I don't want the beautiful and nostalgic “I remember” to remain just memories of the past without a future. You shouldn't. Famagusta can and must become the beginning of the end of this whole drama called Cyprus.
Of Avgis Francopoulos
- I remember our sea, none like it, from the Constantia hotel to the Grecian and Golden Sands hotels, from the beach of Glossa with the Florida hotel, the Aspelia hotel, the Faliron and Aktaion family centers, the King George's hotel to the family center Alasia on Hippocrates Street, to the Sandy Beach Hotel, on John F. Kennedy Avenue to the Golden Plage Hotel (and between them our apartments in the Casa Carina apartment building) to the Asterias Hotel, Venus and the Beach Comber Beach Center, the beach of the Golden Coast with the end of the route at the Grecian Hotel and then at the newly built Golden Sands Hotel in 1974.
- I remember all that golden sand, miles and miles of beautiful golden grains of sand finer than salt.
- I remember the Avenue of Democracy from the round about of Agia Triada to the intersection with Ermou Street, first on the left the Tulip Hotel (United Nations station today), Cafe Edelweiss, then the Famagusta Tavern and then on the left again a row of shops, with the Curiosity Shop towards the Hellenic High School (classical guitar lessons for me here) and to the right our Municipal Garden with the rose bushes and other beautiful trees, with the Greek Gymnasium's propylaea behind the garden (Boys' High School A' in our own era of 1974). How much I remember in our Municipal Garden, from orange celebrations and the whole garden decorated with iron shapes (from dolphins, birds, etc. with oranges), to the folk festival and us children then playing with some of the many games like fishing, where we won small prizes!
- I remember outside the Municipal Garden at the junction with Stadiou Street next to the Municipality stand, a joy for all the children with the delicacies he sold, chocolates, lozenges, ice creams… I remember Stadiou Street leading to the Evagoras Gymnasium ) on the right. At GSE we had all kinds of celebrations, orange, fairs, high schools with orange floats and groups of children dressed in oranges, with flowers in the fairs, gymnastics competitions as well as football matches and concerts, I also remember at GSE (like the concert of Manoli Mitsias who I also got an autograph).
- I remember continuing on ave. Demokratis from the Greek High School on the left, the well-known cafe Boccaccio, with its modern decoration and the paintings of G. Skoteinos and next to it the cafe To Rodon, continuing on the left I remember the basement of the Esperia Tower Hotel building, the night center Perroquet (carnival dances for us little ones and Miss Orange awards every year in this area) and I remember various other shops on the ground floor of Esperia. Opposite, the Pavlos Kyriakou bookstore, the offices of Olympic Aviation, the Vassiliou photo studio, the Jet store, Vienna with its fragrant cheese pies, a small post office with green mailboxes, etc. to the beautiful house of Mr. N. Galanos and his wife, at the fork of Democracy with Franklinou Roosevelt Street, there I remember a branch of the Bank of Cyprus below and the Greek Officers' Club above! Moving along Dimokratias I remember the Heraklis ice creams on the left and next to it an ocher two-storey building where we lived for some years with my grandmother and grandfather, at Dimokratias 58. Below, a jewelry store and next to it the Trianon center, right next to the intersection with the avenue Barclays Bank
- Opposite Trianon I remember the Singer store with the famous sewing machines, moving towards Dimokratis I remember on the left shops, Panagiotopoulou with nice toys, Galidi (shoes), on the right Foto Kourouzos, the fabric store Karoullas and next to the Hatzihampi cinema (how many movies Alikis Vougiouklakis, Tzenis Karezis we saw children there. I remember seeing the movie “The sound of music” there for the first time.
- I remember to the left, roughly opposite Hatzihampi, the Nicosia Palace hotel and to the right of Hatzihampi, on the side street, the Heraion cinema, in front of it a small square with colored jets and directly opposite the souvlizidika of Famagusta and the well-known Blakki, behind the People's Market on the ave. Evagorou. Proceeding along ave. Dimokratas after Hatzihampis towards Ermou street I remember on the left the church of Agios Nikolaos and the fragrant oven of Aresti. About opposite I remember the Municipal Library and Art Gallery of Famagusta, another source of culture of our city. A little further up on the left of the street, a two-story ZAKO store.
- I remember reaching Ermou Street at the end of the avenue. of Democracy in the background on the left the Grindlays Bank (former Ottoman Bank) and some shops such as M. Kazamias.
- I remember my schools, the Primary School of Agios Ioannis, in the parish of Agios Ioannis, the High School of Famagusta Girls in the parish Agia Aikaterini, but I also remember many other elementary schools and high schools in our city, there were 13 elementary schools and 5 high schools.
- I remember Ave. Evagorou with the Municipal Market and roughly opposite the Michael Kyriakou pharmacy as well as a new cafe called Edelweiss 2 that opened shortly before the Turkish invasion. In Evagorou, in the opposite direction from the Municipal Market, I remember the house of Anorthosis and somewhere to the right of it the Politis bookstore. Before Politis the right road I remember led to Franklin House, where we had English lessons in the afternoons.
- I remember Eleftherias Street, perpendicular to Ave. Evagorou on one side and perpendicular to Stadiou street on the other side, with the Rio summer cinema. On Eleftherias street no. 9 where we lived for some years, are my first experiences that I remember as a child there.
- I remember many homes of many dear relatives and also childhood/adolescent friends, houses with nice yards and flowers, houses that smelled of jasmine, Indian phuli, lemon trees, orange trees, I remember a happy life in a beautiful city that was prosperous and well ahead of the others cities of our Cyprus then.
- I remember many other streets, Heras (and the Golden Marianna hotel), Agia Triadas (with the well-known modern church), Aktaeos (which ended in the center at the sea Aktaion), Hippocrates (with the Whitehouse, Anchor Beach and the seaside center Alassia) , Apostolou Andreas (from Edelweiss and connected to Kennedy Avenue), Miuli (and the well-known centers Avenida and Chrysopsaro), Aeschylus, Sokratous, Sophokleous, Euripides, Zephyrou (which ended at the municipal stadium), Gelasiou, Argyrou Nikolas, Atlas, Sfrigos, Kataras etc.
I remember and miss many, many, beautiful childhood and teenage memories, they will never be erased until the end of my life, but the main thing had to be these experiences and memories for other children to have, to live and be happily in a beautiful city that we were forcibly deprived of due to the coup d'état and the Turkish invasion, but, unfortunately, they have been deprived of it for years by our own politicians due to poor management, due to a lack of vision and strategy for this place.< /p>
50 years have passed since the tragic events. Famagusta can and must become the beginning of the end of this whole drama called Cyprus. Famagusta can become a point of reference for all of our Cyprus, a city where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can live together peacefully and reborn from its ashes our city.
The above beautiful and nostalgic « I remember' I don't want them to be just memories of a past without a future. You shouldn't.
The photos are comparisons of some locations of our city as it was then and as it is today. The one then is from photos from the internet but also from my personal archive of pre-1974 card postals and the one today from an archive of my own photos after many “visits” to my city.
< b>95 John F. Kennedy Avenue, Famagusta
Source: politis.com.cy
