Cyprus is a Mediterranean island, whose capital is the only divided capital city in the world. The so-called Green Line, drawn in 1974 by the UN as a cease-fire line, splits the island into southern Greek and northern Turkish parts. Today, both sides heavily rely on tourism to keep the economy going, so I was lucky to travel in November and avoid large crowds that flood the country in summer.
As of 2003, it is possible to cross the border between the South and the North on foot at two border posts in Nicosia, both in the historic center within the city walls. The experience of having to show my passport first to a Greek policeman (who asked me how I entered Cyprus since entering at the Turkish airport of Ercan is technically an illegal entry as far as the Greek side is concerned) and then to a Turkish one just to cross a street within a city was quite baffling, to say the least. The first building on the Turkish side is a liquor store because alcohol is cheaper there than in the Greek part. The next one is a money exchange although Euro is widely accepted in the Turkish part of Nicosia. If you are planning to visit other parts of the North, however, you will definitely need the Lira. These two buildings are followed by countless shops selling clothes, leather products, bags, or souvenirs and a number of restaurants, bars and cafés. The two sides do not appear dramatically different because the partition only happened in 1974 and the Greek and Turkish communities lived jointly prior to that year. On both sides of the Green Line, you see mosques and churches and hear both Greek and Turkish. A particularly striking building is the Selimiye Mosque on the Turkish side, which was initially built as a 13th century Gothic cathedral, but was later converted into a mosque after the Ottomans settled here. High-perched vaults of a cathedral are still clearly visible, and a slanted orientations of the prayer carpet and the mihrab clearly show that the building was not constructed having in mind the need of worshipers to face the direction of Mecca. Although the border between the Turkish and the Greek part is now crossable, many Cypriots refuse to cross for historical and political reasons. While the Turkish side has a single queue for all people entering or leaving, the Greek side has a separate line for Turkish Cypriots entering the Greek part…
Outside of the city walls, the Greek part of Nicosia is a rather mundane city with some upscale restaurants and bars, endless shopping opportunities and medium-rise residential buildings. What does make the city look livelier even on a weekday evening in the middle of winter are citrus trees rife with fruit! It is rather unfortunate, my travel buddy and I thought, that the citrus trees belong to no one, so most of the fruit ends up rotting on the ground. We climbed a tree and each took a lemon for a souvenir!
The abundance of citrus trees was even greater in the Tröodos mountain range in central Cyprus. Not only with lemons, trees were also replete with mandarins and oranges, some of the sweetest I have ever tasted, growing just by the twisting and turning roads between mountain villages. While this area is more famous for about a dozen of invaluable Unesco-listed frescoed Byzantine churches constructed between the 12th and 16th century, the citruses were a very sweet addition to the cultural excursion.
Limassol is one of the main cities in the Greek part of the island and listed by Lonely Planet as one of the most frequently overlooked cities in Cyprus. I will remember it for good for a particular shop located close to the Limassol Castle, whose owner was a true master of his trade. His shop offered a variety of products ranging from liquors to carob, from honey to face and body creams, from clothes to sweets, from nuts to coffee. His trick to enthrall customers like us was to offer them free tastings of literally every item they looked at. I just laid my eyes on a carob spread, and the owner already appeared with a bunch of plastic spoons offering me a bit of every type he had available. My friend just asked a question about the liquors and immediately he was offered a shot of the walnut one, followed by a shot of the pistachio one, a lemon one and a pomegranate one until he was half drunk and decided to make a purchase. When we ran out of questions, the owner just directed us towards a shelf we had not seen and started applying creams to our hands. In the end, we left the store with some liquor, a dress, carob coffee, a carob spread and some Cypriot delight sweets. The owner was so pleased with the deal that he gave us each a bottle of drinking water. I do not recall the name of the shop, but “Taste Everything You See” would fit perfectly!
Areas around the coastal Greek cities of Larnaka and Paphos are victims of mass tourism, with hotel buildings lined up along the beach as far as the eye can see. To fully appreciate historical significance of these towns and marvel at their heritage, including fabulous Byzantine mosaics in Paphos, it is best to come here in low season. Smaller villages such as Kakopetria in Tröodos and cities like Nicosia, however, are off the bucket lists of most sun-and-sea seekers and offer many jewels to discover year-round. But inland areas, including Nicosia, can be scorching hot in summer, so beware!
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