Kyrenia, you can sit sipping your wine whilst looking out at the yachts and small boats bobbing on the waves.

The menu is varied and vast but this particular restaurant is known for its Medzedhes (Turkish - Mezeler). Sometimes you can be offered up to twenty different bowls or plates of delicious hot or cold hors d'oeuvres. You can order this Cypriot speciality as as an appetiser or as a main meal. My friend and I usually order the selection as a main meal but then share the dishes. This is easily enough food for us both to eat.

Haloumi cheese or Hellim is one of our favourites and I just love the creamy taste especially when it has been fried. At the Carob restaurant you have the choice of fried, grilled haloumi, or it comes with a salad with biscuits, cucumber or melon. Humus is delicious as is tahini and the pickle selection. Other delicacies which were served to us in lovely earthenware bowls were; lettuce and yoghurt salad with a dash of mint and cucumber, octopus salad, tongue of lamb which I really loved and thought I wouldn't, small shrimps marinated in garlic and olive oil, sigara borek (feta cheese rolled into filo pastry and then deep fried) and of course, I must not forget the olives. Large, black and sumptious. I adore olives and Greek olives are delicious - so delicious - I eat them like sweets. I also recommend the olive bread at this restaurant. It is crispy and golden on the outside but inside light, airy and filled with olives.

A drink I recommend is lemonade. Here, in the Carob restaurant they make their own lemonade which is made from freshly squeezed lemons. This really is a thirst quencher if a little sour. You can always add a spoonful of sugar to it but I actually like the sour taste and find it quite refreshing. Last time I visited Kyrenia I actually didn't drink too much wine mainly because I was so thirsty with the heat. Keo beer is very good and something I recommend for a hot day.

Then we come to desserts - the Cypriots really know how to make a good cake even if they are very sweet. Kadeifi is a small honey filled cake which is very sweet but delicious and if you like Turkish delight then I recommend the Carob's very own Loucoumi especially the rose variety. It is just perfect.

Now we come to the last drink of the evening - Turkish coffee. The waiter asked us which way we would prefer to drink our coffee as there are three ways. Turkish coffee is served in a very small cup and you can either have sah-de which is without sugar, ortah - this is moderatley sweet , or shekerli which is very sweet. My friend has shekerli and I always have the unsweetened coffee.

There is an old Cypriot tradition which is carried out by some of the old ladies who live in Kyrenia. After you have finished drinking your coffee there is always some sediment or grains left in the bottom of the cup. If you tip your cup upside down on to the saucer and let the grains slide down the side of the cup to form a pattern on the saucer then you will be ready for the experts to read your fortune and tell you what lies ahead - good or bad. This is what one of the very handsome waiters told me in the restaurant. As much as I would have loved to know my future I chickened out on this famous pastime - perhaps I wasn't quite ready for the truth to be revealed.

So there you have it - a brief summary of what to expect at the Carob restaurant in the warehouse complex on the harbour front of Kyrenia. A wonderful location and experience.

Having visited southern Cyprus many times and covered the area from top to bottom I was lucky enough to be invited to northern Cyprus last year. A very dear friend of mine who had lived in Portugal at the same time as me bought a house there. As soon as the invitation came by e-mail, I spent two seconds thinking about it and within 30 minutes I had scoured the net and booked a flight to Ercan airport. I remember being very excited and jumping up and down and sitting on my packed rucksack thinking of all the culinary delicacies I would sample and glasses of ice cold, amber beer, I would savour whilst sitting under the shade in some taverna listening to old men play dominoes, just passing the day away. I was so happy that day and ecstatic when I saw the town where she lived.

Here is some info I found out about Kyrenia from one of the many family members........

The idyllic harbour set against the steeply rising Besparmak (Five Finger) mountain range makes Girne, called Kyrenia by the Greeks, into one of the most attractive resorts on the islands. In the bay, shaped like a horseshoe and dominated on the eastern side by a fine, sturdy castle, fishing boats rock gently alongside fashionable yachts whose owners, at least during the summer season, probably prefer this sleepy but attractive little town to the busy marinas of the Aegean. In days gone by, the warehouses around the harbour were used to store locally-produced carob and olive oil. Only a few have been converted into hotels and holiday apartments, while behind lie the ordinary homes of the local people. The promenade belongs to pedestrians - no cars disturb the peaceful atmosphere of souvenir shops, cafe terraces and tavernas.

My friend is a cockney now living on the south coast of England but he has a long relationship with this part of Cyprus. His sister married a Cypriot from Kyrenia who set up a car business in London and after making his fortune returned to his hometown where he lives now with the rest of his huge Cypriot family. During my vacation I met all members of his jovial family and picked up quite a few snippets of history which I recorded in my dilapidated travel book from which I will now relate to you.

