A travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting a day exploring northern Cyprus (uploaded Oct 23, 2016). They arrange a rental via Go North Cyprus, attempt to reach Bufavento Castle but abandon the rough off-road approach, visit a Wednesday-only local market, enjoy an abundant Cypriot lunch (halloumi, hummus, grilled items), successfully visit Saint Hilarion Castle (noting it dates from the 10th century and sits across a mountainside), and finish at Kyrenia Harbour at dusk. The vlog includes navigation challenges with Google Maps and light, first-person commentary on food and scenery.
Questions this video answers
October 23, 2016.
10th century.
732 meters.
Wednesdays.
Google Maps turned 'Bupavento' into 'Valfevento' and showed a 21 km route.
Chapters
We took the day off from vlogging yesterday, and we used it more as an administrative day. Go North Cypress, the company that brought us here, sorted a rental car for us, and then we went over to their office and met with them and planned our itinerary for the rest of the week, which is going to be really exciting.
We're starting today a little later than usual because we just couldn't help but go enjoy the beach. But we're gonna make ourselves get out there today and see more of Cyprus, starting with the Bufavento Castle. I have no idea if I'm saying that.
No, that's not the driver's side. You aren't gonna tell me, were you?
The plans for the rest of the day after the first castle include exploring another castle, visiting a local market, eating a local meal, and then going to Kyrena harbor, which is supposed to be like the big place to go here in the city of Kyrena. How many of those will actually get to. I don't know.
Hope will. So I typed Bupavento into Google Maps and it turned it into Valfevento with an e. So I really don't know if we're going to the right place. I guess we'll find out in 21km.
But it was like the only place we could find. We tried to search it like 10 different ways and that was the best guess we had.
Oh, my gosh.
Surely this isn't right.
I'm scared. We do not have the right car for this.
Is there any way this is the right way?
I have no clue. This is nuts. It's absolutely beautiful. A little. Just look where the road goes over there.
It's just like dirt roads straight up. I don't think we can make that.
I bet we try.
I think we should just walk.
It's like a 30 minute drive. This would be our whole day.
Can we make it?
I don't think so.
There's like, water.
And big ditches, and the car that we're in has like this much clearance.
How do we turn around?
And the plastic piece on the front of our car is falling off.
What do we do? I guess we're gonna try to turn.
That was stressful.
I think we're abandoning the search for Fufivento.
Okay, new plan. We are gonna go get lunch in.
The town.
Really close to the edge and possibly revisit this later if we can find an alternate route or a bigger car. Back up we go. This looks markety.
I think we found it.
I think this is A one.
Maybe.
So this market is only here on Wednesdays, which is why we had to come today. And it is some of the prettiest produce I've ever seen. Everything is so big and luscious and colorful.
It's huge. There's tons of stuff that looks delicious. The only problem is we forgot to get money out of the ATM before he came, so we can't buy anything.
We're gonna try to find one so we can snack on.
We're abandoning the search for the atm. Google Maps led us to a large empty field. Google Maps has now betrayed us twice today. To be fair, we probably should have thought ahead and grabbed some money.
But the team at Go North Cyprus recommended a really good restaurant where we can have Cypriot food. Is that right? Cypriot? Yeah. So we're gonna head there instead. We made it to the harbor.
Time to find some food.
Looks delicious. This is the reason why we came here.
We just brought out our first round of food. These really flaky, bready things and the most beautiful hummus I've ever.
That's so fresh.
Along with veggies, some white sauce, some other white stuff. Cabbage. And some more veggies. And some more veggies. Yum.
I hope these are for us.
They also just added some French fries and whatever this little thing is on a plate all by itself.
My first real halloumi cheese experience.
Amaz.
Some kind of meatball.
As the food is ready off the grill, they just come lay it on our plate. So it's like super fresh, super hot, and so good.
Thank you very much. As she said, they just bring it when it's ready.
Lunch was delicious. They just kept bringing out more and more food. Before I was done eating one thing, they'd be laying something else on my plate. It was so much fun.
Now that we have full bellies, it's time for round number two of castles.
Hopefully this goes better than the first time.
We're like really close to the harbor right now, but we've heard it's beautiful at dusk, so we're gonna come back then. So castle now back to harbor for dusk. Got in on the right side this time.
I think we found it.
I believe this is the well preserved archway that leads you to the royal ward.
Oh, this is the church. This castle is called Saint Hilarion. I have no idea if I'm saying that correctly. It was built in the 10th century, so it's super old and it's super huge. It is spread across the side of this massive mountain. It feels like there's no one here. Like we've seen hardly anyone. And it's awesome.
I can see why. This was the royal apartment. This was the queen's window. For obvious reasons.
We made it.
Congratulations.
732 meters. I think we drove more than half of that at least.
We are heading down to catch the sunset at the harbor.
Trying not to fall down the stairs. This is the coolest and probably the oldest castle we've ever been to. I'm just really happy we actually saw a castle today after we failed so badly this morning. But this was great. I can't imagine there being a better one.
We made it down to the the Kyrenia harbor. Someone's playing music so nice. And we are going to attempt to find either Turkish tea or Turkish ice cream.
Really looking forward to either one. Our ice cream place is closed.
Look. We can be that happy.
The harbor was beautiful and we would have eaten at one of those restaurants on the water. But the buffet in our hotel is calling our name.
