By Peter Toms…..
With lockdown behind us, we were bursting at the seams to party and heading to our bungalow in Dipkarpaz in the Karpaz to begin our 70th Birthday celebrations for my wife Wendy with 4 of our friends, Maureen and Eddie Hollely and Phil and Gill Cowley who, like ourselves, are total party animals.
They arrived midday Friday 12th June and we warmed up our party atmosphere with a few bottles of bubbly in the afternoon. In the evening, being well lubricated we headed to our neighbour’s hotel, the new and amazing 5 star Livana Hotel click here set on a paradise beach on the road going out a few miles from Dipkarpaz towards the end of the Karpaz peninsular.
This hotel resets the standards for the Karpaz and is run by Mehmet and his charming wife Sengul.
The meals are to die for and prepared and cooked by a Sudanese chef and his lovely French wife who produce amazing food. Our meal consisted of mouthwatering meze which our guests found to be unsurpassable. Our choice of food ranged from salmon to steaks lubricated by several bottles of wine, followed by coffee and brandy with an extremely reasonable bill.
Mehmet and Sengul produced a beautiful chocolate cake with candles and later the chef arrived with an incredible centrepiece consisting of a beautiful variety of fruits supported on each level by glasses filled with coloured liquid and floating candles.
Leaving our superb hosts and heading back to our bungalow for a few bevvies before saying au revoir to an amazing fun day. Wendy and I have 3 dogs and Eddie and Maureen have 1 plus our next door neighbours have 3 puppies and come sun up, they had all decided it was reveille time to begin another day of celebrations. The day began very quietly and slowly with some reasonably intelligent conversation and another round of bubbles prior to an early evening barbecue. Both Eddie and Phil are music heads and Eddie always brings his music box with him which is great entertainment.
We are still indebted to Eddie for providing the music at our wedding last May at The Oasis Hotel in the Karpaz. For those of you who visit the Karpaz, you would have experienced the beautiful scenery and wonderful laid back lifestyle of the village people who are very happy, friendly and generous.
Wendy and I spend many weekends with these lovely people and our friends often join us to party. Now the lockdown is over we enjoy the best of both worlds, when not at the Karpaz we are back in Ozankoy enjoying the hospitality of many restaurants that we have locally which is a lifestyle that so many of us are lucky to enjoy.
It’s Friday 19th June and Wendy and I are sitting poolside at a pool party in Sammy’s Hotel in Girne with lots of our friends, the venue being hosted by Ayshen and her brother and organised by the hotel in conjunction with Bar 33 at Tim’s Cafe and John’s SeAngle Bar.
We had a superb afternoon with music supplied by Stephanie who has an amazing voice and was fortunate to be filmed by Engin Dervish and his Bayrak international TV crew.
Sammy’s Hotel looked amazing and is so fresh, clean and professional now that Ayshen is back in charge and for our poolside barbecue we had a mouthwatering selection of meze followed by a never ending selection of barbecued meats. We were looked after extremely well by Ayshen’s very attentive waiters and will be keeping a close lookout for the next poolside party at Sammy’s Hotel click here.
So what’s next on the party agenda? We will let you know very soon!.
