I am a lister. It’s a bit of a sad calling really, but I get a sick satisfaction out of making a check box on a list. But do I love enough to jump off a cliff?
Now, it should be noted that before we saw the car…we agreed to the full insurance package. And I paid for the rental on my uber-high annual rate AMEX card with full international rental coverage. So, this crappy car is double insured…or it was until we reached the border. Crossing into North Cyrus, or as the locals refer to it, Turkey, requires all cars to purchase additional insurance. This is mandatory, regardless of the fact that the car may already have double insurance and is only worth about $7.99. It’s a relatively quick but a tad confusing of a process where we ultimately parted with more euros than it would cost us to buy the car.
It was about an hour later that we pulled into the scenic town of Girne. Not really knowing where to start, the picturesque harbour featured in our guidebook seemed like an ideal option. Relying on Gina for navigation, I followed her directions as we twisted our way through the town. In hindsight, perhaps my directions should have been more specific than “get us to the harbour”. It was the last left turn that was the problem…
About 25 feet into our drive along the waterfront I realized that we were zooming our triple inured car down a pedestrian walkway. This became evident when people started leaping out of our path and the hostess stands of sidewalk cafes were so close to the window that I could grab a menu out the window as I passed. Despite the chaos we were causing, I was surprised at the calm tone in my voice, “Gina, are we driving down a sidewalk?”, and her equally tranquil response, “yes, I believe we are”.
With nowhere to turn around, we drove along the entire waterfront to the end and waited calmly while a town employee removed the barricade that is normally in place to stop idiots from driving on a promenade. (They can be removed for delivery trucks or emergency vehicles – likely how we got there in the first place) He called out what I imagine was some driving tips to us in Turkish as we drove by and sheepishly waved an apology.
We wandered some ruins and dined on some delights at one of the cafes we passed earlier on our drive before a new sign caught Gina’s eye…parasailing. Up until now, I thought Gina and I are pretty much the same on the adventure scale…see a late movie instead of the earlier showing…order an appetizer for dessert type of people. Oh sure, I have climbed erupting volcanos and swam with sharks but most of those were things that became adventures but initially started out as safely guided journeys. Parasailing off a cliff…never made a list of ‘must-dos’.
Confession. I didn’t want to say “no”. I mean, I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t want to be the wimp that said “no”. I carefully listened to the guy at the store who said, that this late in the day…winds were down…wasn’t looking good…he would check but don’t get our hopes up…etc. So, I said “YES!” And secretly relied on them to say “no”. I went along with the charade of getting suited up in safety gear, parting with my beloved flops for some sort of boots, the long drive to the top of a mountain…all while waiting for the safety guy to step in and say, “sorry ladies, the winds are no good.” I would then say, “darn it” and we would go back to the hotel, grab a drink and talk about what we almost did.
But that never happened. I prayed standing on that cliff that the winds would stop…but they seemed to gust even more. I numbly sat listening to the instructions of the guide…just keep running when he gives the signal…don’t stop. I think I was gliding high about the Cypriot countryside, my feet still running in the air before I finally accepted that the winds weren’t going to give me the cancellation I was banking on.
In the end, I got to check off ‘North Cyprus’, and I added ‘parasailing’ to a must-do list…just so I could check it off.
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