The reason we chose Cyprus as our next destination was to extend the time Linda could stay in Europe. Although Cyprus is part of the European Union, it is not part of the ‘Schengen Agreement’ which basically means the time spent in Cyprus can be added to the time Linda was allowed to stay in Europe. This was necessary for us to honour a house sit we had committed to in Germany and get us back to Malta to finalise the residency application. Apart from that, it is somewhere we hadn’t been before and we always enjoy discovering new places.
I could think of worse places to be holed up for a few weeks! The weather was good, the people were friendly and the country has an interesting history. For those that don’t know, Cyprus is a country of its own and not in fact part of Greece. That is the South anyway. The northern part of the island is occupied by the Turks. Prior to the Turkish occupation in 1974 it was under British rule and therefore still has a number of British expats living there. We quickly learnt about the animosity between the two sides when we were trying to rent a car to tour the Island. The Southern rental companies wouldn’t allow their cars into the north and the Northern car rental companies wouldn’t allow their cars to enter the south!
That had thrown a spanner in the works. We had to rethink our strategy. We really wanted to see more of the north but without a car it was going to be difficult so we settled on a few days in Kyrenia, on the northern coast. The owner of the apartment where we spent the first few days in Larnaca very kindly offered to look after our large suitcase because we decided to take the local bus to the capital city, Nicosia and didn’t want to be lugging unnecessary luggage with us. Nicosia is a large inland city and is where the major border crossing to the TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) is located. Nothing like mixing it with the locals. We could of got a private car for about €60 but the bus was only €4 each and thankfully it was air conditioned. Ater a two hour ride we were deposited at the bus terminal in the centre on Nicosia in the heat of the mid afternoon. The plan was to walk across the border and get a bus or a taxi to Kyrenia. We hadn’t counted on there being such limited information as to the direction of the crossing, so we had to rely on google maps to navigate ourselves across with our two roller bags in the searing heat. I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said it was a harmonious walk. There were a few disputes as to what direction we should have taken but we eventually stumbled across an area that looked vaguely like a border crossing. It was very weird, derelict buildings lined the two hundred odd meters distance known as ‘No Man’s Land’ or ‘The buffer zone’ in fact, like an oasis, there was a cafe right in the middle! Can’t imagine who they pay their rates to! But we took the opportunity to have a breather and a cold drink.
Having cooled down, we continued our walk to Northern Cyprus, presented our passports and were granted entry without a fuss. We were even given directions to the nearest taxi rank. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by a man who spoke reasonable English and offered to take us to Kyrenia for marginally more than the lady at the hotel suggested it might cost, and as he had a nice ‘S’ class Mercedes that was refreshingly cool and comfortable inside so we weren’t even slightly interested in finding out about a bus. The couple at (Hotel Mimi), where we were booked into, used to live in Melbourne. Mimi was the daughter of the owners of the complex and she, along with her Filipino husband and young child left Australia returning to Cyprus to help manage the hotel. Alister, the husband, was absolutely delighted to have someone from Melbourne stay and quickly became our best friend. He recommended places to eat and things to see, he just couldn’t do enough for us. I detected a little homesickness! He was right on the money with a place called ‘Ezic Peanuts’ on the waterfront. They served salt encrusted peanuts to snack on while enjoying a frosty beer, there was a hole in the middle of the tables to throw your discarded shells to fall into a tray below. The food was nothing special but the place was very novel and I loved the beer and peanuts.
Many of the reviews we read discouraged eating at the restaurants surrounding the picturesque horseshoe shaped harbour suggesting they were too dear. We went against their advise the following day and had lunch at one of them. A delicious fresh seafood lunch for the equivalent of about AUD$22!!! I think we proved them wrong. It was much cheaper in the North and the exchange rate of the Turkish Lira to the Australian dollar at the time was favourable to us.
Our first house sit wasn’t supposed to be until we arrived in France, however, Linda checked the website she uses to find housesits and there was a requirement in Limassol on the southern side coincidentally, the week we were planning on being there anyway. We applied immediately and after a quick Skype meeting we were all happy for it to happen in a little less than a week. That gave us just enough time to go back to Nicosia and stay there for a couple of days to have a look around. It happened to be the anniversary of the Turkish occupancy and learnt that there is still a lot of bitterness, with good reason. There were many Greek Cypriots that were forced out of their houses and moved south. There was actually a demonstration at the border on the day of the anniversary which we were a little concerned about but it was quite peaceful. The Saturday arrived where we were to meet out house sit hosts. We rented a car in Nicosia for the balance of our stay in Cyprus to drop off at Larnaca airport when we were to fly out. The drive to Limassol was a pleasant two hours and we found Niki & Werner’s house without too much trouble. Nicki is originally from South Africa and Werner was from the UK. They are both retired having worked in Dubai for many years. The sign at the front of the house said ‘Welcome to the zoo’, and it wasn’t too far from the truth. Four big dogs and four cats, one of which was totally blind! Had we bitten off more than we can chew?
You are going to have to wait.
