Cheese Goes to Salamis in North Cyprus

Well it’s been a long hard winter in Northern Cyprus so far, and so when the sun finally popped out from behind a cloud last week I decided it was high time I took Cheese out for a walk.

The trouble is we live along a dirt track that turns into a muddy swamp when it rains and Cheese won’t venture near it so it was a case of driving somewhere and taking him for a drag and so off we went to Salamis.

I’ve been living in North Cyprus for almost two years and am ashamed to say that I’ve never been before – having seen what I thought were rather fanciful tourism board pics I wasn’t sure what to expect – well, imagine my surprise when Salamis actually turned out to be incredible and amazing and all sorts of other exclamatory words like that.

For a start it’s HUGE and goes on for miles and miles and you can wander all over it – which had me in a bit of a dither really – part of me was happy that I could explore every cobbled road, latrine, mosaic, column and amphitheatre – but part of me couldn’t help wondering whether it was a good idea to let a big fat puppy (that’s Cheese I’m describing, not me) scamper all over the place?

Anyway, Cheese was rather overexciting by it all and even though he had his bra on (his lead harness thing) he still managed to drag me round at ninety miles an hour.  He was momentarily struck dumb and still by a huge towering statue before which he laid and bared his belly in submission - but after I patted it (the statue not his belly) and showed him it was safe he was off again and ran me up to the top of the amphitheatre and practically off the other side.  I had to let him off the lead to go back down otherwise it would have been a case of me falling down the four million steps to my untimely death.

So – Salamis – well, if you’ve never been before Cheese recommends it – it’s got lots of interesting places to sniff and there was even a strategically placed urn which was full of rain water and which Cheese believes is an ancient dog bowl - and if you go in February you can have the place to yourself.  Personally I can recommend it too – the views out over the Mediterranean are amazing and the whole of the Salamis site just takes your breath away.  Oh, and on a final note my mum who was with me and Cheesepops says she can recommend the loos – so there we are then, plenty of good reasons for you to go to Salamis when you next take your holidays in North Cyprus.  And if you’re trying to make out what the picture is of - well, it’s me and Cheese at the top of the amphitheatre getting our breaths back!