By daybreak, they were back at the checkpoint – there had been rumours that the border would close again at 8am.
"Well done," my friend whispered as we walked on, careful not to look back at the checkpoint.
But back at the Nicosia checkpoint, Mr Advinli, the car mechanic, confidently declares that in the end "people power" will prevail.
"The regime forces came back and seized back the checkpoints.
Only journalists who have produced favorable reports are allowed into territory under Serb control; others are simply turned back at the border-control checkpoints.
Reporters reaching the city's outskirts from Baghdad were turned back at American checkpoints outside the city, precluding attempts to check the occupation authority's reports.
The Observer was refused entry to the hospital, turned back at a checkpoint on the edge of Pulmoddai, and refused access to the camps where those who have escaped the fighting are being held.
Foreign journalists in Sichuan who tried to drive to the affected region were turned back at security checkpoints that had been erected more than 60 miles from where the shootings took place.
For many who risk being turned back at military checkpoints, online chat sessions are the most affordable way of staying in contact with friends in the next town or relatives in the Palestinian diaspora.
She presented herself back at a checkpoint at the Arizona border to claim asylum in May 2013 and was immediately absorbed into the US immigration detention system, which currently houses around 34,000 detainees.
