Together with my friend Iwona, I flew to Cyprus. We arrived there very early in the morning. The first two days we stayed in the North, which is the Turkish part of the island and the other three days in the Greek part. Because we rented a car we could explore the whole lovely island. (By the way they drive on the left!) We saw the coastline and the mountains!
Getting there
In April, my friend Iwona and I went to Larnaka in Cyprus. We arrived there very early in the morning, something like 3:00. But it was so nice to smell the fresh sea-air, although we were next to the airport :-) Actually we had planned to rest a bit at the airport, but for some reason we decided to stay at a Hotel for a few hours.
As soon as we got up, we went out for breakfast at 11:00. We headed to Nicosia – It was an adventure to get there: The bartender of the restaurant where we had breakfast offered us a “cheap” ride in a friend's car. For some reason strange things were going on, and so Iwona and I decided to take the normal bus (crying baby included :-))
Nicosia
We arrived in Nicosia and had a cup of coffee...
Northern Cyprus
Because our first hosts lived in the Northern Part, we had to cross a border that officially doesn't exist. You probably heard about the “Cyprus-Conflict”: The island is split up into two parts: The Turkish North and the Greek South. All of the members of the United Nations except for Turkey recognize Cyprus as a unified state. The Northern part of the island and the country Turkey call it “The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. I don't want to write about this conflict, because I don't have enough background information to decide what to think about it.
The flag of the "Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus" and Turkey
We crossed that border, also called “the Green Line,” by foot. As soon as we were in the Turkish part, it had a totally different feel to it: No fast food restaurants, no big brands, no big shopping streets. That's because the Northern part is boycotted by most of the states. It was interesting to see that as a result, there were more local grocery stores.
After changing from bus to taxi to bus to taxi, we arrived in Güzelyurt :-D
Our hosts were full of energy :-) Two Canadians from Quebec: Dalal and Xavier.
Dalal, Iwona, Xavier and me
They told us what to do and what to see in the Northern part.
Sights in the North
Iwona and I went again by Dolmus, a shared -taxi (!) from Güzelyurt to Kyrenia/Girne.
Stronghold of Kyrenia/Girne
This city is famous for its harbor and its stronghold.
Iwona at the stronghold
Ships in the habour
We spent some time there strolling around. Afterwards, we called a taxi again and went up the St. Hilarion castle. At the beginning it was very cloudy and foggy, but as soon as we reached the top of the mountain where the castle is located, the sun came out and we had really nice weather. The taxi driver waited for us beneath the castle for almost 2.5 hours and took us back again to the city center.
St. Hilarion Castle
Having a nice view
At the castle
After a while, we went to the monastery of Bellapais, and yes again, by taxi.
Bellapais
Sun is setting down slowly
Lost in translations: "Ohne Eingang" actually means "without entrance"
Close to the monastery
We had a nice dinner at the restaurant and could see the sea and many nice houses.
An old Greek curch in the Turkish part
We returned back to Güzelyurt late afternoon and as the sun was setting down, I took many nice pictures.
Again a spy cat :-)
Sunset in Güzelyurt
Our hosts organized a small party and of course we participated :-D
Small little road
Museum in Güzelyurt
The next day, Xavier rented a car and showed us the “best museum” I've ever seen so far :-D After visiting the whole museum (it took a whole damn eight minutes!) we went back to Nicosia. Xavier took some tiny little country roads. The scenery was gorgeous! As we came close to Nicosia, we saw the world largest flag: The flag of Northern Cyprus.
The flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
You can also see it from the Greek part of the city. The text under the flag translates to something like: “Who thinks to be proud/special, is Turkish”.
We crossed the “border” again to the Greek part. Before we took the bus back to Larnaka, we walked around a bit in the capitol city.
Larnaka
Catholic church in Larnaka
Late evening in Larnaka, our next host, Elena picked us up from the bus station. We had some traditional Cypriot dinner and discussed the political situation on the island. It was interesting to hear about the things going on on the island.
