Check in; the usual chaos, but eventually I was allowed through to the departure lounge only to be confronted with the information that the CTA flight to Stansted was delayed by 90 minutes. The groans all round me made it abundantly clear how delighted the passengers were. Having eaten in the restaurant on the “landward” side of security and passport control, I was flabbergasted at the prices in the upstairs restaurant. 7TL for a coffee, and not even one of those special ones, so I went downstairs to see if the restaurant there was any better. No prices were displayed and there was a long queue. The first two people, obviously not Turkish, asked for Nescafe and were charged 8TL each, I was about to walk away when a man in what I would describe as middle eastern dress, asked for the same but this time was charged only4 TL. I was next and slightly puzzled I asked the price of coffee. Without batting an eyelid the woman serving told me 7.5TL, probably because of the sun tan; I walked away with no coffee.Then getting on my old hobby horse of promoting the wonderful TRNC products for tourists I went on a tour of the Duty Free Shops to see what I could find; I wasn’t disappointed. I found one shop with SAFA Brandy on sale. and also Lord Jim Gin. Then I saw the prices: brandy 6 Euros and the gin 6.5 Euros. DUTY FREE? In Starling they cost 6TL and 6.5TL respectively as any self respecting drunkard would know. I asked if the prices were perhaps wrong, maybe the currency had been switched? “No. That’s the price. We don’t sell much though.” I wonder why?
So not wanting to spend my money I went back to watching the cleaners. 5 entered stage left, 1 with a big mop and 4 having an animated conversation with the “mopper.” As usual the rubbish, which was beginning to mount up, was pushed into a pile by boarding gate 4. Once there, the obviously exhausted sweepers, sat down and continued their discussion. They had, after all walked from the public toilets to gate 4 in one stint. Maybe the North Face of the Eiger next? I had a feeling by the way they looked at me that they had only done this because someone had told them about my last article for NCFP
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