Presents from the past

North Cyprus Vintage & Antique Market

The sound system pounded out: “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” You couldn’t have picked a less suitable song as the North Cyprus Vintage & Antique Market got underway. With temperatures over 30 degrees, it was just as well that most of the stalls dotted around the old Kyrenia Council building were well-shaded, while the surrounding bars and cafes did a steady trade in beers and cold fruit juice.

Invited visitors to step back in time

The market, the first of its kind to be staged by the municipality, invited visitors to step back in time, a chance for a nostalgic wallow in objects from their collective memory. And so, we had household items such as sewing machines, radios and telephones, bric-a-brac, some valuable, some, well, not so much.

You could find old tools, brass and copper ornaments and implements, some recognizable, some not. Anyone need the aluminium hinges for the boot of a 1960s’ Morris Minor?

Posters from the golden years of Turkish cinema

There were books in English, Greek, Turkish and Arabic, reflecting the history of Cyprus itself. There were piles of old newspapers, their headlines a reminder that history does indeed, repeat itself. Plenty for music lovers, vinyl, of course.

The most eye-catching stall was a display of posters from the golden years of Turkish cinema, doe-eyed beauties swept off their feet by mustachioed macho heroes, or vengeful women, clearly spurned by their lovers, eyes blazing – and gun in hand.

Even the music was old school