Iwona, Elena and me
Elina showed us Larnaka, mostly places that are not so touristy but very nice. I like to hang out in cities especially at night time!
We went to bed around midnight and got up early because our host had to go to work.
Daihatsu Siron - blue as the sky
Iwona and I decided to rent a car. We got a nice little car, blue as the sky. The cherry on top of the sundae: The steering wheel was on the right hand side, as people in Cyprus drive on the left hand side of the street.
The South of the Island
Close to the Larnaka airport is a big salt lake with a old majestic mosque. I got some nice shots there.
Mosque next to the saltlake
Then we had a nice road trip along the south coast. I got used to driving on the left side of the street pretty quickly. I didn't expect that – Except for going into roundabouts clockwise, everything is pretty intuitive. What we didn't know was that even driving on the left, you have to give way people to coming from the right.
An old amphitheater
Relict from an old bath
Because we had a small guidebook with us and also our host Elina told us some nice spots to see, we had our first stop in an amphitheater. We hung out there and had dinner next to the sea.
We continued our way heading West. As soon as we arrived at the area around Aphrodite's rock, we stopped very often. The coast there was really gorgeous! The color of the sea was amazing!
Here are some cool shots:
Iwona
Me watching the sea
Aphrodite's rock
He had a small stop in a monastery in the mountains
Monks stayed in small burrows
No pictures with Canon EOS 400D - I am happy that I have 450D :-)
We went further on and came to a place called “Polis”. It was a really nice place! We had a walk along the coast and had dinner in the touristy city center which was almost empty because it was early season.
A small island close to Polis
We found a nice hotel, where we stayed the last night.
In the morning, we had a great breakfast: Bread, cereals, fruit, coffee, hot coco and fresh juices! We decided to hike up a mountain and we did. It took us longer than expected, something like two hours, but it was worth it!
Driving goats up the mountain
We passed by Aphrodite's bath, and from the top of the mountain we had a great view of a reef.
Hiking up the mountain
Because it was a very hot day and we were hiking almost at noon, we especially needed to swim :-)
A lizard taking a sunbath
We went down very quickly and almost directly into the water!
Coastline
We spent some time on the beach and relaxed.
Next on our plan was the city of Paphos, we stopped there and walked around a bit. We didn't stay there long, because it wasn't so interesting.
A stronghold in Paphos
Because our book recommended seeing the Troodos mountains, we went there. We reached almost the top of the mount Olymp. Comparing to the beach before, there was almost a 30° Celsius temperature difference: There was even snow! You could hardly believe that you had been swimming earlier in the same day. :-)
Snow in Troodos mountains
Our last stop was Omodhos, a small mountain village. By accident, we found a very nice restaurant. It was lovely decorated and charming! We had some tea and garlic bread to eat. Next to our table was a bunch of people, speaking in a language and we couldn't figure out which one it was. It sounded kind of like French or Spanish at the beginning. But it turned out to be neither.
Omodhos
Again spy cats. They are everywhere!!!
As soon as Iwona left the table to wash her hands, one of the people asked me, what language Iwona and I were speaking. I had to laugh, because they were all also guessing what language we were speaking. :-D
The restaurant we had tea
They had figured out that it was some kind of German, but not from Germany. They guessed Swedish or Dutch. In fact, it was Austrian :-)
They had been speaking Hebrew. They were a group from Tel Aviv, taking a holiday in Cyprus.
As night fell, he had to head back to Larnaka, because our flight was at 3:00. We went back to the center of the city, had dinner, spent the rest of our Cyprus trip there and finally back to the airport...
Conclusion
We had a nice holiday in Cyprus. I also got a sunburn, because I didn't expect that the sun would be so strong. It was interesting to see Cyprus from both sides, North and South.
We could listen to stories of locals about the history of Cyprus.
Me driving on the left hand side
I really enjoyed being on the seaside and it was an interesting adventure to drive on the left hand side of the street :-)