How did the trip to North Cyprus Happen

Flag of Republic of Cyprus
(Accompanied by Greek Flag on south side)

Flag of North Cyprus
(usually accompanied by Turkish Flag)

If you had said that I will be going to Cyprus maybe six months ago, if not I had slapped you, id have frowned upon for saying something which was not likely. Being a Nepalese citizen, it is hard to travel to most of the countries due to visa restrictions. 

But this April, I would have deeply regretted if I had offended your for guessing my future. I was thankful that I was living in Turkey and for the fact that only Turkey had supported the independence of "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" 

As the name says, it is a territory Turkish speaking people in the small island of Cyprus. To provide some geographical information, the world knows Republic of Cyprus as the only country with its map on its flag, with olive branches under it on the white background. But some time after the independence from the British, Turkish occupation in the 70s created the "self proclaimed" independent territory "TRNC", or "KKTC" in Turkish. 

Please read the Wikipedia article or other sources for more political information. 

Planning the trip!

It was a spur of the moment decision. My flat mate Omar and I were planing to do something for he weekend on that Thursday afternoon. 

Finding cheaper tickets made easy

So I went to www.skyscanner.com and put "Istanbul" on the 'from' section and "Everywhere" on 'to' section with the departure date being the same day. To so much for our excitement we found the RT ticket for only $38 dollars. 

Our hyper excitement did not last very long when we saw the price almost double going into the booking page but it was my one chance to go abroad while at Istanbul. I decided to stay with it. Omar did not want to go but I talked Steph to join. Together we finished booking the 8:10 pm flight at around 4:15 from Sabiha Gokchen Airport, on the Asian side. We would come back late Monday night. 

The departure. 

We did not have accommodation but we didn't have time to plan for it. We decided to play it by the ear. We promised to meet in 45 minutes in Taksim square and I started  packing without realizing that in 5PM Istanbul traffic only a miracle could help us. Though we were able to meet on time, the shuttle driver honestly mentioned that it would be impossible to catch 8pm flight with the 6PM shuttle.

The Rush

After his suggestion, we decided to take a taxi from the man who promised us to get there just in time. 

We knew what we had put ourselves into. He took the longer route saying that the traffic pressure was low on that route. Having lived in Istanbul for two months now, I knew he was partially correct. Once we crossed into the Asian side through Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge, and passed Kariköy, he flew the cab. We got to the airport premises an hour to the departure. I would usually NOT RECOMMEND reaching airport on a time crunch and absolutely not for "international" flight. The security, check in, and the emigration as very fast and smooth THANK GOD. 

So much legroom

The SAW airport runway was the busiest I've ever seen. There were 3 planes lining up for the departure each time and there were 1-2 landing between every departure non stop. Maybe 30 seconds between flights! We were on Turkish airlines, national carrier and I should say despite the complains of Nepali passengers, the flight experience was amazing. We had enough legroom, a sandwich snack on 1 hour long flight and were greeted nicely by the cabin crew. That made me think hard one more time. Maybe the service between Nepal and Turkey is the only bad service of this company.

So good that we took pics after
finishing the food

The arrival

Ercan (ERC) airport was a small airport like a regional ones in the US, bigger than the Waterloo (ALO) but much smaller then Cedar Rapids (CID). Apparently, this airport is not recognized by IATA or other agencies. 

The immigration officer was very nice and only asked me "how many days I was staying in North Cyprus." After I mentioned " we leave on Monday" he said " enjoy your stay" and stamped 90 days visa not on my passport but a paper slip (after I pointed towards it). It was my first time flying anywhere without a pre-stamped visa sticker on my passport. Could not believe I was in CYPRUS. 

Many miracles had happened to me in last six hours. Only eight hours ago, I was thinking of taking a bus to Ankara and now I was in a completely different country. But we needed one last miracle. Get a place got sleep for the night in our budget. It happened as well. At 11pm, we checked into "not so" good hostel for 20 lira for that night in the old walled city of Nicosia. 

The real "cheap" hotel. Survived the night

While going to bed a dialogue from the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om came to my mind. Please pardon my poor translation my friends but it resembled to my life once again that day Thursday April 10th 2014. 

"When you desperately want something by all your heart the whole universe will come together to provide it for you." 

I'm grateful every single day of my life for getting all the love, support and the opportunities. My education at UNI ( not comparable to anything) or this moment of the spur trip would not have been possible without the greatness of many people. Thanks for being there