Trip to Cyprus - November 2008


*Wednesday, October 22nd* ... we pick up towards the end of our trip to Cyprus. We decided to give the car a rest today and just hang out around the hotel.

*A main feature of our hotel was a little cove with a private beach. I went there to snorkel and was shocked at how cold the water was ... much colder than Israel!* *There were nice rocks to snorkel around, but there were no fish. After 20 minutes I began to shiver and decided to head in.*

After our final dinner in the Paphos area, we packed our bags & did some reading on Northern Cyprus.

*Thursday, October 23rd* *We got up early and left the hotel after breakfast. Our goal was to cross the border at Nicosia and then go to Kyrenia.* *We allowed plenty of time, as we didn't know how long the drive would take and whether we'd have problems at the border.* *We also didn't know exactly where the hotel was, as our maps only had details of the Greek side.*


We had no problems on the highway and made it to the Nicosia area in a few hours. In the distance, we saw flags painted on the sides of the mountain. It turns out that the people in Northern Cyprus are very proud to display their flag, which signifies the importance of their independence from the south. They also fly the red flag of Turkey, who provides a lot of economic and military assistance.

As we exited the highway, we followed very nice signs which pointed us towards the border. At some point though, the signs ended and we found ourselves in the middle of busy Nicosia. We wanted to visit the old part of town, but we needed to first concentrate on crossing the border. The border crossing turned out to be very difficult to find and was quite a ways out of town. After crossing, which entailed buying insurance and going through a lot of paperwork, we decided to skip Nicosia and head to Kyrenia. It's days like this that make you want to just stay home and watch TV.


*The highway system in the north was pretty good, once we found how to access it. We quickly crossed over a small mountain and then could see the dazzling area of Kyrenia.*


The hotel web site said to aim towards the tip of the breakwater at the port, so we had a good idea of where we needed to go ... but with the many one-way streets and roundabouts, it was very confusing.


*We finally found the hotel and were welcomed by a smiling staff and a nice, sea-facing room.*

*We walked around the town in search of place to have dinner ... which turned out to be a much harder than we originally thought.* Even though this area is quite touristy, it is still very Moslem and we didn't exactly feel like we fit in. We could not find any European types of restaurant and had to settle for whatever we found. There was very little evening activity around the area, so we hung out on the balcony, even though it got quite chilly. An interesting thing is that gambling was allowed here, but not the South.

*Friday, October 24th* We explored Kyrenia today. We walked around the middle of town and saw many old buildings that were recently restored. The Turkish writing was just as difficult as the Greek for us ... we couldn't read anything!


*We visited various shops, but didn't find anything interesting.*	*One shop was in an old tower and had a domed glass ceiling.*	*The biggest landmark was the massive fort by the Old City.*


*We entered the harbor of the Old City, referred to as 'The St. Tropez of the East' ... where the rich and famous hung out in the 1960's. At first glance, it didn't look too special.*


As we walked though the area, we were transformed back in time ... to when sailing vessels were the main mode of transportation and most social activity occurred in the cafes surrounding the port.


*This area is a unique mix of old and new ... there are old buildings nestled along side newly renovated ones ... and there are old schooners and fishing boats parked next to luxury yachts..*


*Each building had a cafe on the ground floor and apts. above.*	*The coastline looked very nice with the mountains in the back.*	*This was one of the few coastal cafes ... but no alcohol served :(*

As we left the Old City, we were reminded of life in current times, where the locals don't care about keeping things clean. It was quite appalling to see how much junk and garbage was laying around. *Along the coast we saw lots of garbage washing up on the shore ... needless to say, we're not swimming on this side of the island!*


*Saturday October 25th* We took the car and drove along the coast ... both to the north and south of the city. In each direction, the condition of the road quickly got worse. Without the hope to see much, we returned to the city. We decided to go inland and into the hills, as there were supposed to be some old Christian ruins.


*We passed a few gated communities on the way up ... similar to what we saw in the Paphos area.*


*There were quite a few nice villas; I can only imagine that a few rich Turks own these holiday homes.*

It is unfortunate that this island is split and the locals dislike each other so much. Cyprus has so much to offer, but the current split limits their potential and makes them dependant on others. Maybe some day, both sides will begin to work together again.


