Mimu keeps on travelling and exploring the world. As announced on our SM, he was spending his vacation in Cyprus and Georgia. His voyage to Cyprus was his first visit to the island ever… It was unusual and incredibly exciting to realize being on small land surrounded by water…
Little bit of history…
Understanding of modern Cyprus as a young country, which gained it’s independence in 2002, is just partially right perception as island has a very long and interesting history. It was initially the part of Hellenistic culture, then under the rule of Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine empire, independent for a while, than again conquered by Ottomans, annexed and colonized by Great Britain… Local Cypriot Greeks has initiated the return of independence, but part of the island is still reigned by Turkey… As already mentioned, tightly connected with Greece, Greek alphabet has replaced Cypriot syllabic script in Iron Age. You also may find a lot of archeological sited linked to Hellenistic culture, mosaics, pottery, mythology characters are widely spread here. You may check more of the Cypriot history here.
All those historical and cultural mixes, as well as recent colonization and political issues have affected people, their lifestyle in a very interesting way. First of all you will find an amazingly wide variety of different nations here, lots of citizens of Britain origin will friendly greet you with their perfect British English accent, together with Cypriot Greeks, kind of little bit noisy and emotional folks, you will find lots of Asian and Slavic nationalities here as well. What surprised Mimu the most is how multilingual the locals are. Many speak Greek and English as a default, this may include Russian very often, sometimes Italian, Arabic as well, so any of traveler will find his stay comfortable here in terms of expressing himself and understanding others… You may wish even to migrate here, but may find it a little bit hard due to bureaucracy in state institutions along with formalities in doing business but unless you wish to move here, everything is fine.
Transport
As Cyprus is so much tourist oriented, transport and roads here are very well organized. You may arrive by air very easily from any part of the world. Although the whole area is just 9325 sq.km every city in Cyprus has it’s own airport (Nicosia, Paphos, Limassol, Larnaca, all of them do have their own),. The best public transport here is bus, with a very convenient and punctual schedule, affordable prices and high quality transport itself. But if you go for leisure with family or friends, it may be much more comfortable and wise to rent a car, which is also very common here (rented cars here have different color number plate – it’s red, so you can easily tell locals from tourists)… You may rent a car straight at the airport with international company, which will give you brand new car, together with higher rates and bigger amount of deposit you may need, or you can drive to the city center and hire vehicle with local agency with lower fare and deposit, but the car will not be that brand new shining, but still in a very good condition. Mimu rented car at Cosmos Car Rental and can recommend it to you too.
There are ferries to bring you from abroad to Cyprus as well as lots of boat and yacht trips, both group and individual, budget and luxury..
Weather, Sea, Sand, etc…
If you are not crazy about lying in the sun the whole day and are not heat lover, the best time for you in Cyprus is before June or after the mid of September…
The sun, sea and wonderful beaches, both sandy and rocky is what Cyprus offers to its visitors, together with all kinds of hotels and villas for rent. You can enjoy real seaside paradise here. Water sports like diving, kitesurfing, free water solos, are widely spread here…
Besides the seaside, the country has very well developed agriculture. Fruits, olives, coffee and wine has a long history and deep understanding here. You will find wine fields, banana and olive plantations as you drive. Small villages with chateaus are erected on the cliffs as you drive to the north from the south part of the country. You can find a large protected area in the north-west edge of the island here, which depicts the local flora and fauna and offers the most picturesque scenery and best beaches on the whole island (at least this is how Mimu found it).
Food is extremely cheap here comparing to the rest of Europe and very delicious. Local cuisine includes multiple meat dishes, as well as salads. Greek salad is served as a default everywhere. For sea-food lovers it’s a real heaven, fish and sea-food of any type and sizes are offered at each and every eatery. Mimu recommends to have so called Meze, when a selection of seafood is brought for you and you get REALLY A LOT of extremely delicious food (yeap, this elephant enjoys fish as well).
Local gelato or ice-cream – fresh, cool and natural i on every corner of touristic areas, do not cost much and are veeery delicious.