We were lucky to spend a festive day in Northern Cyprus with the Assistance Program volunteer Julia. Many thanks to her for this gift. Julia showed us one of the local attractions today, Bellabais Manastiri (Bellapais Abbey). Everything was like a fairy tale. I wanted to spend more time in this place, but, alas, it was time to get back to the main business.
My wife and I have been in Northern Cyprus for the sixth day, and Julia has been with us all this time. Ilya spent three whole days with us, introducing us in detail to all the complexes and objects of the Russian Quarter. One is better than the other! Everything has its own highlight for many factors, as they say, for an amateur and for possibilities. They “chewed” every nuance for us in great detail, comparing it with our needs, requests, possibilities, sometimes prompting, sometimes warning, advising something, on the contrary, not advising something. They were attentive and unhurried.
Ilya and Yulia introduced us to Olga B-oy, a professional in her field, who will handle legal matters on our behalf. We, residents of Central Asia, who have known firsthand what hospitality is since childhood, were amazed by their sensitive care for us. For which we are very, very grateful.
Tomorrow we are leaving back home to resolve issues related to further resettlement to the SK. To be honest, I don’t want to leave at all. The desire to stay here forever increases with every minute spent here.
We will write in more detail about our first stay here, in the “fairytale land”, upon our return. I need to collect my thoughts, to be honest, my head is spinning from everything I saw.
Once again, we would like to express our gratitude to the Compatriots Resettlement Assistance Program. Especially to its director I. Shestakov, volunteer Yulia, and state lawyer Olga for the reception.
I still can’t believe that all this is really happening to us.
How it all began for us.
And it all began with receiving an informational mailing about the Resettlement Assistance Program from Ilya Shestakov and his wife Olga. Initially, we were planning to move from Kyrgyzstan to the Russian Federation to the Irkutsk region. But the mailing turned the plans upside down, with each new issue we were more and more drawn into this information, dispelling doubts and arising questions disappeared by themselves, receiving answers from subsequent issues.
By the 27th issue we were fully mature, studying each issue of the mailing more than once, not missing a single one (we constantly checked the archive). We registered on the official website of the PSDP, watched the available video with those who had already moved, familiarized ourselves with all the documents, additional information that was not in the mailing, and began to prepare for the next steps in implementing our plans.
As expected, we prepared for the interview with Ilya on Skype, briefly told in the chat about ourselves, our family and the desire to change EVERYTHING in our lives. Literally after 30 minutes of conversation with Ilya, the tension eased and it seemed like you’ve known this person for a long time. Ilya gave us full information on the issues of interest to us and made conclusions about us and our intentions.
After the interview, Ilya introduced us to Yulia, his assistant for the Program. And then we decided on all the technical issues with her, including discussing the date of arrival at SC.
We booked our flights in advance. We used the services of PEGASUS airlines round trip, inexpensive and comfortable. We decided not to take the children on the trip – they would distract us from everything, since the schedule of the business trip is very tight, and the child is either tired, or eating, or drinking, or bored, or going to the toilet … Well, these are the first steps that we took.
On April 26, we arrived at the airport “Ercan” by SC. We received our luggage without any fuss. After standing in line at passport control, we calmly crossed the state border without any fuss or unnecessary questions. The employee (a girl) was very friendly and polite with us. We spoke to her in English.
After going through control and getting into the meeting room, our gaze immediately stopped on a nice, smiling woman – it was Yulia, who was meeting us. Although this was our first meeting with her, she immediately put us at ease. Yulia immediately asked about our health, how we had endured the flight and whether everything was okay with us.
We got into the car, small but comfortable, where there is order and a kind aura, we headed towards Kyrenia (about 80 km from the capital’s airport). Yulia drove us along a short mountain road, showing us the beauty of the Kyrenia mountains. Having lived in a mountainous region since childhood, it seemed impossible to surprise us with mountain beauty, but we were amazed by ANOTHER beauty of the mountains. And what air – clean, fresh. It is impossible to convey.
Upon arrival at the hotel, located in the Lapta area on the seashore, we were warmly greeted by the hotel managers, who spoke Russian. The hotel turned out to be inexpensive and quite comfortable. The room had everything you need for life, but most importantly, it had a sea view. We had breakfast there, since it was included in the room rate, and we had lunch in the city with Yulia.
As for lunches, Yulia took us every day to different cozy places with their own unique cuisine. The dishes are delicious, and most importantly, everything is fresh. Yes, by the way, in many of these establishments the waiters speak Russian or at least can speak broken Russian, in general, everything is clear and extremely simple. The service is fast and neat. The prices are reasonable. After such hearty lunches, you didn’t even want to have dinner. For dinner we ate something citrus or drank a glass of fresh juice. All the products are fresh and of the highest quality, you can buy them in any store.
After taking a shower after a long and lengthy journey (we flew to SC with three transfers), we rested a little, came to our senses. An hour later, Yulia arrived and took us to lunch at a nice restaurant “PEANUTS” on the seashore with its amazing cuisine.
After lunch, Yulia organized a short tour of the city center of Kyrenia for us, or rather its historical part. We walked along the narrow, old, very nice streets, along the harbor with many cozy cafes, and also walked along the embankment. Literally everything was amazing, from the cleanliness of the streets to the friendly smiles of passers-by.
We visited the workshop of a master named Haci Auize – a cabinetmaker in the third generation. We were amazed by his work. Haci Auize greeted us in a friendly manner, kindly offered coffee and began to demonstrate his work, showing tricks with various kinds of safes. We walked around the small private shops and stores. Each time we were, to put it mildly, slightly shocked by what we saw.
On the very first day, we went to meet Ilya at the Cetinay Plaza shopping center in Pizza King. Despite his impressive appearance (he is about 2 meters tall), Ilya turned out to be a very friendly, hospitable and good-natured person. The meeting took place in a relaxed atmosphere over a cup of TURKISH coffee. Despite our fatigue, since it was already evening, we decided to waste no time in seeing the Golden Fleece microdistrict, fortunately we were nearby. Ilya and Yulia took us to see this part of the Russian Quarter.
When we arrived, we were amazed by what we saw: we liked the quality of the housing, the layout of the apartments, the infrastructure and much more. European style – nothing to say. Here we met and got acquainted with the already “local aborigine” Andrey Akhinko, who shared his impressions of staying with his family at SK. In general, we liked EVERYTHING.
Despite being tired and in an excited state from what we saw, it was impossible to fall asleep right away. It was only the first day, and we were already shocked, not suspecting even more exciting places and meetings.