It is thought that Kyrenia was first settled in the 10th century BC by Greek Achaeans, but little is known about the town until it came under the control of King Nikokreon of Salamis (312BC). Although a castle and walls were built in the 8th or 9th century, the town was attacked and plundered by Arabs and pirates on a number of occasions. In 1192 the town and the family of the last Byzantine ruler fell into the hands of the Crusaders. Four centuries later, in 1570, the town and castle were captured by the Ottomans without a struggle. At the beginning of this century many British officers, enticed by the mild climate, came to Kyrenia either as tourists or to retire. To give you an idea of the atmosphere in northern Cyprus during the unsettled 1950's I suggest you read Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons. The English writer lived for several years in Bellapais which I will mention later in my journal.

There are many wonderful sights to see in Kyrenia and I will tell you about some in my journal. However, I found the harbour area so beautifiul I could have spent the whole holiday just sat watching the world go by. This sun baked town really is lazy and sleepy and you will struggle to tear yourself away from the tavernas and cafes but if you do find the energy to move out of the shade then read the rest of my reviews regarding Kyrenia.

My friend is very fortunate to have a house in such a beautiful part of Cyprus, She doesn't stay there all the time but at least a few months of the year including May and June which is when I will be boarding that plane to Ercan airport once again.

If you go in the winter months then the castle is only open in the week. It was bult in the 8th century by the Byzantines and in my opinion, is the best preserved harbour fortress on the whole of the island. The base of the round tower has survived from the earliest days and marks the northwest corner of the complex. At that time the Byzantine St George's chapel was located outside the castle. The Lusignans renovated the north and east and built the horse shoe shaped Northeast tower and also the living quarters in the inner courtyrard. Although you can see the military functionalism there is still a touch of courtly elegance to admire.

In the 16th century the Venetians modified the castle still further and they are responsible for the finished design. In 1374 Genoese siege engines inflicted considerable damage to the walls and after the development of siege cannons, the fortress with its high, but rather weak walls, was too vulnerable to defend. Apart from the new Northwest Tower, there was no space for further reinforcement on the seaward side. But as a maritime power with galleys controlling the seas, the Venetian strategists mostly feared attacks from the land, so a new wall was constructed and the intervening land filled with earth and stones, thus creating a rampart 38 metres thick. An impression of the strength of these fortifications can be gained from the long, slippery passageway which leads through them down into the casements of the Southwest bastion. The strengthened fort was never put to the test, though. In 1570 and without a shot being fired, the Venetian troops - demoralised by the fall of Nicosia - surrendered to the Ottoman admiral Sadik Pasa, who still guards over the entrance from his sarcophagus in the gatehouse.

(Open Daily - 8am -1pm and 2,30 - 5pm)

The Gothic Bellapais Abbey (Abbey of Peace) stands in the heart of a sleepy village of the same name. Alongside the abbey stands the 'Tree of Idleness', made famous by Lawrence Durrell in his book Bitter Lemons. It is indeed a good place to sit and rest. Augustinian monks founded a monastery here in 1205. The abbey's pointed arches and ribbed vaulting in northern French Gothic style ought to have looked out of place in this Levantine landscape but, surprisingly, it seems to blend in well with the olive groves, cypresses and date palms. The Lusignan coat-of-arms above the entrance to the dining hall serves as a reminder of Bellapais's royal benefators: when Jerusalem fell, the Augustinians were expelled from the Holy Land and Hugo 1 donated extensive estates to the order. By the time the Ottomans arrived Bellapais was both structurally and morally disintegrating. A Venetian inspector who visited the site in the mid fifteenth century complained that the monks were not reading Mass, devoting themelves instead to their concubines and their children.

The Abbey cloisters are still, in my view, an exquisite sight especially in the early evening as the sun sets. The stonework changes to a rich honey color and the verdant conical shaped cypress trees gently sway in the evening breeze while the rich azul bed of sky, high above, looms over the tranquil abbey. A perfect picture at the end of a day.

In my view St Hilarion, for its position alone must rank as one of the finest sights in northern Cyprus. This marvellous castle of battlements and towers seems to grow naturally out of the steep limestone rocks of the Besparmark mountains.

Its name probably originates from a Palestinian monk who spent his twilight years in Cyprus (c.370), but the annals of sainthood contain 15 other pious men bearing the same name. A monastery emerged from the original settlement and then the Byzantines extended it into a castle in the 10th century. From 1228-32 Hilarion played a key role in Emperor Friedrich 11's attempt to seize Cyprus, almosty in passing, while on his way to the Holy Land during the 6th Crusade. Those loyal to the emperor and the supporters of the Lusignans exchanged the roles of beseiger and beseiged several times, until the emperor's army was eventually annihilated on the pass below the castle.

Hilarion consists of three clearly defined wards one above the other on the side of the hill. The stables and the soldiers' quarters are at the lowest level; above them are the old monastery and refectory in which the Lusignans held their banquets. You can climb to the upper ward of he castle but it is badly decaying and hard work but, once there, the view over the coastal plain and out to sea will repay the effort. I found the best time to view the whole complex was early in the morning when the sun is in the right position for photography.