*We could then see the walls of the monastery we wanted to see.*	*We parked the car and walked up to it, expecting to find an un-kept ruin. It turned out to be a nice park with a fancy restaurant.*

	The Abbey of Bellapais was a massive structure, but it sustained substantial damage over the years; it's now protected by the British.



We could see that there were many complicated renovations done ... the architects were kept busy!

*Sunday, October 26th* Today was our last day in Cyprus, but we still had much to see. Our flight didn't leave until late in the evening, so we got up early and set out on a route to visit the east side of the island. On the Turkish side, we wanted to visit Famagusta to see some old ruins. We then needed to cross the border and were prepared for another hassle. After that we hoped to visit some famous tourist beaches on the southwest tip.


We left the Kyrenia area and drove over the mountain ... there wasn't much to see. As we came down the other side, we could see a lot of construction ... but we think most of these are just shells of buildings which were started in the 70s, before the separation war, and were never finished.


*Since the climate is dry and everything preserves well, we couldn't really tell which construction was old and which was new ... the cranes told us some projects were new!*


*As we drove along the eastern coast and got closer to Famagusta, there were an unbelievable amount of sub-divisions being built ... it will be interesting to see if they still have buyers!*


*Famagusta was a busy city with nice monuments for the soldiers who fought the war. The were a few modern parts in town, but most of it was pretty old ... but nicely kept!*


We found the wall which surrounds the Old City. I guess in the past, you had to have a wall for protection... especially when you live along the sea where pirates and enemies can land at any time.


The Old City didn't just have a wall, but they had a big moat around the whole thing ... cool! Along the wall you could see different patterns, which meant reconstruction after some event.


*There were many churches that had been damaged during various wars or earthquakes. It was interesting to see a cross-section of the walls to get an idea of how they were constructed.*

*The landmark is Lala Mustafa Pasa Mosque, which used to be St. Nicholas Cathedral.*



*This is a very complicated looking building that was built in the 1300s.* *Since that time it has endured many conflicts and many owners, which probably accounts for doors and archways that don't lead anywhere.*

We left the city and headed south, without any signs to guide us and without any good maps. We took the only road that seemed to go in the direction we wanted ... and somehow we found the border! The crossing was pretty simple and we were able to get our bearings and head to the beach area.

		*The Protaras is the biggest tourist beach area on Cyprus. It was set up with chairs as we have seen on the French Riviera.* *Most visitors had British accents, which makes sense ... as the weather in England was already turning cold.*

There was a wide selection of fun things to do. You could rent power boats or jet skis. There were also many water rides: para-sailing, banana boating, water skiing or wake boarding. A lazy person could also just relaxing on the beach with your own personal waiter.

*The entire coastline in this area was built up with fancy hotels and resorts.* *It was nice to be back in a western-style place and to have a drink at a beach bar ... but the noise of all the water toys was too much for us.* *We left this beach area and headed south, hoping to find a quiet place to watch the sunset.*


*We drove to the southern coast and came to Ayia Napa, the "entertainment capital" of Cyprus.*


*The crane was actually holding a bungy jumping station!*	*It looks like the businesses can handle many 'sunny' customers.*	*The coast was rocky & you had to carefully pick your swim spot.*

*We walked down the business strip and bought postcards and a bottle of wine.* *While Nicole filled out the postcards I enjoyed the scenery and tried to calculate where the sun would set.*

		*We weren't in the perfect sunset spot, but it was good enough!*
*After the sunset we gathered our belongings and headed to the airport. Our return flight was uneventful and before long ... we were settled back in our own bed ... with a happy Blacky cat!*

The trip to Cyprus went well and we look forward to the next time we visit, especially since our friend Doris will soon be posted to Nicosia ... which is perfect since we didn't have a chance to visit there! *The following were extra sunset shots from the Pahos area ...*

	*Ms. Mosaic bids you farewell !*

Return to Jay's Main Page Return to the Initial Cyprus Page